The women of Surly Brewing spent International Women’s Day working on a beer together. They named it after a phenomenon they’ve dealt with for many, many years, one that countless other women have also experienced: mansplaining. In the beer industry, this is most commonly found at beer festivals, in beer groups on the internet, during happy hour, when a new beer is released, when asked a question about beer in a group setting with mixed genders, when you’re drinking a beer…you get the gist.

Even with all the mansplaining in our past and present, we continue to welcome more and more women in the craft beer industry who share our passion.

This is the story of Mansplain Survivors IPA:

The idea for the beer (Now, beer comes from the Old English word beor, which itself is a Germanic word, but more of a northern or western German word, not Eastern. Of course, there are many theories as to its base etymology, but there are three common explanations that have gained traction with scholars of beer and language. Number one is the proto-Germanic wo—) that would become Mansplain Survivors started with a collaboration on what the women of Surly loved to drink plus creativity in the naming process.

After a few online polls, Mansplain Survivors IPA (Ah, yes, the IPA, or India Pale Ale. The common explanation for this name is from the hoppy beer designed to survive the long sea voyages from London to India, but there are many other explanations as to its true origin. Some scholars speculate th—) was ready for brew day. The beer utilizes Citra and Taiheke hops. (Did you know the Citra hop was created by Gene Probasco all the way back in 1990? Gene led the hop breeding program at John I. Haas in Washington state, one of the world’s largest hop suppliers. The hop that would later become known as Citra was bred from a variety of other hops, including East Kent Goldings, Brewer’s Gold, and American Tettnanger. It’s now one the craft beer world’s most sought-after hops, joining other vari—) That combination of hops gives it a lot of nice citrus notes, you’ll pick up some grapefruit and lime for sure.

Brewer Shannon Stroh and QA/QC Manager Riley Seitz lead the brew day (This first day of brewing! Or as it’s more commonly called in industry terms, ‘mashing in’. The mash, of course, is the mix of ingredients that will over time become the beer you dri-) on the Surly pilot system. Outside of all the fun that was had, it was educational for women from other areas of the company without the exhaustion from…mansplaining. (See examples, denoted in boldface italics above.)

Cheers to you, Mansplain Survivors.

The beer was created by:

Amy Ronning (AKA Scar)

Anne Andrews

Bobbi Rojas

Cheryl Rivinius

Heather Lysne (AKA Flora)

Holly Manthei

Jeanine Pitra

Jen Durkin

Julia MacLean

Kristine Bradley

Mary Sellke

Nicole Giordano

Nikki Reeck

Rebecca Ansari

Riley Seitz

Sarah Lawson (AKA Slayrah)

Shannon Stroh

Tara Aclure

Tia DuHamel

Tiffany Jackson