Beer Hour: Amelie Tassin
Amelie Tassin tells Jessica Mason about how her roles as both the founder of Tipple Marketing, an agency that works with the beer and hospitality industry, as well as having founded Women In Beer, the collective representing women who work in the beer sector, have helped her push for equality and progress.
“I started working in the industry about 20 years ago in France. At the time, I was living in Paris, I was running a shop, and at the same time had a day job in marketing,” says Tassin as she explains how, initially, she had considered “a day job in the beer industry, or at least in the drinks industry”. Or potentially “setting up a marketing agency for the spirits industry in France. “Initially,” she reiterates, “that was the plan”.
Tassin looks up while thinking as she remembers a few of the defining moments that shaped her life from there.
“I came to the UK because my English was not very good, and to work in the industry meant that you needed to speak very good English. But I spent four months in Edinburgh and then I fell in love with the city and never left,” she smiles.
By then, Tassin highlights how she had decided that her experience in beer, and especially in beer and marketing, was really valuable, particularly for breweries in the UK. She notes how it was then that she “decided to pivot and started working in events, for breweries, and this led me to start the agency in January 2022. After having worked during lockdown for local breweries and being very much convinced that I didn’t want to have a boss anymore and wanted to work on my own terms, things began”.
Meeting people
As a means of forming a circle of friends, this is where Tassin took what she knew and loved and created what began as a networking circle, something that later developed to become the collective known as Women In Beer.
Prior to the agency, when Tassin had moved to the UK, back in 2018, she hadn’t found her tribe yet. There were still so many things she could do, but she needed to get to know people.
She explains: “I started Women In Beer as a way of meeting people and meeting women who liked beer. I had no friends. I was 37 at the time, and it’s not easy to meet new people, and when you’ve not been at uni here, or you’ve not had an actual full time job where you can meet colleagues, it made sense.”
Going from there, what grew from conversations became an opportunity to speak up and Tassin reveals: “I started Women In Beer as a meet-up group to basically meet other women that wanted to go to the pub. Then we started doing some events with local breweries and people kept asking me: ‘Do you work in the industry?’ And saying: ‘ Oh, that’s weird, as a woman’. And: ‘Oh, you like beer?’ It really started to get on my nerves, so I decided to start the first Women In Beer Festival. Why? Because people did not know there were a lot of women working in the beer industry in any roles, and I wanted to highlight them and to prove to a lot of men at the pub that there’s often a woman behind the beer that they drink.”
Working together
The initiative took on motion and as Tassin set about revealing more and more women working diligently and quietly within the sector, it became understood that each of the women could essentially work together, learn from one another and strengthen their own place within the beer industry too.
“It started a bit like that, and then we did the second edition of the festival and then we launched the mentorship programme. And then the awards last year. It has been a way of trying to highlight people that are already working here,” she explains.
Asking what her ultimate goals are from that point, Tassin considers this and says: “I just want to create role models for women that want to join the industry, But I also want to give to them and offer them support. And, if they are already here, I don’t want them to leave. I don’t want them to have a bad experience within the beer industry, so that they feel they should never want to leave it.”
The crucial factor here is that Tassin’s incentive to boost female presence and empowerment within the beer industry hits at a time when the sector is failing them and not exactly flying the flag for it seeming like a good fit.
“The idea is to make it easier for them than it’s been for us,” she grins and offers that kind of knowing look that women reserve for one another when they can see they share the same challenge. “There’s no reason it should keep being difficult. I don’t like that we keep losing talents that are crushed by the industry. That’s why it’s important to look after the new ones, the ones that still have the energy,” she says.
Inclusivity and diversity
At Tipple, Tassin works alongside beer sommelier, awards judge and marketeer Daisy Turnell and the duo work in symbiosis, recognising and appreciating one another’s strengths.
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“We organise events, we do social media, we spread the word about the collective, we organise a festival, we organise awards, we work well together,” she explains. Tassin adds: “It’s obviously easier for us to to put our energy into building those events and promoting them as well” and points out that working on a range of different projects “has been a fantastic opportunity” as well as a way to build an “external network” and “find people who want to work with people offering a marketing perspective”.
“We’ve done collaborations with breweries around the UK” and “we have definitely found clients and contacts through this kind of thing as well, which has been very precious,” she points out.
“Diversity in general is something that we live and breathe into the company anyway. So it’s something that we have always spoken about. It’s in our values and our philosophy. It’s something that we bring to our clients, even if they don’t ask. It’s the way we work. We are inclusive in everything we do, and we tend to work with people who want to be inclusive as well. We help them to be more open and be more welcoming to everyone, whether it’s in their social media or any events they organise,” Tassin explains.
“We are like establishing a Code of Conduct, especially when we work for events,” she notes and adds that “for example, it’s something that we have a checklist for and something that we are increasing because we believe in increasing diversity and inclusivity for all beer events as well”.
‘Create your own opportunities’
In terms of Tassin’s beer preferences, she admits: “I do love cask. I’m famously a supporter of the traditional British style. I really like that. I love bitter, it’s often my go-to choice at the pub – something malty.”
Tassin talks openly about how she feels driven by living in the now and is determined to make the most out of life, to stay brave and open to carving out a new path.
“You only live once,” she insists. “So, don’t wait to be asked to do things, just do all of them. Create your own opportunities. It’s really important. You never know what life’s going to be made of. And I, 10 years ago, would not have imagined that I would be living in another country and running a company, but here I am.”
“I mean, it’s been difficult. It’s not always been easy. The beer industry is a fantastic community with a lot of absolutely fantastic people within it. But it’s not always been like that, and we need to remember that as well,” she reminds.
Challenges
“Being a woman working in a male-dominated industry, you’ve been asked to prove everything you do. You are questioned on every decision. It means you are always reaffirming, proving, demonstrating with the data to show everything that you know. And that you know what you’re talking about. It’s obviously a bit frustrating, because there is a double standard. We see that a lot of our male counterparts are just not asked that of themselves. If they have no experience, or have never worked in the industry then it’s fine and they are not questioned. But what if you have 15 or 20 years experience in the beer industry and people still say: ‘Oh, are you sure about that?’ I still need to say: ‘Yeah, I think I am’. Women in beer are constantly overlooked. We’re constantly having to prove everything, and it is exhausting. But I still think we are all lucky to work in an industry that is built upon passion, which is why we stay.”
Is it straightforward to get to work with others while being so overlooked? Tassin considers this for a moment and says she thinks it is getting easier, but has taken time. That showing up as herself has always been important. She says: “It ‘s definitely easier now that people know the work I’m doing with Women in Beer as well as all the work Daisy and I do. It tends to get easier for us as we get older and get to work with clients who know us. Otherwise, people come to us because they know we’re authentic. They know we have values.”
Have there been any lessons along the way? “I’m French, and I have less filter than a lot of people here in Britain,” Tassin says laughing and explains that these days she tends to “be a bit more soft and try to be a bit more political, maybe. I would say I have learned to get smarter and so I approach conflicts and difficult situations or difficult people differently”.
Essential progress
Tassin knows the importance of learning lessons and highlights how this element of the collective and its mentorships are “essential” for progress.
“For people who are new to the industry it is massively essential to have a network of women who are able to give advice. To be able to give networking opportunities to people who have just started is a massive shortcut for a lot of them, and to know that they are surrounded by people who have the same issues or similar issues is useful. Whether you’re a young brewer or just the only woman in the brewhouse, if you feel you can’t talk to anyone about a particular issue, it is important to have a community – women who will surround you and give you support,” says Tassin, adding: “With support, I think it allows women to go further. I would have loved to have had that kind of support at the start.”
Why? By her own confession, Tassin insists: “I am “passionate, stubborn and impatient”. With that she reiterates that it is clear she wants things to change for women working in beer. Her verve and commitment to this has, essentially, made her part of the solution. The change that has been such a long time coming. She wants women to be seen, heard and respected for what they do and what they know as well as how much they contribute. Perhaps those traits of being “passionate, stubborn and impatient” should be looked upon as inherent qualities. They have assisted her quest. At least, let’s hope so.
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