Dea Latis hosts first ever beer tasting for female MPs

08-Sep-2013 - Last updated on 09-Sep-2013 at 07:53 GMT

Female MPs celebrate at the Dea Latis event

Dea Latis, the industry’s beer and women forum, hosted the first-ever beer tasting designed for female MPs at the House of Commons last week.

A crowd of over 50 women were guests of Charlotte Leslie MP, Meg Hillier MP and Jenny Willot MP who sponsored the event. The group were tasted six beers from around the country with food selected to match each beer style, ably guided by beer sommelier Annabel Smith.

Leslie suggested that women had the power to re-shape UK drinking habits and that it would be driven by “food and family”.

Brigid Simmonds, chief executive of the British Beer & Pub Association, reminded guests that 22% of people taking brewing qualifications were now women.

Inge Plochaet, chief executive of AB InBev UK, highlighted some research which showed only 12% of women in the UK drank beer and that this could be as high as other beer drinking nations such as the US and Belgium where rates are around 25%.

She urged brewers to rethink their communication strategies to be more inclusive of female drinkers.

Dea Latis was founded in 2010 by a group of women working in the beer and pubs industries and now has over 160 supporters including brewers, beer tasters, marketeers, licensees, writers and bloggers.

For more information, visit the Dea Latis website.