By Kevin Revolinski | Photos by: Steph Shanks Photography (left), Shanna Wolf (middle), Hillary Schave (right)
ERICA DEANDA-REYNA
Tumbled Rock Brewery & Kitchen
A California native, DeAnda-Reyna was driven to brewing by curiosity. She started as the only woman on the packaging team at a local brewery. She filled kegs for eight hours a day, scrubbed mold out of drains and tanks, and picked caps and crowns off the line until her fingers bled. Eventually, she received two academic scholarships from the Pink Boots Society, a nonprofit geared toward women and nonbinary people working in the fermented beverage and related industries, and kept working in the field. In 2018, she joined Octopi Brewing as the only woman on the team. When Tumbled Rock Brewery & Kitchen opened in 2019, the owners tapped her as head brewer and involved her in all of the planning.
“Just being able to come in and have my opinion valued … really meant a lot to me,” says DeAnda-Reyna.
DeAnda-Reyna appreciates the industry because she says beer is about “coming together.” But, she also sees an industry geared toward men. “Women don’t know that it’s an option to go into fermented science in general,” she explains.
Her presence helps pave the way for other women.
“We don’t go around asking men, ‘What’s it like being a male brewer?’” she says, noting it’s an oft-asked question when people hear about what she does. She finds value in the inquiry, though.
“It’s getting more eyes on us and it’s getting more women to come up in the industry,” she says.
DEB CAREY
When she met brewer Dan Carey, Deb was a single mom, going to college and cleaning bathrooms in Montana. He admired her understanding of beer and flavor, and the couple moved around a bit before Deb wrote a business plan for a brewery with the goal of returning to her home state of Wisconsin. Thus, New Glarus Brewing Company was born.
As the founder, president and COO, Deb’s done it all: lifted kegs, bottled, overseen expansion, set up employee ownership and, in general, has built one of the largest indie craft breweries in the nation.
She leads the charge in deciding which beers New Glarus brews and how each one should taste.
“Dan’s very generous in complementing my palate,” explains Deb, noting when there are differing opinions on a particular brew, she gets called in to taste. “That’s the thing that I bring to the table.”
She looks forward to 2027 when the company opens its 65,000-square-foot expansion, which includes a new brew hall, distillery and greater brewing capacity. But she still has no intention to expand outside of Wisconsin.
“Size is a guy thing,” she laughs.
“We’re trying to do better than we did the day before [and] we’re trying hard to take care of our people and to be good to our community.”
JESSICA JONES
Jessica tried her first beer at the age of 21, and another beer later, she was making her first with her home-brewer father. She met Erika, the love of her life, and they left Wisconsin for California, where Jessica immersed herself in every aspect of brewing, learning brewing and becoming a rare Grand Master beer judge.
The couple moved back to Madison with the intention of opening a brewery within a year, but ended up opening Giant Jones Brewing Company nearly 10 years later, in 2018. Today, Giant Jones is run by a team of four women.
Jessica, who is brewer and co-owner, believes strongly in community and accountability, which translates to certified organic ingredients, returnable bottles and salaries for all — no working for tips.
“We have a great team. [They are] open and supportive,” she says.
For Jessica, the beer community is as much collaborative as it is competitive, and she looks for any chance she can to work with other small businesses, whether it’s brewing a special beer with another brewery or hosting a weekly pizza night with neighboring Origin Breads.
She makes every beer “for my own curiosity.” Then, she repeats each batch “because it’s someone’s favorite!”
Brewing beer and the camaraderie it brings makes people happy, she says. “If we aren’t making joy, what’s the point?”
