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Female drinkers believe brewers are improving their approach to women

Beer and women forum Dea Latis has unveiled the findings of a new survey into the relationship between women and our national drink. The results were delivered to an audience at the new Brewing Equipment & Technology exhibition at the NEC.

The online survey, which received 600 responses, asked for respondents’ perceptions about women’s consumption of beer and what would make them more likely to buy beer in the on and off trade.  Both men and women completed the survey.

The majority (73%) of respondents felt that brewers’ approach to women had improved over the last 10 years, but that there was ‘still a way to go’. A similar number (74%) think that more women are now more likely to include beer within their drinks repertoire, while 17% believe more women are choosing it as their main drink.  On both questions, responses from men were slightly more optimistic than from women.

Asked to rank a number of techniques to encourage more women to drink beer, respondents gave their highest score to beer lists and taste descriptions, in both on and off trade (33%).  Offering free samples of beer was also viewed as effective across pubs and supermarkets (27%), while there was also support for a wider selection of beers in the off trade (31%).

Staff recommendation was a strong ‘middle’ choice for many respondents (21% voted it 2nd and 3rd most important), indicating a need to equip bar and store staff with beer knowledge.  Beer and food matching received a similar rating (25% of respondents put it in 3rd place), though women felt it would be more effective than men.

A wider selection of beer glassware was seen as only moderately motivating, while providing more information on beers calorie content or health benefits received low scores from both sexes, across on and off trade.

Ros Shiel of Dea Latis, said “We’re delighted that 600 people took the time to complete our survey, a response that we think makes our findings relatively robust.  We weren’t surprised that tasting notes and sampling scored highly, but would have expected a higher ranking for beer and food matching.

“Factors such as glassware shouldn’t be considered as unimportant though – just that these respondents rated them as less effective than others in persuading women to try beer.”

Dea Latis – named after the Celtic goddess of beer – was launched in 2010 as a forum where women working in breweries, pubs or related jobs could share insights and experience.

The group now holds a number of beer and food tastings during the year and regularly communicates with around 260 women including brewers, licensees, quality managers, trainers, writers, bloggers and a growing number of interested beer drinkers.

The next Dea Latis event will be a Brewsters Brunch at the Birmingham Beer Bash, taking place on Saturday 23 July from 10 – 11.00 am.

Notes to editors

The survey mentioned above was conducted via SurveyMonkey between 29 April – 11 May 2016. 600 respondents completed the survey, 58% of them women. The age split was:

18-24%: 3%

25-34: 31%

35-44: 33%

45-54: 19%

55+: 14%

For more information, visit www.dealatis.org.uk

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