On March 8, brewers and beer aficionados alike will gather at Stones Throw Brewery to celebrate International Women’s Day.
In an interview with The Front, Nadine van Niekerk, co-owner of the brewery, sheds light on plans for this year’s event and shares the importance of celebrating women in our community.
Q: How long have you owned Stones Throw Brewery, and what inspired you to venture into the brewing industry?
A: We opened Stones Throw in 2016, and I got involved by accident. I had no intention of being involved in the brewing industry. My husband, Tony Luciano, is a Western grad, and when he was here at university, he always wanted to start a brewery.
He did a little bit of brewing on the side. In fact, he started passing his chemistry classes because he learned all about the equations in terms of beer and improved his grades and his beer-making skills. He always wanted to start a brewery in Bellingham, and when we met, I was like, ‘Wait, that’s your dream. I’m not going to get involved.’ We worked in wilderness therapy in Bend, Oregon — that’s where we met — and then moved to Malaysia, where I taught, and Tony ended up teaching too at an international school for four years. While we were there, he [decided] he wanted to move back to Bellingham and persuaded me to join him.
My involvement became because [he] and his business partner were not very organized, and they needed someone to organize all the things in the background. Tony’s really great at coming up with amazing ideas and getting them started, but he doesn’t always like to manage them or plan too far ahead, and so my role became planning the events and helping him manage and coordinate things.
Q: I understand this is an annual celebration. How many years has Stones Throw been hosting an International Women’s Day event?
A: Since 2016, we’ve always had some form of the event, and only in the last three years, it’s been to the extent that we have it now.
In the beginning, it was all about releasing a beer that women brew, so the Pink Boots Society is a nonprofit that helps to educate women and provide opportunities for women in the beverage and malt beverage industry. They provide scholarships for women who want to get into the brewing industry, and they host what they call a women’s brew, where on the eighth of March, all over the world, breweries get women involved to design and brew a beer to raise awareness about Pink Boots and the work that they’re doing.
We used to do that, and at one point, we decided that we wanted to brew the beer before International Women’s Day and then release it on International Women’s Day, so the idea was always to showcase all the incredible women that we have in our community. We showcase our featured artist, who is a female artist, and it grew from there. One of our employees was like, ‘Why don’t we do a maker’s market with female-identifying makers,’ so that’s [how] the maker’s market came into fruition. We always have music, and trying to find an all-female band has been a little bit challenging at times, but we’ve had The Sweet Goodbyes in the past who are incredible, and this year we have The D’vas, so it’s all just about showcasing the incredible work that women around Whatcom County and Bellingham do.
Q: Can you tell us a bit more about the different events and activities that will be planned for the day?
A: We’re releasing our women’s brew called the Golden Queen, so at 12 p.m., we will tap that beer and have it flowing all day. 10% of the proceeds of that whole batch goes to Pink Boots Society.
Shifting Gears is a nonprofit that empowers women through outdoor recreation. [They’re] leading a bike ride, which is part of their Wild Women Week, from 12 p.m. to 2 p.m. They are also going to be on-site in the evening from 5 p.m. until 9 p.m., celebrating the end of Wild Women Week, and they’re going to be announcing their Wild Person of the Year at 8 p.m.
From 1 p.m. to 5 p.m., we have the maker’s market, where we have 12 female-identifying vendors who will be showcasing their work in and around the brewing.
At 6 p.m., we have The D’vas, [who] will be playing until 8 p.m.
We have our feature artist, who’s up the next two months in the taproom, Sophie Butterfield. She will also be on-site from 1 p.m. to 5 p.m.
Q: What does it mean to you personally to be able to create this space celebrating women in our community?
A: I think that from my personal experience growing up in South Africa and being a woman in the world, we’re often forgotten. I wasn’t always given the same opportunities as the boys or men in my cohorts, or school or groups that I was in, and this event, to me, is trying to change that. To create the opportunities where women are showcased, to show they are just as capable, strong and resilient as any men in the world and can do anything, and it’s not just in brewing or art or bike riding. There are so many realms [where] we have really strong, capable women, and I want to give them an opportunity to show who they are and what they can do.
Q: Have you noticed any changes in the local brewing culture since starting these celebrations?
A: I don’t think it’s from our celebration at all. I think that it was really cool to see the very first Pink Boots brew that we hosted. It was usually hosted by Boundary Bay with Janet Lightner, and she’s an incredible inspiration in our local brewing industry as well as Mari Kemper, who’s one of the owners of Chuckanut Brewery.
Those two women, I think, led the way for women in the brewing industry here in Bellingham, and Janet would host the Pink Boots brew, and I remember reaching out to her and saying, ‘Would it be okay if Stones Throw hosted it this year?’ And she was very enthusiastic about having someone else do it, and since then, all the breweries host a Pink Boots brew.
A lot of the breweries in town have female brewers on their team, or female production managers, or female general managers, which is really exciting to see how much it’s changed just in the short nine, 10 years that Stones Throw has been in existence. There are so many more women involved in the brewing industry in Bellingham and leading the way.
Q: Are there any brewing industry changes you’d like to see regarding women’s participation and recognition?
A: I think that I would really love to see female lead brewers winning medals at some of the competitions that happen around the state and the country. There are a few women out there who [have] won many gold medals, but I want to see more female brewers leading the way there.
Q: What, in your opinion, is the most rewarding aspect of owning a brewery?
A: I would say it’s seeing people enjoy the space and meeting their neighbors whose names they didn’t even know. We’ve had lots of people who have met at Stones Throw and then either get engaged or get married, and I can think of so many people who live in the Happy Valley neighborhood but didn’t know each other until they started coming to Stones Throw. They’ve formed these really tight friendship groups, which is amazing and really cool to see, so I love the community that’s created and the new friendships that are created.
Q: How can community members continue to support women in brewing beyond this special day?
A: I think that if there’s any women who are interested in brewing and the brewing industry, my suggestion would be to reach out to the Pink Boots Society local chapter in Bellingham through Facebook or Instagram and talk to the committee members there about the ways they can get involved and look out for some of the events that they host, and support local breweries.
Madelyn Jones (she/her) is a city life reporter for The Front this quarter. She is a fourth-year news/editorial pre-major and anthropology minor. When she’s not working on a story, she likes reading and listening to music. You can reach her at madelynjones.thefront@gmail.com.
