Rebecca Bennett (brewer)

Rebecca Bennett (born Rebecca Reid in 1983) has worked in various brewmaster positions at Anheuser-Busch InBev, most recently as a Senior Quality Manager in Baldwinsville, New York. She also held the Assistant Brewmaster (2015–2018) at the Baldwinsville facility and previously was a Product Development Specialist (2010–2015) and Group Manager (2005–2010 at the St. Louis, Missouri, facility. She graduated from Purdue University with a bachelor's degree in Chemical Engineering in 2005.

Rebecca Bennett
Born	Rebecca Reid 1983 (age 37–38)
Alma mater	Purdue University
Occupation	Brewer/brewmaster

Education

Rebecca Bennett was born in 1983 to Vickie and Christopher Reid; she and her brother, Timothy, grew up in Fort Wayne, Indiana.[1]

Bennett's father was an electrical engineer, and as a high school student she learned about a Women in Engineering outreach program, something that increased her awareness of her father's work and made that a plausible career for her.[2] In her freshman year at Purdue, Bennett learned more about the versatility of chemical engineering and spent two summers at Eastman Chemical, working on chemicals used in plastics and gas-collection systems.[2][3] Those internships showed her that she didn't want to work for large chemical companies and caused her to question her major; she met staff from Anheuser-Busch at Purdue's Industrial Roundtable and it shifted how she thought about her career possibilities.[3] Pete Kraemer, a fifth-generation brew master at Anheuser-Busch, was a guest lecturer in one of her classes, and that experience showed her that her schoolwork was applicable to making beer.[4]

Work at Anheuser-Busch

She graduated in May 2005 and was working for Anheuser-Busch in June. Before joining Anheuser-Busch, Bennett said she "always liked beer, but I honestly didn't know a lot about it when I got here."[3] She learned quickly, working first as a production supervisor at the main brewery (2005), a member of the innovation group (2010), and head of the pilot brewery (2013).[3] Unlike Pete Kraemer, Bennett didn't grow up in a house where beer or brewing were prevalent, but her science background was helpful.[3] In her work at the pilot brewery, Bennett experimented with new beers in a scaled-down replica of the main brewery; each batch of beer is 10 barrels and most of the 500 recipes she and her team brewed each year never moved beyond the experimental stage.[5] She liked being able to combine her STEM studies with management, marketing, and tasting.[6]

Bennett developed the recipe for Bud Light Platinum and Michelob Ultra-Light Cider.[2][5] She and Jill Vaughn developed Shock Top and the Straw-Ber-Rita.[7][8] After her move to Anheuser-Busch's Baldwinsville Brewery, Bennett worked on Bud Light Seltzer.[9][10]

Bennett is creative with ingredients; she mixed hibiscus flowers with wheat and lemon peels to approximate the taste of a “strawberry lemonade” beer, an idea that emerged from a baking recipe with chocolate chili powder cupcakes and hibiscus frosting.[5] She has also found inspiration in cocktails: "from an ingredient perspective, there's a lot of fun things happening in cocktails, and being able to cull inspiration from that and work that into beer is exciting."[11]

Impact and demographics

Bennett says she doesn't feel like a trailblazer in a brew master's masculine world, citing an increase in women brewers and her work at Anheuser-Busch InBev with Jane Killebrew and Jill Vaughn.[2][12] At the same time, the gender imbalance in consumers and brewers is real. In 2013, Teri Fahrendorf, brew master and founder of the Pink Boots Society, estimated that 99% of brew masters are men; the Siebel Institute, a brewing academy, says only about 5% of its students are women.[3][5]

As an African American, millennial in the brewing industry, Bennett is outside the norm of industry demographics.[3][13] She said that "People have a perception that brewers are all guys with beards and are surprised when they see me, an African-American female. I tell them that I am a brewer, and that the brewing process is really rooted in science. There is so much you can do with a STEM degree."[14]

References

1. Inc, Nelson Memorial Gardens. "Obituary for Christopher L. Reid | Nelson Memorial Gardens, Inc". Obituary for Christopher L. Reid | Nelson Memorial Gardens, Inc. Retrieved 2020-04-28.
2. "Boiler Brewers". digital.watkinsprinting.com. Retrieved 2020-04-28.
3. "ChE Alumna Rebecca Reid is featured in Wall Street Journal - Summer 2013 -". Purdue Engineering Impact. Retrieved 2020-04-28.
4. Smith, Jacquelyn. "How These Women Became Top Brewmasters At One Of The World's Biggest Beer Companies". Business Insider. Retrieved 2020-04-28.
5. Esterl, Mike (2013-01-26). "A Craft Chemist Making Over Big Beer". Wall Street Journal. ISSN 0099-9660. Retrieved 2020-04-28.
6. Hazelwood, Janell P. (September 2014). "Female master of the brew: how STEM skills make the difference in a male-dominated industry". Black Enterprise. 45: 35 – via Gale Academic OneFile.
7. "Pink Boots Collaboration Brew Day - Pinedale, Wyoming". www.pinedaleonline.com. Retrieved 2020-04-28.
8. "A Revolution Brewing". Open The Magazine. 2019-09-20. Retrieved 2020-04-28.
9. "Popular New Spiked Seltzer Made In Baldwinsville". spectrumlocalnews.com. Retrieved 2020-04-28.
10. Cazentre, Don. "Bud Light Seltzer is brewed exclusively at the Anheuser-Busch InBev brewery near Baldwinsville, N.Y." syracuse. Retrieved 2020-04-28.
11. "5 Women Running the Show Behind Iconic Male Brands". Marie Claire. 2014-06-09. Retrieved 2020-04-28.
12. "Meet the Women Brewing Your Favorite Beer". www.anheuser-busch.com. Retrieved 2020-04-28.
13. Hieronymus, Stan (2013-02-02). "Perspective: Making Bud & Clydesdales part of the conversation". Appellation Beer: Celebrating Beer From a Place. Retrieved 2020-04-28.
14. "ESSENCE Network: Beer Maker Rebecca Bennett on Brewing Success". Essence. Retrieved 2020-04-28.