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Whatsapp Women are increasingly shaping the future of brewing in Australia.

Australian women are not only drinking more beer than ever before, but female brewers are increasingly playing a role in defining what Australian beer tastes like and where the future of brewing is headed. Barbara Heggen reports.

Allison MacDonald had returned to Australia after two years in Europe. Her travels had changed her: she'd tasted exotic beers, and life was never going to be the same.

Women love beer, they just don't know it yet.

She began seeking out craft beers in Australia and then it dawned on her, she had found her vocation.

'I thought, "I'm going to become brewer!"' says MacDonald. 'I didn't know how to do that, so I Googled it.'

A couple of months later, MacDonald enrolled in a university course—she now works for one of Australia's highest-profile boutique breweries, Little Creatures.

Beer crusader Kirrily Waldhorn says Allison's feelings about beer are not uncommon.

'Women love beer, they just don't know it yet,' she says

As a board member of The Pink Boots Society, a global organisation aimed at empowering women in the beer industry, Waldhorn is on a mission to win more women over to the historically male ale market.

She says beer has suffered from misconceptions about weight gain, and terrible promotional campaigns aimed at men.

'There have been efforts in the past to create girly beer and they just flop. Women are happy to drink what's already out there. It's about welcoming them into the beer world,' Waldhorn says.

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Whatsapp Jayne Lewis and Danielle Allen from Two Birds brewing

In the last decade, the number of women drinking beer has risen 50 per cent. Kirrily Waldhorn attributes it to both the growth in craft beers, as well as places that serve them.

'The schooner slopped over the bar is not that much fun for women, but serve it in a wine glass and it suddenly takes on a whole new image,' she says.

According to Allison MacDonald, as more women take up beer, brewers are, in turn, encouraged to be more creative.

'Women are far more adventurous and will try those out-there flavours,' she says.

Jayne Lewis can attest to this. Lewis is the co-founder of Australia's first all-female brewery, Two Birds.

One of their highest selling brews is Taco, which blends coriander leaf, lime peel and corn.

'It actually blows people's minds when they taste it. They say "Oh my God. This is actually okay. That doesn't taste like beer."'

A tip: don't get these women started on low-carb beer. They are unanimous in their condemnation.

'Drink beer for flavour, because you enjoy it. Not because you think you're saving a water cracker's worth of carbohydrates,' says Waldhorn.

'Low-carb beer reinforces this myth that beer is bad for you. It's all a lot of hogwash anyway.'