I am lucky enough to be married to a woman who is passionate about beer. She has no intention to become a Certified Cicerone® as I did a few years ago, but she knows beer and knows what she likes. One thing I’ve seen over the years is the tendency of bartenders and servers to make assumptions about what she wants; often it seems as though they are gender-based and those assumptions are usually wrong.
Many bartenders and servers are flummoxed by her questions of whether the malt of a stout or porter she is interested in ordering leans more toward chocolate or coffee; or if a beer contains “C” hops such as Cascade, Centennial, or Columbus and, if so, which ones. It is unclear if they are just unequipped to answer the questions or baffled by surprise that a woman is asking. Too often, service professionals try to steer her away from what she wants toward something lighter in color and weight on the palate. Why risk alienating a customer, any customer, by not delivering what they want?
My wife’s current job requires occasional travel and often means she will seek out a taproom and sample the local wares without me (I claim to be only a little bit jealous). However, on many of these solo expeditions she tells of being served at a bar and then ignored. This despite it being a slack time in the taproom, the bartender will chat up guys on their own, couples, and groups, but not her. Since her mention of this, I have seen it happen way too often myself.
The beer industry is not alone in these assumptions, the number of times my salad has been placed in front of her while her burger lands in front of me in a restaurant are too numerous to count, but we can do better. A 2015 U. S. Yankelovich MONITOR survey, which garnered more than 10,000 respondents, revealed that 26% of weekly beer consumers were female. Not many industries can afford to alienate more than a quarter of their customers, and beer is not one that can…
Many bartenders and servers are flummoxed by her questions of whether the malt of a stout or porter she is interested in ordering leans more toward chocolate or coffee; or if a beer contains “C” hops such as Cascade, Centennial, or Columbus and, if so, which ones. It is unclear if they are just unequipped to answer the questions or baffled by surprise that a woman is asking. Too often, service professionals try to steer her away from what she wants toward something lighter in color and weight on the palate. Why risk alienating a customer, any customer, by not delivering what they want?
My wife’s current job requires occasional travel and often means she will seek out a taproom and sample the local wares without me (I claim to be only a little bit jealous). However, on many of these solo expeditions she tells of being served at a bar and then ignored. This despite it being a slack time in the taproom, the bartender will chat up guys on their own, couples, and groups, but not her. Since her mention of this, I have seen it happen way too often myself.
The beer industry is not alone in these assumptions, the number of times my salad has been placed in front of her while her burger lands in front of me in a restaurant are too numerous to count, but we can do better. A 2015 U. S. Yankelovich MONITOR survey, which garnered more than 10,000 respondents, revealed that 26% of weekly beer consumers were female. Not many industries can afford to alienate more than a quarter of their customers, and beer is not one that can…
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