One of the biggest news stories in the craft beer world in 2021 came about after brewer Brienne Allan went on Instagram and asked, “Have you ever experienced sexism in the beer industry?” The fallout was far-reaching across the industry, and still continues to this day.

Yet, like many big stories of the moment, for many casual observers, the moment has passed. In an effort to keep the discussion going, a new nationwide collaboration called Brave Noise has been launched, and ReSource Brewing is the first New Mexico brewery to jump on board.

Brave Noise Pale Ale will be tapped this Tuesday as a ReSource Rarity at the brewery, so we caught up with ReSource co-owner Stephanie Wright to learn more about this new beer.

“We stumbled across an announcement about it,” she said. “It was a movement that reminds me a little bit of the Me Too and these other awareness movements, but this is specific to the brewing industry. Obviously, being a woman brewery owner and just a woman in general, these are topics that are really important to me. We started looking into it, and it seemed like a really good opportunity to challenge ourselves to bring what’s important to us more to the forefront.

“The premise was around rallying women, and just asking the question of have you experienced sexism in the beer industry. I don’t think the question was expected to have quite the response, and it’s taken a lot of turns, but it’s important to start talking about those things over and over again until things change.”

Any brewery that chooses to participate will first post their code of conduct for staff, patrons, vendors, and owners, Wright said. That shows everyone that ReSource is a safe place for everyone. The second part is choosing a charity, either from a national list provided by the organizers, or a local nonprofit, which will receive all the proceeds from sales of the beer.

“We picked the New Mexico Coalition of Sexual Assault Programs,” Wright said. “The reason that I chose them is they have strong leadership and a really committed board of directors. Their model is really working with their networks of other organizations throughout the state of New Mexico. It’s not just Albuquerque, it’s the whole state. They do training, they do technical support, and they do a lot of advocacy. I like the reach, I like the varied programs, I like the fact that they support other organizations throughout the state.”

Brave Noise Pale Ale will only be sold in pints for $7 apiece, as it was just a 1-barrel batch. ReSource was allowed to put its own spin on the recipe.

“What we decided to do to make the recipe our own is add mango and chilé to it,” Wright said. “For me, my personality, I’m a little sweet and a little spicy. I think it’s important that that’s OK. Women don’t have to apologize for being strong and sweet, we can be it all. So it’s kind of a symbolic gesture.”

ReSource is the only local brewer participating so far, but Wright said that is more due to their size giving them some flexibility.

“We do have the advantage of being a small brewery,” she said. “We didn’t have a production schedule for our off-core beers that far ahead. We were able to pivot and work things in very quickly.”

In the future, though, Wright said she would love to work with other breweries on collaborations for good causes, whether on the national or more local level.

“We did talk about reaching out to some others, but for this particular one, we decided not to do that because of timing and the logistics of how we might go about doing that because it’s organized more by the national group,” she said. “But, we are really passionate about using this space. Beer brings people together, so why not bring them together for a cause? We’re definitely open to, if we could do something just in New Mexico for this same cause, or other types of collaborations, we’re open and excited about that. We’re still getting our feet wet in terms of getting integrated into (the scene). Hopefully this year with things opening up more, we’ll be able to have those sorts of events and collaborations.”

We can all look forward to breweries doing more good as 2022 rolls along. A big thanks to Stephanie for the interview and the heads up about this good cause.

Keep supporting local!

— Stoutmeister