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Meet the Women Behind Beers With(out) Beards
Our fifth annual Beers With(out) Beards lands on the shores of Portland, ME, in only two and a half weeks.
If you haven’t nabbed your ticket yet, don’t worry, you can still grab yours here:
This is your chance to drink from one of the top women-led breweries in the country—such as Dogfish Head, Garrison City Beerworks, Lamplighter, New Belgium, Outer Range, Resident Culture, Rising Tide, and Wild East.
And to support all the badass women in the craft beer industry.
Hop Culture Managing Editor Grace Weitz started this revolutionary women in craft beer festival to celebrate the achievements of women and femme-identifying folks in the industry and tell their stories.
But what about the stories of all the women behind the scenes bringing BW(O)B to life?
In case you didn’t know, for the past two years an all-women events crew has tackled all the intricate logistics and operations to make BW(O)B a successful event. They’ve logged countless hours, days, and months tirelessly working to ensure this festival thrives, selflessly dedicating themselves to creating a more diverse, equitable, and inclusive industry.
To put it simply: Without these six women, BW(O)B wouldn’t exist.
In celebration of the upcoming festival, we’re pulling back the curtain and getting to know the ladies behind the scenes.
Who are they? What do they do? And if they could share a beer with any badass woman (dead or alive or fictional), who would it be?
Without further ado…the ladies of BW(O)B.
Illustration courtesy of Kailah Ogawa (@kailahogawa)
Tisha Hulburd — Chief Marketing Officer
Tisha joined Next Glass as Chief Marketing Office in September of 2020, bringing deep experience in both consumer and business ecosystems. Tisha enjoys history, literature, and sports.
How Did You Bring BW(O)B To Life? Mostly by just being there to help the team as needed. This is such a talented and experienced team, they have what it takes to get the job done.
If You Could Share a Beer With One Female/Female-Identifying Person (Dead or Alive; Real or Fictional), Who Would It Be? Oh this is hard. I would go with Harriet Tubman. Small in stature, but tough, fierce, fearless, but by putting these qualities to work for others, she made a difference much bigger than herself. Can I invite a second woman? Marie Curie. Only person to have won a Nobel prize in two disciplines. Enough said.
What’s Your Favorite Beer Style? Lager
If You Starred in Any Reality TV Show, What Would It Be? “The History Detectives.” Traveling the world to work all day at historical sites, in libraries and archives? What’s not to love?
What Beer Are You Drinking Right Now? Landbier Dunkel
Talia Spera — Vice President of Festivals and Live Events
Talia Spera joined the Next Glass team in late 2019 to build out the newly formed live event division managing festivals and conferences across the portfolio of brands, including Hop Culture. Talia joined the team from MGM Resorts International where she was most recently the Executive Director of Entertainment. Talia is a boy mom to a toddler, ODU alum, and history buff.
How Did You Bring BW(O)B To Life? This one was a true team effort to pull off so quickly. Coming out of the pandemic, it was all hands on deck. My role is really just to support this extremely motivated and high-performing team. I remove roadblocks, ensure we stay on track, hit our deadlines, and jump in where we are short handed. I have general oversight of all aspects of the event from the partnership deals and activations to ticketing to the run of the show. But usually, I’m the one stuck with the not-so-glamorous tasks…safety and emergency planning, code of conduct enhancements, budget management, contract negotiations, compliance, risk, etc.
If You Could Share a Beer With One Female/Female-Identifying Person (Dead or Alive; Real or Fictional), Who Would It Be? Beth Dutton, what a BAMF.
What’s Your Favorite Beer Style? My go-to is a Saison.
If You Starred in Any Reality TV Show, What Would It Be? “The Amazing Race.” Except I have no spatial abilities, so I would without a doubt be the teammate responsible for getting lost in a foreign country and losing the leg for us.
What Beer Are You Drinking Right Now? Not technically right now, but I have some Fox Farm Bloom’D and Rove waiting for me to pick up this weekend.
Claire Nikodemus — Manager of Event Marketing
Claire joined Next Glass in early 2020, with seven-plus years experience in event management and sales. Prior to her role with Next Glass as Event Marketing Manager, Claire served as the Event Manager at Park Theater in Las Vegas, where she executed large-scale concerts for Lady Gaga, Cher, Aerosmith, Bruno Mars and more. Claire has a strong history of event operations; she’s held positions within MGM Resorts Entertainment and MGM Resorts Event Productions.
How Did You Bring BW(O)B To Life? Lucky for me, our events team and larger marketing team is mostly female! These women inspire me every day. I had the opportunity to work with artist Kailah Ogawa, alongside our creative director, in pulling together the initial artwork. The artwork then acted as our inspiration when working with our in-house design team to assemble all marketing assets and build out the marketing plan.
If You Could Share a Beer With One Female/Female-Identifying Person (Dead or Alive), Who Would It Be? Ruth Bader Ginsburg (shout out to Samuel Adams for their “When There Are Nine” IPA!).
What’s Your Favorite Beer Style? Lager
If You Starred in Any Reality TV Show, What Would It Be? “The Great Pottery Throwdown” or one of the floral competition shows. I’m a maker of things!
What Beer Are You Drinking Right Now? Snake River Brewing’s Earned It IPA. Brought some home from a recent Wyoming ski trip and definitely Earned It!
Kathryn Porter Drapeau — Manager of Event Operations
Kathryn joins the Next Glass team with twenty-one years of large-scale event experience, nineteen of those with the Brewers Association. As the Events Associate Director at Brewers Association, Kathryn was an integral piece of bringing world-renowned craft beer events to life such as the Great American Beer Festival, Craft Brewers Conference, Homebrew Con and SAVOR. Kathryn’s first festival with Next Glass was the Untappd Beer Festival San Diego, in October 2021.
How Did You Bring BW(O)B To Life? I’ve taken on the operations of the festival. It’s the attention to details that really make a beer festival seem effortless. There are way too many layers to note here. I’m the one who thinks about hand trucks and ice quantities, the minutia beyond the big and obvious, including recruiting our cellar team and our amazing VIP chef, Ilma Lopez. Events like this also require a lot of communication with the participating breweries, distributors, the venue staff, sponsors & partners and our vendors. I’ve touched a lot of aspects of this festival.
If You Could Share a Beer With One Female/Female-Identifying Person (Dead or Alive), Who Would It Be? Madonna. She was a huge role model for me growing up. I love her fierce, gives-no-shits attitude in life. She’s strong (emotionally and physically), sexual, and an intelligent business woman who made herself a household name from humble beginnings. And, she’s a fashion/music icon. Just the whole package.
What’s Your Favorite Beer Style? Porter. I know, it’s cheesy because it’s also my maiden name. I just love that style. It’s such a perfect blend of roasty and malty without being too sweet or heavy. It’s a great drinking beer no matter the season. I always order a porter if there’s one on tap. Maybe it’s in my blood? 😉
If You Starred in Any Reality TV Show, What Would It Be? “The Real World: Sunshine.” When I was in my 20s, we always had tons of roommates to help keep the rent costs down. We lived in a three-bedroom house in an old mining town in the foothills west of Boulder, in Sunshine, CO. There were never less than five of us living together with multiple dogs and a cat. There was all sorts of drama even though we were all best friends (and still are!). We’d always refer to our antics as perfect for “The Real World”. It would have helped pay the rent at least.
What Beer Are You Drinking Right Now? My current favorite is Oskar Blues Western Mutant IPA, a 7% ABV West Coast-style IPA. I love that people are getting pumped up about the West Coast IPA again. The nose on this beer is grassy with hints of citrus. Its clean backbone lets the complex blend of hops shine.
Britt Burke — Former Event Manager / Current Fest Crew Lead
Britt is the Events and Special Programs Director for Craft Collective and was previously the Manager of Event Operations for BeerAdvocate and Next Glass. She lives in Boston with her wife, toddler, and dog. When she’s not organizing beer fests, Britt enjoys making homemade pasta, watching RuPaul’s Drag Race, and adventuring outside with her family.
How Did You Bring BW(O)B To Life? I’m wearing a few different hats on this one! I was on the Next Glass events team and helped to find the venue and build the invite list. Since then, I’ve left Next Glass and now work with Craft Collective, a beer distributor that has several of our suppliers pouring at the fest. We also helped to bring some out-of-market breweries into Maine for the event. On fest day, I’ll be working as the fest crew lead helping to ensure all of the brewers have their beer and are supported with whatever they need.
If You Could Share a Beer With One Female/Female-Identifying Person (Dead or Alive), Who Would It Be? Oh damn, this is a good one. I’m going to say my Gram. She died shortly after my twenty-first birthday, so we never got to go out for drinks together and we’d have a lot to catch up on. Is that too corny? If that’s too corny, I’m going to go with Marsha P. Johnson, and drinks would absolutely be on me.
What’s Your Favorite Beer Style? I’m a lager lover, so pilsner, and if that’s too broad, Bohemian pilsner.
If You Starred in Any Reality TV Show, What Would It Be? I’ve always said that the only reality show I could possibly hold my own on would be the “Great ‘Britt-ish’ Baking Show.”
What Beer Are You Drinking Right Now? Right now in this very moment I’m sitting in the Boston RMV on St. Patrick’s day, so I guess aerosolized Guinness? Kidding. I have a Japas Matsurika waiting for me at home.
Grace Weitz, Managing Editor
Grace is the Managing Editor for Hop Culture and Untappd. In addition to conceptualizing Beers With(out) Beards, she also helped start Queer Beer, the first-ever festival celebrating the colorful, vibrant voices in the queer community in craft beer. Grace lives with her wife and mini pitbull—Piper—in the Bay Area. When she’s not writing, she’s probably running, reading a mystery novel, or drinking a beer… Duh.
How Did You Bring BW(O)B To Life? In 2018, I created the first Beers With(out) Beards as part of my graduate school thesis capstone project at NYU. And over the past four years, this celebration of women in beer has grown to attract thousands of attendees and showcase over sixty women-led breweries. Additionally, the fest has featured over thirty-five events highlighting the achievements of women across all aspects of the alcoholic beverage industries.
If You Could Share a Beer With One Female/Female-Identifying Person (Dead or Alive), Who Would It Be? Julia Child. Another BAMF who stomped through a male-dominated world with bravado and courage, leaving in her wake indelible footprints. She forever changed an industry and she did it with laughter, a smile, and incredible food.
What’s Your Favorite Beer Style? Pilsner. Although English-Style Bitter has been creeping up there as one of my most favorite under-the-radar styles.
If You Starred in Any Reality TV Show, What Would It Be? I know it wouldn’t be “Survivor.” Most likely it would be “Wheel of Fortune,” if you can count that as reality. If not, I’d magically develop baking skills and go on “The Great British Baking Show.”
What Beer Are You Drinking Right Now? Inherited Wisdom from Westbound & Down.
