Today’s guest is Alix Shaw, Assistant Packaging Manager at The Five Points Brewing Company in Hackney, East London.
Alix is also a co-founder of the Crafty Beer Girls, a community of beer loving ladies who work in the beer industry or just enjoy a good pint. In addition to monthly meet ups at pubs and bars in London, Crafty Beer Girls has an online community that’s grown to nearly 800 women worldwide, since its founding in 2015.
I met Alix through Crafty Beer Girls and was so excited to get her on the podcast because her energy and enthusiasm for all things beer is infectious. Plus, her story of how she got to where she is in the beer world has lessons for us all.
Alix and I talk about how she made her transition from wine to beer and what she’s learned by saying yes to every opportunity that came her way… namely, discovering her passion for packaging.
Alix tells what she loves most about her role as Assistant Packaging Manager, educates us on what can go wrong when beers aren’t properly packaged, and emphasizes the importance of building a tight-knit team.
We reflect on her personal journey in beer, along with the growth of the Crafty Beer Girls and its impact on the London beer community over the years.
We also talk about what Alix gets up to outside of the beer world, what picks her up after a down day or long shift, and what changes she’s hoping to bring to the beer industry to help create safer and fairer working environments for all.
If you’ve never really paid attention to beer packaging before, prepare for that to change. If anyone can make you passionate about packaging, it’s Alix.
Here she is…
A few other things we mention:
-The International Women’s Collaboration Brew Day on March 8th – find your local host brewery here
-Emma Inch’s Fermentation Radio episode that I’m featured on, summing up the talk I gave at the last Ladies That Beer & Crafty Beer Girls’ Big Beery Meet-up in May 2018
-To keep up to date on future Big Beery Meet-ups in 2019, keep an eye on the Crafty Beer Girls website or Twitter feed (and apologies the timing wasn’t right and I didn’t get this episode up before our November meet-up! I did indeed do a live podcast recording though, so look out for that episode soon.)
Natalya Watson, Beer Sommelier 