Hospitality Management doctorate student teams up with New Realm Brewing—Auburn to brew special beer ahead of International Women’s Day

Since opening on Auburn’s campus in 2023, New Realm Brewing—Auburn has hosted several community events that have benefited organizations and individuals through special beer releases and this Saturday, March 8 will be no different thanks to a special brew created in celebration of International Women’s Day.

College of Human Sciences Hospitality Management doctorate student Caroline Shubert (top) and New Realm Brewing—Auburn Taproom Manager Kierstan Meadors.

Thanks to the tandem of College of Human Sciences Hospitality Management doctorate student Caroline Shubert and New Realm Brewing—Auburn Taproom Manager Kierstan Meadors, the idea to create a beer brewed by women was started to help bring awareness and raise funds to support the Pink Boots Society—a society that supports women working in the beer brewing industry.

The Pink Boots Society aims to assist, inspire and encourage women and non-binary individuals in the fermented/alcoholic beverage industry to advance their careers through education and a large part of this is through a collaboration brew day.

“I have been a member of Pink Boots for five years now, and collaboration brew days are one of the biggest fundraisers that Pink Boots has,” said Shubert. “I thought it would be a great opportunity to partner with New Realm and raise money or scholarships for a society that I am a part of and think does great stuff.”

This resulted in a brew day a few months ago where Shubert and Meadors came up with a recipe that once finalized and brewed, would be ready to hit the taproom to coincide with International Women’s Day on March 8 for the Pink Boots Collaboration Brew Day.

“The beer itself is called ‘Pink Hoppy Club’ which is a combination of Pink Boots and the Chappell Roan song Pink Pony Club,” said Shubert. “It is a 5% American amber ale that we chose because we wanted to use the Pink Boots blend which is a blend they put together every year with Yakima Chief Hops (YCH). Each year, they invite a group of women out to do a hop rub and do a selection of what’s going to go in the blend. They educate and involve women in the process and then a portion of all the hops proceeds goes back to the Pink Boots Society.”

With the Pink Hoppy Club beer brewed and ready to go, those that visit New Realm Brewing—Auburn on March 8 and purchase the beer will in turn support the Pink Boots Society. The event begins at noon when the brewery opens and $1 of each draft beer sold that day will go to the Pink Boots Society. In addition, $1 from each Pink Hoppy Club pour sold will also go to the Pink Boots Society for the remainder of the time it’s on tap.

“We wanted a nice kind of malt backbone to support the woodsy flavor that’s common in American ales so that’s why we went with the amber,” said Shubert. “It is 5% but it’s a great, easy drinking springtime beer. Not too dark and not too light with some balanced malt caramel flavors.”

For Shubert, her research focuses on beer and the growing industry, and she spoke of why the Auburn Brewing Science program and Hospitality Management program as a whole is so important.

“We are not just making beer. This is integrated into research and higher academia, and I think it’s a great combination and it’s not something that is common, so I think it is great Auburn is initiating that,” said Shubert. “I think this set up of commercial space is associated with both brewing science and hospitality, so it creates this all-encompassing and comprehensive education about what the brewing industry is.”