Women and the Drinks Biz

Send us Fan Mail She has three kids under 10, she’s running one of the most successful cideries in West Virginia, she’s the Vice President of the Board of Directors for the American Cider Association and she balances it all so well. Brooke Glover shares how she built Swilled Dog Cider from the garage up and how she’s making it all work. Swilled Dog Cider - Visit their site to order some cider, see...

Send us Fan Mail Amy Reiley has a website, cookbook, and built a small publishing company so that she could help other independent writers get their cookbooks out to the people. She is also the leading authority in aphrodisiac gastronomy, blending chemistry and the power of persuasion into crafting the book on what you can eat to make you better in bed. She has a passion for the history and cultur...

Send us Fan Mail Virginia has a thriving wine culture and tradition where Corry Craighill continues to make her mark as a winemaker. Now at Septenary Winery in Central Virginia, Corry has learned both the art and science of making wine through hands-on experiences at wineries on multiple continents. She shares her journey and advice she has for carving out a name for yourself and finding the posit...

Send us Fan Mail This is a thing. You’ve poured your heart and soul into a business, a career, a relationship. It’s toxic, you’re emotional, you’re drained, you’re not yourself. Yet you stay with it because you think it’s worth it. You’ve invested so much. The sunk cost fallacy is absolutely a thing and here is my story of how it impacted us and our cider company. And disclaimer - this might not b...

Send us Fan Mail HOPS! They're required to make beer and tastes mighty nice in cider as well! Because I didn’t know most of this myself, I want to take you on a brief tour of hops - what the hell are they? Why and how they are used in beer, the history of growing them in the US, and why we liked them so much, we made a flagship cider with them for South City Ciderworks. Cited References: Hop...

Send us Fan Mail Some people are definitely born with the sales gene. And Maggie Skinner of Revolution Brewing has seen every side of beer sales from getting small breweries off the ground and into the market, to managing the house - the whole house - to working for a distributor and their portfolio, to now managing sales for a brewery with a regional market. She’s experienced all levels and all s...

Send us Fan Mail Starting with baking, Courtney Lorenz knew she wanted to work with fermentations while also helping people lead healthy lives. This joint mission led her to kombucha and building an amazing brand and product in Northern Michigan. On this episode she shares her fermentation journey, why she is so drawn to this beverage, and how she has single-handedly built this company over the la...

Send us Fan Mail When producing a beverage for public consumption it is important to know beforehand that people even want it. When you get rolling, that consumer feedback is still so important. But so is market data, category trends, and what the media is saying. Jess Lander from the SF Chronicle joins me to share her story as a wine and travel writer and her perspective of the wine industry from...

Send us Fan Mail She’s focused her education and career on empowering women and advocating for their well-being. Now she has put her experiences into words with a new book about cultivating assertiveness and finding your voice. Cara Tuttle Bell joins me to share her personal journey and dive into why the systems are failing women in the workplace and what we can do to help ourselves and each other...

Send us Fan Mail On this episode we head to the Commonwealth of Virginia to a cidery focused on dry ciders, fresh ingredients, and unique flavors. Tegan Biun is half of the cidermaking powerhouse team over at Lost Boy Cider in Alexandria and brings her wealth of cider knowledge, experience and passion to their production processes. She shares her winding journey that got her to Virginia, the cider...

Send us Fan Mail The Sober Curious movement is gaining traction in this country which I am reminded of at the start of every year with all the Dry January posts. And if you need to reassess your relationship with alcohol, please, by all means. But on behalf of alcohol producers, I feel compelled to say a few words about how a neo-prohibition movement, no matter how small, must not negate the love,...

Send us Fan Mail For this episode we’re headed back West, to the Central Coast of California. There, Morgan and Maggie have been building Two Broads Ciderworks - focusing on locally grown apples and wild fermented, co-fermented, single varietal, and classically blended ciders. They have bootstrapped a small business and also continue to face challenges, like most in the queer community in America....

Send us Fan Mail Starting in the tech world as a programmer, Limor worked her way up to manage teams of engineers both in Israel and the US, all while also raising four children and moving between countries. She has recently redirected those skills to helping other women in the tech space as a coach and mentor. On this episode she shares her story and some helpful tips to making your LinkendIn pro...

Send us Fan Mail You’re trying to grow a market for your brand but you’re running out of time in the day? You’re in a state where you can’t sell your own products in the market and have to work with a wholesale distributor? Just interested in what it takes to sign with one? Shopping around for the perfect distribution partner would take til the end of time, but here are the questions to ask and th...

Send us Fan Mail It’s been 20 years since Meagan Bishop and I said buh bye to high school and set off on our own separate courses. She actually jumped into sales and the alcohol industry much earlier than I did so while I am still in Virginia we are sitting down to discuss her journey through golf courses, tennis lessons, winery tasting rooms, and all that has led her to wine sales and distributio...

Send us Fan Mail For this episode Jamie Barlett of PolyPay joins me to talk about the great resource that she has developed to connect small businesses with the payment processing tools that they need while also sharing her journey of building this finance company from the ground up as a female in a male dominated financial industry. It’s another example of carving out your place and making it you...

Send us Fan Mail Adelaide spent years assessing risk for an insurance company, using her math background to save money and work out inefficiencies. During COVID she got the entrepreneurship bug and changed gears entirely. Now a couple of years into building a spirits brand from scratch she shares her story - why she made the leap to the alcohol industry, her passion behind the Brazilian drink of c...

Send us Fan Mail Laurie Gilbertson was a criminal prosecutor in New York for 10 years and then made the jump to consulting, sharing all that she had learned with other lawyers and entrepreneurs. She shares her experiences being a female in another male-dominated industry, and some tips and tricks for putting your best self forward for a sales pitch or any communications in the business world. Trib...

Send us Fan Mail Today I have some news to share - that South City Ciderworks is closing its doors and shutting down production permanently. This has been a painful journey over the last month and I know that it is not over yet. But through it all I have had this podcast, and I have more yet to share, assuming I don’t start feeling like a total imposter. Thank you to Tony Stuck for the awesome int...

Send us Fan Mail Jennie Dorsey has built a career around her passion for cider and her enthusiasm is contagious. She’s been on the sales beat, she’s managed a sales team, she’s run a taproom restaurant, she’s written the rules on how to taste, analyze, and talk about cider and she joins me on this episode to talk all about it! Special Mentions: Tieton Cider Works Portland Cider House for Schilling...

Send us Fan Mail The interviews are back! I sit down with Airelle Peters of Black Mermaid Lifestyle Brand and soon to be Justified & Worthy Brewing Company to talk about making beer, drinking beer, and promoting and educating women and minorities in the industry. It’s not easy being a reservist for the military, a cicerone, a brewer, and a mother but she’s done it all! Special Brewery Mentions...

Send us Fan Mail Glass hydrometers, production hoses, rubber impellers, racking arms, butterfly valves, and stainless steel tanks. All critical to the production of cider. And all oh so easy to completely destroy. And over the years we have done our fair share of breaking stuff. Just to give you an idea of all that can and has been destroyed in the process of making our cider, I thought I’d share...

Send us Fan Mail Every bottle, can, box, tube, and paper towel in a big box grocery store is there because a lot of different voices and interests have decided it is so. And getting your craft beverage on that shelf can be a daunting task. But it’s not the only off-premise option for products. For this episode I dive into all the options we have as small producers to get our products on shelves in...

Send us Fan Mail The apple orchard has been in the family for five generations and that love and legacy shows through in the great cider that they make. For this episode, Andrea from Far West Cider over in Richmond, CA joins me to chat about growing up on the family farm, her journey into cider, and what they’re doing to innovate and keep things interesting with the beverages they make. Special Me...

Send us Fan Mail When I started South City Ciderworks seven years ago I wasn’t thinking about where my life would be down the road and that I might not want to be in California for the rest of it. Almost a decade later, a little girl later, a global pandemic later, and a company merger later we have packed up our life and are moving back home to the East Coast. It was one of the hardest decisions...