No, your beer goggles are not deceiving you. These really are women supping that traditionally blokey tipple – real ale – at the bar of one of the country’s top real-ale pubs, the White Hart in Shifnal.
And there’s not a flat cap in sight. Apart from the one on the head of the elderly gentleman in the corner, looking on somewhat bemused.
“Mmm. . . it’s nice,” says Emma Hesbrook, 26, from Newport, as she samples a pint of her Hereford Pale Ale.
“To me it’s very similar to lager but more creamy. It’s quite light and sweet – I would definitely have this one again.”
Normally when out on the tiles, Emma’s friend, 19-year-old Kerry Hughes – who also works at Eclipse Hair Studio in Shifnal – would select an alcopop or maybe a vodka. Today she is treating herself to a jar of Exmoor Gold.
“It goes down well,” she says. “Very smooth. I prefer it to lager. But the image is of old men and it might put me off walking into a pub to buy it.”
She is, however, developing a taste for real ale and admits that she has sampled the Exmoor Gold before.
“When I was in here with my dad the only reason I tried it was because he was drinking it.”
Having sampled a selection of real ales – including several from the award-winning Hobson’s brewery from Cleobury Mortimer, which topped national polls with its gold star for Hobson’s Mild – all of the women are quick to raise their glasses to toast its taste.
The problem – if there is one – is getting females to try an ale in the first place. And that, perhaps, is where image comes into it.
Historically, ales were served to workers in the fields or in the factories and this liquid lunch was thought to help combat the dust in the work environment. Some workers were even paid, in part at least, in beer.
That earthy image has stuck and many ales still trade on the tradition, placing images on beer bottles of men in flat caps and ploughing the fields.
The names the ales are given often does little to attract the fluttering eyelashes of more refined women either. Calling your brew Old Wilf’s Jowl is all very well, but it’s not going to appeal to your Chardonnays on club night.
Earlier this month the Shropshire Star reported how around 80 per cent of women have never tried ale in a pub, and The Campaign For Real Ale’s Paula Waters (yes, she is a woman), said: “When was the last time you saw any press or TV advert for beer which is meant to attract women? At best they are inoffensively aimed at men and at worst they are downright patronising to women.”
Now, beer types from CAMRA have popped their heads up from the behind the bar, saying the real ale image – old men with beards carrying beer bellies on their fronts and rucksacks on their backs (what exactly are the rucksacks for, anyway?) – needs to change in order to appeal to women.
CAMRA must be right, because Harriet Easton, an enterprising 19-year-old Shrewsbury woman who likes her beer but thinks it’s image is too blokey, has created what is thought to be the first ever beer for girls.
Coming not in a hefty tankard but a slimline bottle with a funky label, Harriet’s Rushing Dolls Beer for Girls, brewed in Shropshire by Hanby Ales, does exactly what it says on the label.
Says Harriet: “I like drinking beer but there was never one for girls. Rushing Dolls tastes a bit different, with a zest of lime – it’s very light and hoppy.”
“Girls are much more into the whole image of it, so that is part of it too.”
Louise Ratcliffe, 21, works at Heaven Urban Spa in Shifnal but is at The White Hart – an award-winning real-ale establishment -for a lunchtime pint.
She says: “I like my beer and all my friends drink it. But I would not order real ale on my own because of the image of it.”
Louise is sampling Adnam’s Broadside, a dark ale – and stereotypically, the darker the ale the flatter the cap.
“It’s the first time I have tried this one but I would definitely get it again, but maybe in a half glass – I’m too small for a pint.”
During the conversation the girls agree that pints are okay in the right environment but that they would prefer slightly more dainty glasses.
Bottles would be even better, but not the big brown glass ones that require a welder’s hand to even lift one up. What might inspire a woman to try real ale?
“Smaller bottles,” says one woman. “Pink bottles!” says another.
“A free pair of shoes with every two pints,” says a third.
Maybe all it needs is more women to try real ale.
Landlord of The White Hart, Andy Koczy, who describes himself jokingly as a “Saga lout”, says that the image of the real-ale drinker is beginning to change and that more women are drinking it.
Our bevy of beauties sup their bevy of ales and begin to drift off.
“We’ll be back,” they say. “Same time next week?”
It will be interesting to see what they order.
By Ben Bentley
16 Comments
There’s nothing more attractive than a woman drinking pints…. or was that sarcasm?
So, I confess that I am a chauvinist and I should probably be condemned for my harsh old fashioned opinions, but I find women drinking pints is about as attractive as Anne Widdecombe covered in mayonaise.
Oh, and before I get shot down. I know they are not drinking pints to BE attactive, its just a side effect in my opinion that girls and pints should be kept apart!
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I’ll bet you’re single, Matty
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Just to say that I’m a girl – and really like real ale on occasion – albeit in half pints :-)
You really can’t go too wrong with a dark ale like hobgoblin’s, enville gothic or westmalle dubbel :-)
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“What might inspire a woman to try real ale?
“Smaller bottles,” says one woman. “Pink bottles!” says another.
“A free pair of shoes with every two pints,” says a third.”
And there are sterotypes from women themselves!
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I did not say there was anything wrong with girlies drinking beer, just not in pints.
I kind of expected a response like that Dotty, but all im doing is being the spokesperson for the majority of men I have spoken to on the subject.(of people i know, this was not an officially commisioned survey)
…and Dotty, I am single currently but not due to the chavanuism or wild opinions its due to me having a face like a hyenas rectum, the personality of a constipated koala, and smell like a dachshunds danglys!… but if you want I can take you out for a HALF pint! ;)
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Matty you’re a disgusting chauvinistic pig who lives in the 18th century.
I bet you’re a blue wicked scooter driving pansy rugby player arnt you.
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Wont anybody think of the calories!!??
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Getting back to the matter in hand, I feel I must correct your article in several places; Hobsons did not merely win a “gold star”, their Mild was voted Champion Beer of Britain at the recent GBBF
“Great British Beer Festival” in London.
I can’t believe that Paula Waters called CAMRA Members “old men with beards carrying beer bellies”! In our CAMRA Branch we have many young people, barely out of their teens, including two German citizens, and many ladies who readily drink REAL ALE.
Another incorrect myth is that “large bellies are attributable to beer”! The bad diet entered into whilst drinking causes the large belly!
If you were to give a beer a femine name would men drink it?
Last year CAMRA re-introduced the one third of a pint glass and it proved very popular. As the word spreads, maybe it will be seen in Shifnal and Shrewsbury pubs!
Finally, if the girls are unsure of what ales will suit them, come along to the Bridgnorth CAMRA Beer Festival at the Station in Bridgnorth 13-16 Sep and I will find them plenty of pallette pleasing tipples!
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BustyBigBoobs, interesting point you make but….. at least I drive a proper car and a proper motorbike! How is your moped and hairdressers car mate? haha
Peter, Its not just the diet! I drink real ale but I do however do alot of exersise, training 6 days a week. Like most things its everything in moderation, excersise and a balanced diet keeps my six pack….. in the fridge! ;)
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Matty if you cannot stand women drinking pints…….then dont look
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Haha I try not to! ;)
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I can say without a trace of sarcasm that I would be extremely attracted to a woman drinking pints of real ale.
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Thanks for stepping back, Matt-me-boy. That way the more sensible blokes need not bother shoving you out of the way to chat with these charming ladies who have already demonstrated such excellent taste.
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Wait, what? You mean women in England don’t drink pints? I’ve never heard of anything so ridiculous. What a retarded country.
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I love to see the ladies drinking beer and i mean Europes got good beer but i like my canadian brewed beer and i like to see the ladies drinking beer! i prefeer them to enjoy a ice cole brew then the stinky old rum/ and the hard stuff!
just wish i could convince my GF to endulge into beer! guess gonna hve to find my self a good german beer drinking lady friend! any one know of any?
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Yes Matty you are condemned for your harsh old-fashioned beliefs. How dare you say such a thing about women drinking pints.
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