Michele Lowney is breaking barriers by brewing beer

Brewing is definitely a male-dominated world, despite the fact that the first brewers were historically women. With a female head brewer, however, The Grizzly Paw Brewing Company of Canmore is on the forefront of change. Michele Lowney is a trailblazer, and she’s expanding the female faction through her membership in the Pink Boots Society, an organization for women beer professionals.

A native of New York, Lowney is a graduate of the prestigious Siebel Brewing College in Chicago, and has a career that includes 10-plus years of well-travelled brewing experience, including two of Scotland’s finest breweries: Heather Ale Ltd. and Caledonian.

Lowney is an activist to the core. Through her membership in the Pink Boots Society, she educates and encourages women to take an interest in what she feels is the best beverage in the world — beer. Respected by her peers, Lowney was a judge and an educator at last year’s Great American Beer Festival.

Back in Canmore, she regularly hosts ladies-only evenings, where she introduces the women in the area to the cornucopia of flavours that all 68-plus styles of beer have to offer. Registration is not required, but call for details, as the events happen either Wednesday or Thursday evenings. A small Calgary contingent regularly shows up.

The Grizzly Paw Brewing Company is well worth the short drive for any beer lover — men, too. Besides a regular cast of six house brews, Lowney works her magic on a host of seasonal specialties. During my recent visit, I tried an oak-aged barley wine, an English mild and a huge India Pale Ale. Lowney is excited to brew a host of summer seasonal beers — including a German Hefeweizen (wheat beer) — geared towards wasted days on The Grizzly Paw’s stellar patio.

Although not everyone goes to a brewpub for the beer, The Grizzly Paw still offers a relaxing stop on the way back from the mountains, or a tranquil day trip from Calgary. If the weather isn’t patio friendly, the upstairs of this quaint pub has fabulous views of Canmore’s famous Three Sisters peaks.

The Grizzly Paw also has something I wish brewpubs in Calgary would emulate: a mug club. It’s cool to see assigned mugs hanging throughout the pub. Some of them appear to have bar tabs jutting out of them. When I asked about the mug club I was told it’s mostly for Canmore locals.

For those with children or tea totallers, Lowney also brews a line of sodas. The five house sodas include orange pop, black cherry, root beer, ginger beer and cream soda. In this column I normally write about booze, but the Paw’s orange pop induced childhood visions of ice cream vans and Creamsicles.

The Grizzly Paw is just finishing a huge expansion and hopes to have its products available throughout the province again. Currently only a few select stores in Calgary carry its beers. There is a Grizzly Paw store in Canmore, across from the pub, that sells all of its products.