8 best beers brewed by women to help celebrate International Women’s Day

Best: Overall

Rating: 10/10

• ABV: 5%
• Size: 440ml
• Style: Can 

Pale ales are delicious gateway beers – and existence as a radical act from Queer Brewing, brewed with Norweigan Kveik yeast, is a truly perfect choice at that. We can’t fault it. It’s effortlessly drinkable, and at five per cent ABV, it’s ideally sessionable, while being a total pleasure to drink.

When opened, our fellow tester could smell the ripe, heady notes of mango, papaya and tangerine across the room. It’s fresh, fruity and pillowy soft, without any off-putting, puckering bitterness you might often associate with your usual pale ales. The nose continues in tasting notes too, with scores of fresh tropical fruits. It’s a sheer delight on the senses.

Queer Brewing founder, writer and artist, Lily Waite, set up the brewery to provide much-needed visibility for LGBTQ+ people who work in, and with, beer. Existing as an advocate for the LGBTQ+ community, Lily’s passion shines through in her beers – and has raised thousands for charities in the process.

Best: NEIPA

Rating: 9/10

• ABV: 6.6%
• Size: 440ml
• Style: Can 

You may recognise Jaega Wise, head brewer at Wild Card Brewery, as a presenter from BBC Food Programme, The Wine Show or host of Beer Masters alongside singer James Blunt. In 2018, Jaega was awarded “Brewer of the Year” and strives to put women at the forefront of her work.

“We take an active role in hiring women in all areas of the business,” she told us. “We frequently collaborate with other female-led breweries, venues and artists” she added – and the talent is clear to see as we love the design of this can.

Standing for New England India Pale Ale, Wild Card’s NEIPA is a beautiful hazy beer that is pillowy soft, and brewed with the freshest imported American hops, Azacca, Citra and Mosaic – as well as with the London-based brewery’s house yeast blend. Its syrupy, rich and is a beautiful tropical fruit bowl in the mouth, with pineapple, mango and papaya being the heavy hitters, ending on a sherbet-style sweetness. It’s not overwhelmingly sweet though, with the smooth, thick body making it a delight to drink.

Drink it slow, and savour every mouthful (mainly because its 6.6 per cent ABV can catch up with you – trust us…).

Best: IPA

Rating: 9/10

• ABV: 5%
• Size: 330ml
• Style: Can (pack of 12)

Brewed with only the finest British ingredients, and to the highest standards of European brewing traditions is this fruity and funky IPA from South London-based Coalition Brewing. Head brewer Charlotte Cook not only strives to create flavourful, unique and fun beers – but invests efforts into tackling sexism and discrimination in the craft beer industry.

Her passion for the industry is made clear from the first sip. It’s super fresh and fruity, light and refreshing. When poured, it comes out straw-like in colour, with a good body and a toffee nose. There’s clear notes of fresh berries and sweet melon, accompanying a soft mouth-feel beautifully. It’s a beer that transforms too, becoming heavy with apricot and fellow stone fruits as you drink on. To end, it has a refreshing dry bitterness, complete with a malty backbone.

Like its on-trend monochrome packaging, with flares of neon pink, it’s a really fun beer, and suitable for both veggies and vegans too.

Best: Lager

Rating: 8/10

• ABV: 4.8%
• Size: 330ml
• Style: Can (pack of six)

Inspired by the Cornish coast, this pale gold, fresh lager is easy-drinking and refreshing – the epitome of long, lazy summer days on the beach.

Brewing director, Georgina Young is a bit of a craft beer legend – joining the company in 2019, after previously operating as the first female head brewer at Fuller’s. She is a master brewer of the Institute of Brewing and Distilling, and now also oversees operations at St. Austell’s sister company, Bath Ales. She surely knows her stuff – and it is clear from this crisp, Helles-style lager.

Korev, available in a handy fridge pack of six, was born in Cornwall and isn’t super bitter or dry like your classic supermarket go-tos. It’s light, clean and not overly carbonated or lip-puckeringly bitter. It’s bready, with a good malt backbone and a delicate herbal nose. It’s the coast in a glass.

Best: Cask beer

Rating: 8/10

• ABV: 3.2%
• Size: 3L
• Style: Cask (available in 3L pouches)

If you’re a sucker for cask beer, Leeds-based Nomadic Beers have perfected the art of the draught beer in a pouch. Owned by Katie Marriott, Nomadic specialises in hand-crafted cask ales, and its Chinook and Colombia-hopped small pale, Little Wanderer, is certainly no exception.

Like any cask, it pours (from its handy pouch!) flat, with a gorgeous golden, cloudy body. The core range beer is all shortbread and big malty notes at first. But, after a short time in the fridge, we found that it really mellows out into a thirst-quenching, pithy citrus ale with juicy bursts of orange and slight lemon notes. Thanks to its low ABV, it’s sessionable and definitely one you could drink all evening.

Don’t worry if you don’t want to share it (we get you!) as the 3l pouches can be stored in a cool, dry place for up to three weeks unopened, keeping your cask ale as fresh as can be. Once opened though, it’s best drank within five days – we preferred to keep ours in the fridge in the meantime.

Best: Alcohol-free beer

Rating: 9/10

• ABV: <0.5%
• Size: 440ml
• Style: Can 

Often, going low and slow when choosing beers can be a tricky task, with many alcohol-free (AF) options missing the mark on flavour. That is, until it comes to Merakai’s this is a thirst trap. It has a mere 0.28 per cent ABV content, but we promise you, it doesn’t taste like an AF beer in the slightest.

It has the nose, tasting notes and body of a full-fat, four-six per cent hazy beer, thanks to copious amounts of lucious mango and papaya puree added to the mix. Plus, it’s super juicy and a joy to drink. Finally, it means there’s no missing out if you’re on driving duty after parties or simply don’t want the hangover for work the next day. It’s a pretty special beer, and we’ve quite frankly not tasted any AF options like it.

Co-founder and owner, Emma O’Neill Parsons, set-up the Sussex-based brewery with husband and former Arundel Brewery worker, Oliver Parsons. “Merakai Brewing CO. represents a community and company we want to be part of where everyone feels included and comfortable to try and discover new things,” Emma said. The proof is in the pudding, as the duo also work tirelessly with the craft beer industry, raising awareness of mental health and neurodivergence. The brand also have a Brave Noise collaboration hitting the shelves soon which will raise money for a chosen charity, as well as awareness of discrimination in the industry.

Best: Gose

Rating: 9/10

• ABV: 4.6%
• Size: 440ml
• Style: Can 

If you’re fairly new to craft beer, or even consider yourself a bit of a pro, you’d be forgiven for not truly understanding what a gose is. Pronounced “go-zur”, it’s a beer that was born in Germany and is famed for its traditionally sweet and sour taste, often with a crack of saltiness and pinch of coriander.

Crafted in the heart of Northumberland, this family-run microbrewery features female owner and head brewer, Red Kellie. She has set up three breweries now and lovingly crafted award-winning beers. And this hedgerow gose is no exception to that claim.

It’s made with locally foraged hedgerow ingredients and, like the rest of its foraged range, is wild like the landscape itself. A delight to drink, it’s packed with wild berries, such as red berries and blackcurrants, with raspberry at the forefront making. And it finishes on a twist of sea salt sourced from The Holy Island Sea Salt Company. Gorgeous.

Best: Dark beer

Rating: 8/10

• ABV: 4.9%
• Size: 440ml
• Style: Can (pack of 12)

Forget everything you know about dark beers, and porters, Brewster’s is here to shake up traditions. Brewed with a whopping eight different types of malt, alongside spicy English hop varieties, this brand have aced the dark beer game with its Dragon Street Porter. Rich, roasty and dark, this sessionable porter is fuller in flavour thanks to being unfiltered, and is a treat to drink.

Based in Lincolnshire, Brewster’s was founded by craft beer legend Sara Barton in 1998 – the first woman to win Brewer of the Year accolade from the British Guild of Beer Writers. And Barton puts her Masters degree in brewing to good use with this impeccable porter.

It’s all chocolate, cocoa and roasted coffee on the nose, with a surprisingly green fruited taste that goes hand-in-hand with its malty, almost biscuity backbone. It’s creamy, it’s dark and oh so soft in the mouth – and we found the tasting notes deepened, and got more complex when it lost its chill. We could happily have this for dessert after a Sunday roast.