SHOREHAM, Vt. (AP) — Meghan Ireland always loved chemistry, but as a college freshman studying chemical engineering, she didn’t know she could channel her passion for science into the art of making whiskey.
It took stumbling across an article about a female chemical engineer who became a master whiskey distiller for something to click: Ireland’s fellow students could go into plastics and pharmaceuticals, she was going into whiskey.
“It was kind of like a connection of, ‘hey, I can see someone who looks like me, who has the same exact kind of education and background doing this job,’ and kind of opened it up as an option,” said Ireland, now the chief blender behind Vermont-based whiskey brand WhistlePig.
Ireland is among a growing number of women who have become leaders inside a traditionally male-dominated industry that has not always welcomed outsiders. Increasingly, women are launching their own brands and finding new ways to innovate in distilling and blending at a time when more women are drinking whiskey.
Women are often asked: ‘Do you even like whiskey?’
There is a common, lingering doubt among some male colleagues and consumers that the women gaining expertise in the industry even like whiskey. Becky Paskin, a journalist from the U.K. and founder of OurWhiskey Foundation, shared that she was asked that question while serving as a judge at a whiskey tasting event.
“It is a drink that comes with certain expectations around which gender drinks it and which gender makes it,” she said.
Paskin’s work includes creating stock images of women consuming whiskey that present them authentically, rather than as sexualized figures or stereotypes.
“The only images of women drinking whiskey were depicting them as being pregnant, drunk, naked; or pregnant, drunk and naked,” she added.
There’s a long history of women preserving and advancing whiskey
Whiskey-making has long been considered a masculine profession in America. However, industry experts emphasize that women have always played vital roles in distilling and were often key to its survival in the U.S. The first distilling instrument was created by Maria Hebraea, an alchemist from around the 2nd century.
Women notably managed distilleries in the 1800s in Kentucky, where Catherine Carpenter recorded the first known recipe for sour mash, now essential to American whiskey.
“There have always been women in bourbon,” said Susan Reigler, a bourbon expert. “But many of them have been behind the scenes.”
Women advance innovation and creativity in whiskey
Ireland has been managing consistency at WhistlePig since 2018, overseeing experimental batches that have earned acclaim. Together with Judy Hollis Jones, president of Buzzard’s Roost, they represent a new order of whiskey creators.
“I’ve had people say to me, ‘Oh, well, you don’t wear jeans, boots and a cowboy hat,’” Jones noted, emphasizing that whiskey enthusiasts come from diverse backgrounds. “We are very wide range of people that love bourbon.”
