We might be living in a country that worships a plethora of goddesses, and puts mothers, daughters, girlfriends and wives on a pedestal on specific days across the calendar, but there’s no denying the discrimination that women — like other marginalised genders — face here. What is it, then, like to be a woman in the burgeoning beer and alcohol industry, which itself is still considered an unconventional sector? That’s what led beer enthusiast Chatty Girija to launch the Good WOmen Beer Podcast campaign on National Girl Child Day, in January.

The “pint-sized” podcasts, ranging between 50 seconds and two minutes, feature 10 cicerones, brewers, mixologists, as well as women who write on alcohol. The campaign is part of Chatty’s Cheers Chatty podcast. She shares that the idea was rooted in her research when she started off in 2019. “I realised there were a lot of women in the industry, who were not in the marketing or communication roles, but into hardcore brewing. They were involved in lifting barrels, brewing, etc, and come with qualified backgrounds in brewing and fermentation,” she reveals, adding that many of them hail from conservative families and small towns. As someone who has dreamt of building an Indian equivalent of the US-based Pink Boots Society, which promotes women professionals in these industries, she felt that the voices of Indian female brewers needed a platform.