If you want women to drink beer, whatever you do, don't call it "bitter". Try "brunette", "blonde" or "golden" instead, or mention "floral", "honey" and "caramel" flavours.
Finding the right words to describe real ale is an important business; even more so when attracting new consumers. Women are conditioned from quite young to think bitter is not for them.
And then it never features in their repertoire of drinks. In fact, women are turning to real ale in ever-growing numbers. In the space of one year, the number of women drinkers trying real ale has nearly doubled from 16 to 30 per cent, following a concerted effort by the Campaign for Real Ale Camra to make the drink less blokesy.
Now there are 1. Research showed many women wouldn't even try real ale because they didn't know what it was, where to start or because they thought it would taste too bitter. Women were turned off by the misconception that real ales are alcohol-heavy. In fact, some are as low as 3.
So bring on the golden beers with names such as Organic Honey Dew, Waggledance or the award-winning Triple Chocoholic chocolate stout — a dark ale which Smith declared "blew my socks off when I first tasted it". While connoisseurs will lead real ale beginners towards the lighter, fruitier brews, in blind tastings women in fact also like the darker porters. And increasingly, brewers are accompanying their ale with tasting notes for fledgling drinkers.
