Since the beginning, Slackwater Brewing has been teaming up with the Pink Boots Society to create brews. The society provides a yearly hop pellets blend, and breweries get to make their own beer with proceeds going to educational scholarship and programming for women in the industry.

Slackwater’s female staff have gathered once again to come up with a plan for this year’s Pink Boots brews, which takes place celebrating International Woman’s Day on March 8.

“It was a couple generations of fantastic females on the brew deck,” co-founder of Slackwater Liam Peyton said.

“The team was phenomenal with suggestions of what we could make this year and what’s going to make us stand apart with the Pink Boots hop blend.”

They decided on two different beers, one an apricot pale ale and the other a pomegranate and plum sour.

“The think tank for those beers came from all of our female staff, and they’ve been thinking of it for the last month or two,” he said.

To create the artwork, Slackwater is working with two female artists along with their designer Anya to create the final look that will end up on shelves.

“There will be two different styles so it’ll be a pack of four with two beers. The two styles are chosen to match the flavour profiles of the hop … and we all want summer,” Kelsey Peyton said.

“[Pink Boots] is definitely one of my favourite things that I look forward to each year. The staff don’t get a lot of opportunity to get in the back and get their hands dirty and it also goes towards a great cause.”

Particularly exciting for Kelsey is that the Pink Boots Society has recently opened a chapter in Canada, meaning money from each beer sold will be going towards future female brewers right at home.

“It’s another step, Pink Boots, towards providing that opportunity and removing the barriers of sexism and discourage discrimination in the workplace. So whatever [my daughters] decide to do, hopefully, they won’t have those problems.”

The beers will be released on International Women’s Day on March 8 in a four-pack, sold at Slackwater directly and liquor stores around the province.