BY AIMEE WELCH

It’s official. Making beer is almost as fun as drinking it. Well…aside from moving around 150-pound kegs, going to work in the middle of the night, and having to scarf down a meal in ten minutes to avoid messing up the production schedule. A lot of people are passionate about drinking beer—and each and every one of you should toast to brewers around the world for that tasty brew in your grateful hands, because brewing good beer is really hard work. Ssssshhhh. Don’t tell the brewers…they’re having too much fun to notice.

Melissa Osborne, Brewer—Four Peaks, Tempe, AZ

Favorite beer—“It depends on the day, but the best is the one I’m brewing or racking into barrels.” 

By the time I arrived at Four Peaks to meet with brewer Melissa Osborne, she had already been at work for eight hours. It was noon. Starting the day at 4 a.m., operating giant stainless steel machinery, carrying heavy bags of grain up stairs, and playing defense against flying rubber bands launched by co-workers she considers her brothers—all in a day’s work for this Minnesota tomboy and ASU graduate.

With a major in marketing and minor in German, Osborne’s career as a marketing analyst was going along successfully, but after home brewing some beer for a friend’s wedding, everything changed. “Having people tell me they really liked it and it made their day even more special made me think I could do this for a living maybe,” Osborne says. From there, she attended the American Brewers Guild, and has now been brewing professionally for about 10 years. It was a “shocking” career change for her family from Minnesota, but Osborne’s passion for what she does for a living is unmistakable. When I asked her what she likes most about her job, her one-word response said it all—“Everything.”  

Raised in a family that included a baker, a florist, and a butcher, Osborne always had a knack for making things, but she says, above all else, passion is the key ingredient to being successful as a brewer. “Education does help, but having a strong work ethic will get you a long way in brewing. You have to be self-motivated, be flexible, have patience, and most of all have passion. Everything else you can learn,” Osborne says.

Osborne entered this male-dominated industry fully prepared to be the odd “man” out, so to speak. “I’ve always been more of a tomboy, so I figured I could handle the banter. I was nervous about some of the physical labor, but I figured out how to use my leverage and work smarter, not harder. It may have taken me a little longer to accomplish a mill in or carry a bag of grain up the stairs, but I got it done.” She credits Four Peaks brewmaster and owner Andy Ingram, and brewmaster Derek Osborne of BJ’s Restaurant & Brewhouse (who hired her as an assistant brewer after she finished school, and who is now her husband) for taking a chance on “a petite thing like me” back when she first got started. “All of the brewers are really supportive and are like my brothers,” she says.

Susanne One Love, Brewmistress—Cosmic Distributing and Beer, Flagstaff, AZ

Favorite Beer— Cosmic Irish Red, Spaten Bock, Doppelbock, Fat Tire 

As a professional female brewer, Osborne is in the minority but there are a lot of women who brew great beer at home, says Susanne One Love of Cosmic Distributing and Beer in Flagstaff. That’s exactly how she got started in the industry. Inspired by his craft-beer-loving wife’s collection of beer bottles in the recycle bin, One Love’s husband, Jeff Dicus, (an artist turned brewer) decided to learn more about home brewing. What started as a small home operation in their backyard and kitchen, grew into what is now a promising new career for the couple, as their Cosmic beer brand made its way from backyard to arts festivals to retail stores and bars to their very own brewery, Cosmic Beer, LLC, scheduled to open this summer.

Before speaking with One Love, I knew it was going to be an adventure. I started receiving texts like “…Brewing today…grinding grain right now. Call at 10?” and then “Waiting for boil at 185, have 13 degrees to go. Susanne One Love, RN.” Her 12-hour day was off and running, and the “brewmistress” was already effectively multi-tasking with one of their partners and fellow brew assistant, Angie Semerad (a.k.a. brewwench). Semerad, who brings to the team experience from the Kona Brewery in Hawaii, says being a brewer/ “beer wench” is fulfilling her destiny. She simply loves beer and everything about her job, right down to stirring up the giant mash with a boat oar, sometimes soliciting help from random pedestrians passing by. “I always feel like I am stirring up the cauldron of witches’ brew!  As I was a river guide for nine years, I find it easier to row an 18-foot raft than to stir the mash! That is saying something,” Semerad says.

Angie Semerad, Brewwench— Cosmic Distributing and Beer, Flagstaff, AZ

Favorite Beer— Cosmic Irish Red, Full Moon porter, Black IPA, Guinness 

One Love, who is also an RN pursuing her nurse practitioner master’s degree, says her husband  is the real brewmaster, and that she is more of the “dreamer and formulator” of their beers. “My forte was recipe formulation—over and over again until we got the batch perfect. Then we made it 10 – 20 more times to verify our consistency. My background in the natural sciences and my love in the kitchen being tutored by excellent chefs my entire life created ease in understanding how each ingredient would affect the individual beer profile,” One Love says.

One Love is also an exceptional salesperson for Cosmic. She simply found an effective strategy, using three simple questions:  “Do you want to have good beer? Do you want to support your local community? Great, then, which kinds of beers would you like?” For safe measure, she keeps the beer on hand in the truck so she can seal the deal on the spot. It’s an approach that has worked exceptionally well for her. “I leave, and they look at each other saying,  ‘What just happened?’”

Women in the beer industry

Despite having more than a decade of professional brewing experience and a resume that includes a respected brewing school, two of the Valley’s most highly regarded breweries, and judging the Great American Beer Festival and World Beer Cup, Osborne still gets an occasional nay-sayer. “I’ve got some stories about things that were said to me and other women,” she says. “One man asked, ‘So do you brew or do you just clean up after the guys?’  Um, no, I really can brew.”

These women have been accepted with open arms by the industry and beer drinkers alike. And while the percentage of women brewers on the commercial side is low, Osborne says the number of women in the beer business has grown a lot over the last decade. “In the larger breweries, there are so many women who analyze the beer or educate the staff and brewers by doing sensory training.  A lot of sales reps are women as well. There’s a huge presence of women in the beer community.”

What’s evident is that these women love their jobs, 100 percent.. One Love compares a beer-brewing career to having rock star status. “It’s hard work that most people don’t see, long hours,  lots of no sleeping, fabulously fun, and meeting the most incredible folks from the public who drink your beer and love it or hate it. The best part of this adventure has been the connections made with so many I can honestly call friends and colleagues.”  Oh yeah, and tasting all the beer. Cheers!