Steel Bender brewer decisively cements her place on the staff

As the late Ruth Bader Ginsberg wisely said, “Women belong in all places where decisions are being made.”

And that, of course, includes breweries, where countless decisions are made every single day. Thousands of years ago brewing was a female-dominated craft, but the widespread industrialization of brewing over the past few centuries caused it to shift to a male-dominated trade. The boom of craft brewing in recent decades has created more opportunities for women to jump back into the brewer role, with many women in our state of New Mexico leading the way.

We sat down with Marita Weil, a brewer at Steel Bender Brewyard, to talk about her brewing career, what it is like being a woman in the back of house, and what advice she has for others who may be looking for a career in the industry.

What sparked your interest in brewing?

I was in Atlanta for about eight years and moved back to Albuquerque in 2013, an

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