I’m blown away by the polarizing response Chick Beer has created. While it seems a vast majority of those leaving comments feel negatively against the beer, there are a few who don’t mind, and even a few who praise it.

Ultimately it is the choice of the woman, not the man, that matters in this case, as the product is marketed solely, and unquestionably, to women. Men’s voices have no consequence in these matters.

Knowing it’s the woman’s choice, what did the women have to say? While there may be more women who commented, here are the 4 comments that I could find on the aritcle from those who identified themselves as a woman. For the record, as of this writing, there were 6 comments on this site, 107 comments on reddit.com, and 6 comments on beernews.org.

“qotsa73” from reddit.com says:

I’m a woman. I don’t drink macro brews, so i never feel like the beers i’m drinking are being marketed to me or not. They don’t really do any advertising (that I’ve seen) and their labeling is neutral. I’ve never had anything deter me from drinking a Cascade or Russian River or Jolly Pumpkin beer. I seek these beers out because I like good beer. Not because of the way they are marketed. Women who love beer are not deterred or attracted to the beers they choose due to marketing. Thus, I’m not offended by this beer as a woman.

“Eesa” from reddit.com says:

In my opinion this is not “empowerment” for women, but a step back. I like my craft beer, thank-you. No Chick beer for this lady.

Erin from IndyBeers.com says:

I’m a chick. I make beer. I drink beer. The reason women don’t drink beer is because they’ve been handed some pisswater light lager and told it’s beer. Every female friend I’ve introduced to real, craft beer in the last 5 years has gone from “I hate beer” to “I hate beers that taste like bud, miller, etc.” Also, this beer compares itself to mass-produced american light lagers but it’s twice the price. The $9-10 range, even in NYC where I live, puts you in craft territory, and for that money you could buy a sixer of Brooklyn, Sierra Nevada, Lagunitas, etc. The beer I make is for people with tastebuds. I could give a crap what’s in your pants.

Melissa from IndyBeers.com says:

“I invite anyone out there who wants to make an Imperial IPA for women to give that business model a try.” Why would anyone make an Imperial IPA, or any beer for that matter, for women? We don’t have a different set of taste buds – when I make dinner of an evening, I don’t make two meals because I need to eat something different from the bloke opposite me, so why on earth do I need a different beer? This ‘silver bullet’ approach to beer marketing is what’s got the whole category into a mess in the first place, because the focus was solely on getting the majority male market, whilst wilfully excluding 51% of potential consumers. Macho-marketing, sexist ad campaigns and a steady dumbing-down of flavours within the mass-market is exactly why the craft beer market is seeing such a meteoric rise, because it is the total antithesis, it places an emphasis on flavour and quality, not on how pretty things look. Sadly, all this product is doing is taking that approach and flipping it to exclude 49% of its potential market instead. I completely agree with Erin about her experiences, when I do tastings with women who have previously been beer rejectors, I sit and ask them what they normally like to drink, what they eat, what the like and dislike about beers they’ve tried and then match a brew accordingly. And whilst I’ll certainly agree that a lot of the time I hear issues around presentation, it’s more about ugly glassware and large volume measures than it ever is about not having enough pink on the bottles. Also in concert with Erin, I have found the major problem to be that people expect women to go from a high-alcohol, complex product – like wine or spirits – to ‘something easy drinking’ or ‘fruity’. You wouldn’t tell an artisan cheese lover that they should be eating a Kraft slice, so why on earth would you apply that logic to beer? It’s kind of the beer equivalent of the boss patting you on the arse in the office and telling you not to worry your pretty little head about things. I’m sure the creators of Chick Beer don’t have some sort of anti-feminist agenda, I think they’re just very misguided. And whilst I applaud that they are looking to support a charitable cause, that doesn’t make it all better I’m afraid

I’m also curious what reddit.com user “retrospects” wife had to say.

Lastly, we picked up a new like over at Facebook from Jeri Leigh Siss. Can someone tell me what an “On Premise Specialist” does?

Source: Original interview with Chick Beer