Pink Boots at Stone

"Don’t stay at home and putter around the house. You need a change of scene." ~David M. Ogilvy

June 16: Saturday morning and the kettle is burning at Stone Brewing Company in San Marcos. Brewer Jeremy Moynier was single-handedly manning the mash when I arrived. Jeremy is a former wine-maker with an interesting history that begins and ends in San Diego. And here he is, a brewer at Stone and loving it.

Brewer Laura Ulrich joined us at 10:00 am to begin her filter on the large Velo vertical screen open dosing DE filter. Laura worked her way up, unafraid of any of the boy's jobs, and I must say it was refreshing and fun to hang out with her. It is rare that I get to talk shop with another woman brewer, and Laura is totally into it. You go girl!

Laura was kind enough to treat me to dinner at Stone's Bistro. I asked her what she thought of my idea of gathering the contact info for all the women brewers I could find, and forming a "Pink Boots Society." (Sort of like the "Red Hat Society.") She liked the idea. We thought it would be fun to get together at a once-a-year event; maybe dinner during the week of the GABF. All us "Pink Boot Society" women could drink beer and talk about brewing, styles of beer, our experiences breaking into (and staying in) the brewing business, etc.

So, I think I'll do that. It will take a bit of time because I'm busy with this road trip, but eventually I will try to put together a roster of all the women craft brewers (not lab techs or marketing people, but actual brewers), and I will list these women (by state) on my website, http://www.pinkbootssociety.com.

It is 10:35 pm and I am working on this blog in Stone's brewing office, waiting for Kevin Gray to dry-hop the Ruination IPA so that I can take a picture. I'm falling down tired and Kevin won't be ready for awhile, so it's off to the trailer and bed for me. I've got a long drive again tomorrow.

P.S. Thank you to Stone Brewing Company for the free wireless in their Bistro.

Drive: Paso Robles to San Marcos, California

"What is more beautiful than a road?" ~George Sand

June 14: The good news today was that I was accepted to receive a scholarship from District Northwest MBAA to attend the MBAA International Brewers Symposium on Hops in Corvallis. That will save me $324 for the registration and the monograph. Every little bit helps because I'll be paying my flight from Bar Harbor, Maine to Corvallis, Oregon for the event, plus my hotel room. (And $324 adds up to over 4 tanks of gas.)

The other good news is that Matt Brynildson gifted me a mixed case of Firestone Walker beer, and helped me get the van jumped after the battery quit.

The bad news is that after a late start, I had a very long day. I had trouble finding an RV wastewater dump station and had to back track on Hwy 101 after several false leads. Finally I drove past San Luis Obisbo at 1:00 pm. Then I hit rush hour at 3:45 pm in Santa Barbara. Traffic let up a bit, then really crawled until the rush hour bottleneck let loose at 7:30 pm somewhere on Hwy 405 in L.A. I felt like I was driving 5, 10, or 65 miles an hour all day, with no other choices allowed.

I lightened the drudgery with slowly doled out diet Dr. Pepper and Cheetos. I thought of road signs I wanted to see posted at freeway on-ramps like, "If you're too stupid to accellerate when merging, stay off the freeway." And bumper stickers like, "Powered by Dr. Pepper."

I grew tired as the sky grew blacker. Finally got to Stone Brewing Co. about 10:00 pm. Although I needed a shower bad, I was too tired to disconnect the trailer and find owner Greg Koch's old house for my shower. I parked in a quiet area in back, away from the restaurant parking, and camped there for the night.