Woman Named Beer Banned from Male Only Beer Competition

With the last name Beer you’d think Rachel Beer was destined to make a good brew.  Sadly, she may never know because the homebrewer was banned from a popular tasting competition in her native New Zealand due to being a woman.

Beer was told by event officials that she could enter her brew, a tipple named Beer’s Beer, but it wouldn’t be judged.

The 36-year-old told the New Zealand Herald, “There’s no point entering a beer if it’s not going to be judged whether it’s gold or mud.”

Following up on the story the paper contacted New Zealand’s human right’s office.  They said:

On the face of it, the competition may be breaching the Human Rights Act, but in the absence of a complaint and full details of the competition, the commission is unable to comment any further.”

Event organizers say they are looking into opening the competion up to women next year because after all:

The President of the Brewers’ Guild of New Zealand, Ralph Bungard, said the rule was ridiculous because traditionally it was a woman’s job to brew the beer, just as it was to bake the bread. “It was a very female profession,” he said.