Stone Brewing’s Ulrich Looks to the Future of Pink Boots Society

Saying she wants to further expand the nonprofit side of the Pink Boots Society to help further the growth of women in the craft beer industry, new PBS president Laura Ulrich is looking forward to being in Philadelphia this week for the annual Craft Brewers Conference.

PBS will meet Thursday. Ulrich, who is a small batch brewer at Stone Brewing and a unanimous choice to replace fellow founder Teri Fahrendorf as president, called for the newly elected Board of Directors for the all-women club to continue its mission: to educate and advance women’s careers in the craft beer industry.

“That will never change,” she told Brewer Magazine. “One of my personal goals is to be able to take things from maybe a young adolescent to a mature woman.

“I want to put in an infrastructure and framework to grow the non-profit so in a few years the board members can hand [it] off to other young women that want to be involved in the organization.”

Ulrich will be officially introduced Thursday in Philadelphia to more than 100 members of the roughly 2,700 member organization, attending the society’s women-only meeting.

Along with introducing Ulrich and going over official club business, Ulrich said a few members will speak as part of fulfilling their PBS scholarships with a “Pay It Forward” presentation. Other members, part of the recent Big Boots Brew Day, will share their experiences. The local Philadelphia chapter of PBS will also speak.

Fahrendorf and Ulrich met more than a decade ago and it was the two of them who helped start this organization.

Fahrendorf will continue to be an integral part of PBS, but she is stepping down from her role she has held for nearly nine years in order to focus on her family and career as center manager at Great Western Malting.

“I am thrilled that Laura was voted in as president by the Board,” Fahrendorf said in a release. “Laura has been here from the beginning, and indeed she was the first young woman brewer I met in 2007 who inspired me to start Pink Boots Society. She is the right person at the right time, and she brings a fresh perspective and deep commitment to PBS.”

Ulrich has been an integral PBS member since its inception, holding a number of key positions in the organization, including Scholarship Committee Coordinator. Additionally, Ulrich has been the PBS SoCal/San Diego chapter leader since 2010.

“[The Board] thought that I would be ideal since I am a brewer and part of the founding of this society,” Ulrich said. “To their eyes it made sense, to me it was like, “oh no! Are you sure?'” she joked. “I think with the help of everybody and the Board we will be able to realize our vision, what we want done and how we envision how Pink Boots will go on.”

As a part of the Stone’s small batch team, Ulrich is responsible for creating specialty beers, brewing pilot batches, research and development and producing cask-conditioned beers. Her position at Stone also involves maintaining the barrel-aged beer program at Stone’s barrel warehouse, which stores the inventory of more than 1,400 beer-filled oak barrels previously used for spirits and wines.

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