Together Sounds Better
Cheers to women in beer!
Click to learn more about IWCBD 2025
Since 2014, International Women’s Collaboration Brew Day (IWCBD) has been used as an opportunity to bring women from all corners of the beer and hospitality industry together to raise money for charity and to prove one thing – women belong in beer! So, it was with no small level of excitement that, on Thursday 30th Jan, we threw open the doors of our brewery and welcomed an amazing group of women who love and work in the beer and hospitality industry, to brew something very special.
“Over the past decade, there’s been a steady increase in the number of women working in brewing. I'm certainly excited to be right here, right now, working amongst incredibly talented women across varying roles locally, nationally to globally.”
- Annie Clements, Co-Founder and Creative Lead
On the build up to this day, the women of Lost and Grounded had been busy behind the scenes collating our ideas, and after some deliberation, we settled on a style we felt best represented all our tastes – a Blackcurrant Berliner-style Weissebier. With a signature tartness of a traditional Berliner Weisse, coupled with the distinctive colour and tang from the blackcurrant, we developed a recipe that would stand out from the crowd, and help to highlight our message. The result is a beer bursting with zingy blackcurrants and a hint of citrus. Fruity, effervescent and deliciously refreshing!
Beer with a message and a purpose
The day began early, before our guests arrived, with the women of Lost and Grounded getting stuck into loading the wheat for the first of two brews. When our guests arrived, we were then straight into loading the grain for brew two. It was great to have everyone getting stuck into the brew day, with representatives from Bertha’s Pizza, Espensen Sprits and Box-E in Bristol, Bacareto in Cardiff, and Duke of St. Alban’s, Garden Cinema and Studio Zenko in London ready and willing to get their hands dirty!
After loading the grain, we had some time to sit down and enjoy a drink together. This was the perfect opportunity to hear from the representatives of our chosen charity for this year’s brew – Womankind, a Bristol based charity that offer counselling and mental health support for women. This year we will be donating 10p from the sale of every can of our IWCBD beer to support their urgent work. We were honoured to host Danielle, Anna, Kyla and Tilly, and appreciated them taking the time to tell us about the amazing work the charity does. This was a very humbling moment for us all, with a tangible sense of the good that can be done when we come together with a common goal.
After an incredible lunch provided by Bristol legends Bertha’s Pizza, we were fuelled up and ready for some hop additions. We chose Magnum hops, and Hallertau Mittelfrüh to add a lemony kick that we felt would complement the blackcurrant.
Once the hops were weighed and added, the real fun could begin – a brewery tour and tank tasting! Our Brewing Manager Laurence took us on a tour of our German-style brewhouse. On a journey from milling to fermenting, he explained why what we do at Lost and Grounded is so special.
The final interactive element of our brew day was also the messiest – the blackcurrant puree addition. For safety reasons our brewers made the puree additions, but we all had fun sampling the puree from the lids of the pouches!
We ended the day with a tasting of our core range and further discussion about the role of women in beer history. As the day drew to a close, we could sense a shift in our guests. From the beginning of the day, arriving as relative strangers, we all parted with a sense of purpose.
“When women support other women, incredible things happen"
-Annie Clements, Co-Founder and Creative Lead
Together Sounds Better will be pouring in our taproom on Saturday 8th March, International Women’s Day, and all are welcome. Come and raise a glass to the women who make this industry great, and raise even more money for Womankind.
