The International Women’s Collaboration Brew Day (IWCBD) is an annual event that takes place concurrently with International Women’s Day (IWD). Brewers take the opportunity to invite local women and women’s groups along to brew a beer that is either brewed, or released on IWD – the 8th March.
The campaign was founded in 2014 by Sophie de Ronde. She is now the Head Brewer at Burnt Mill Brewery in Suffolk, but back then was working at the Brentwood Brewing Company. It doesn’t cost anything to participate in IWCBD, although a minimum charitable contribution of £100 has been recommended for 2025. The breweries that participate decide which charities that support women’s causes they wish to donate to.
In the first 15 years of the 21st century, there had already been a push for women in the beer industry to gain better recognition and respect. In America, the Pink Boots Society was established in 2007. They focused on female and non-binary beer professionals; to provide mutual support and encourage their advancement. Inspired by this, Sara Barton of Brewster’s Brewery in Grantham formed Project Venus in 2011 which brought British female brewers together for collaborative brews and to act as a support network.
“Project Venus was brilliant,” founder Sophie de Ronde tells me. “I was really keen to take the idea further afield and try to make it into a bigger event. I thought the best date for it would be International Women’s Day.”
“Under the guidance of commercial and home brewers, IWCBD gives women from all walks of life the opportunity to participate in the brewing process.”
The IWCBD certainly feels like a natural evolution of those early professional projects. Under the guidance of commercial and home brewers, IWCBD gives women from all walks of life the opportunity to participate in the brewing process. As well as producing a beer which celebrates women, it is also an opportunity to educate and inspire people who have perhaps never even been inside a brewery before.
The first event in 2014 saw more than 70 breweries take part. The participants brewed their own interpretation of a global recipe – called Unite Pale Ale. There were brews happening in the UK and Ireland, the US, Australia, Italy, Israel, Canada and New Zealand. This global effort was helped in no small part by the contribution of the professionals in the Project Venus and Pink Boots Society networks.
The 2014 Unite beer had some simple guidelines. It was to be a 4.0% ABV beer, made using Cascade hops. Parameters were set for colour and bittering. Despite the shared recipe, comparisons of some beers made at their respective launch events really showed how the distinctive characteristics of the people and places where they were brewed shone through.
“To start off with, I put a simple recipe out there for brewers to follow,” Sophie says. “Then they wanted to have a little bit more freedom. So we went from Unite Pale to Unite Red in 2015 and the stipulation was that it just had to be a red beer. They had the freedom as to which kind of style or strength.
“From there we just did a theme, depending on what was happening in the brewing industry. As the years have gone on it has become more of a reflection of what’s happening in society.”
Except for a break in 2024, there has been a Unite theme available for brewers to take inspiration from – if they choose – for every year of the IWCBD.
2016 – Unite Expression – To encourage the development of new skills and inspire new collaborations, the parameter in 2016 was to use an ingredient they had never used before or brew a style that was new to them.
2017 – Unite Local – The focus was to find at least one truly local ingredient. Once again, this encouraged the strengthening of local networks both within and outside the brewing industry.
2018 – Unite Exotic – The fifth annual IWCBD celebrated difference and contrasted sharply to the 2017 theme. Instead of looking locally, brewers were encouraged to seek their own interpretation of exotic and source ingredients that represented the theme.
2019 – Unite Forage – The theme was ‘foraging’ – allowing brewers the freedom to experiment with wild fermentation or collect their own local ingredients to craft their beer. By now there were more than 80 breweries, 9 homebrewers and 10 brewpubs participating in the project.
2020 – Unite Tribute – The theme was open to inspiration – it could be a tribute to an individual, a place or a beer.
“Despite the shared recipe, comparisons of some beers made at their respective launch events really showed how the distinctive characteristics of the people and places where they were brewed shone through”
2021 – Unite Compassion – After the turmoil of COVID-19, the theme of compassion was chosen to try to spread a little care and empathy. It was a difficult time, not possible to know whether people would be able to gather to brew at all. Despite this, more than 100 breweries and homebrewers were able to take part.
2022 – Unite Celebration – Simply celebrating what IWCBD had already achieved in the industry and as a network.
2023 – Unite At 10 – A celebration of a decade of the campaign, brewers were asked to take inspiration from the success of the project so far – their favourite theme or a celebration ale.
2025 – Unite Society – Under Women on Tap CIC, the Unite beer returned with a theme chosen by founder Sophie de Ronde. She went for Unite Society – asking participants to create a beer that would bring people together.
After a decade, hundreds of people had taken part in brew days around the world, producing some phenomenal beers. Sophie has seen people start working in the beer industry for the first time after participating in Unite brew days. The project has opened doors for a lot more women.
“It’s been a very humbling experience,” Sophie reflects. “I’m very proud of what it’s achieved and what’s happened with IWCBD over the years.”
After heading up the organisation of IWCBD for a decade – no small feat alongside her day job – Sophie stepped back from IWCBD. A lack of time and resources meant that her well had run dry and her enthusiasm for the project understandably waned. The reins were handed over to Women on Tap CIC (WoT) – a social enterprise founded in Harrogate that has been celebrating women in beer and pushing for better inclusion across the industry since 2017.
WoT’s founder, Rachel Auty, had spotted the lack of central organisation for the collaboration brew days in 2024 and thought it would be a shame to lose the momentum that had been built. After discussing it with Sophie, Rachel brought the project’s coordination under WoT’s remit and worked to ensure it had a more secure financial footing than ever before.
Thanks to WoT’s pre-existing networks, they were quickly able to bring sponsors on board. The headline sponsor in 2025 is the Society of Independent Brewers and Associates (SIBA) with support also coming from Simpsons Malt and WSET (Wine & Spirit Education Trust) as the education partner. The WSET are offering 18 fully funded places for a special IWCBD cohort who will take the Level 1 Award in Beer course. Those who achieve the required standard will get a globally recognised beer qualification, at no cost to themselves.
These WSET-funded places have been bolstered by Bella Perez at the 71 Brewing Co in Dundee, who is paying for a further four places. They will be ringfenced for women who took part in Scottish brew days.
Having sponsors on board has breathed new life into the 2025 iteration of the project. A dedicated online presence, more support for participants and the ability to record data about participation is not just helping to build excitement but ensures that the future is looking bright.
“I’m keen to get some really good reporting data from the campaign so that we can look to build on it,” Rachel Auty told me. “We’re gathering the numbers so that we can say how many projects have signed up, how much money the campaign has helped to raise for women’s causes and how many women have secured qualifications through WSET.”
But more than the numbers, Rachel is focused on the people taking part; the social benefits that these collaborations offer to individuals.
“It shows the power of bringing people together. There’s a lot of chat around beer and pubs, and they get a bad rep sometimes. But IWCBD brings women in the community together around making a beer. It’s so simple, but it’s such an amazing thing. I went down to the Turning Point brew day and the atmosphere in the room of everyone chatting and being together was really powerful.”
I can confirm that the Turning Point event was not unique in offering something very special to those who took part. I’ve been involved with two IWCBD events in 2025 and they both offered a very special sense of camaraderie and community alongside getting stuck into the physicality of the brewing.
“After a hard morning of brewing there is something inherently wholesome about sitting down for a communal lunch too. These are the moments where I feel truly part of something.”
My first brew this year was at Tom’s Tap and Brewhouse in Crewe. The local beer group – the Ladies of Darkness – have brewed a beer for International Women’s Day since 2019. However, this was the first year that they have formally signed up to the IWCBD. A parti-gyle brew day meant that two beers will be launched on International Women’s Day – a sticky toffee pudding imperial stout called Women of a Certain Age and a custard stout named Shame Must Change Sides.
It was a cosy day in the little brewhouse, and although everyone else knew each other from their regular meet ups, I was still made to feel extremely welcome and felt immediately accepted into the group. The Ladies of Darkness are an inclusive group and proud to find themselves in a wider network.
“Tom’s Tap and Brewhouse might be relatively small,” group member Jen told me. “But being a part of something that connects women brewers around the world makes our involvement feel mighty.”
It was a day filled with laughter and smiles, although with a relatively manual kit to work on there was no shortage of hard graft being put in. While I love having the chance to brew a beer, there is a lot of joy to be found in the downtime too. While the wort boils there is plenty of time for everyone to get to know each other a little better. After a hard morning of brewing there is something inherently wholesome about sitting down for a communal lunch too. These are the moments where I feel truly part of something. There is a sense of community that I find increasingly rare in other parts of my life.
The events are so inspiring and inclusive. They remind me of everything I love about beer. On the practical side, there is an opportunity to really immerse yourself in the process; the nitty gritty of where beer comes from.
But more than that, the brew days symbolise the way that this malted grain drink brings people together. It evokes passion and dedication. The breweries happily commit a lot of staff time to these events, while members of the public use their precious annual leave so they can attend for the whole day.
“I hadn’t joined a brew day before, although I’d wanted to,” Lady of Darkness Gemma told me. “I made sure I was free this year after learning that as a woman, being involved in making beer is illegal in over 50 countries for one activity or another. The more we do to fight for equity for women globally, the better for all of us.”
I found a community on a different scale in Nottingham. Brewers from Thornbridge travelled over to Castle Rock to create a coffee mild called Are We There Yet? It was a much bigger brewery and a much bigger group, but that sense of affinity and fun was still present by the bucketload (or the mash-tun-ful?). It was striking how quickly the thirty or so participants gelled as a group. Once again, beer was demonstrating its cohesive properties.
I was also impressed by the effort the Castle Rock team had gone to, building up a programme of talks and workshops alongside the brewing schedule so that there was always something to do. This included an engaging talk from Wez, part of the Nottingham Women’s Centre. The charity’s work will be supported with the proceeds from sales of the collaboration beer.
It was humbling to hear directly from the team about the vital work the Centre does, including campaigns to raise awareness of menopause in the workplace, giving support to local endometriosis sufferers and the long fight to have misogyny recognised as a hate crime. Their ceaseless work shows how much there is still to do to give women the support and opportunities they deserve.
Our beer bubble, and the issues experienced by women within it, is a microcosm of society at large. IWCBD has been addressing inequalities within the industry, and the charitable donations generated help to work on the broader social issues. There has already been more than ten years of women in beer supported, inspired and celebrated. And let’s hope that the campaign is able to grow and reach even more in the years to come.
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