If you’re a fan of craft drinks, you’re probably familiar with the Central Pennsylvania Tasting Trail, made up of fourteen Center County craft drink producers—wineries, breweries, distilleries, and siderias—that are part of an organized “passport” system that attracts both locals and tourists.

To participate in the Trail program, customers purchase a passport that is stamped at each location for one year. Along with bragging rights and souvenirs or samples from each business, passport holders receive an exclusive commemorative hoodie upon completion of the Trail.

Trail has become increasingly popular in recent years, thanks in large part to the Women who have spearheaded the creation and management of Trail itself, as well as the roles of owners, managers, and producers in individual establishments.

Paving the way

The Happy Valley Adventure Bureau (then known as the Central Pennsylvania Visitors Bureau) developed the concept for a local tasting trail in 2015.

Lucy Rogers, tasting room manager for Big Spring Spirits, represented the distillery at Trail’s early meetings and quickly rose to a leadership position, serving as the organization’s president for five years.

“I just accepted it because I liked the idea of ​​being a part of it. I really believed in it, I thought it was a good way to tell that we exist and that it is a good marketing tool,” she says.

Right from the start, she saw room for growth, expanding what was originally just a month-long event to a year-round program and improving incentives for passport holders.

Aside from her full-time leadership role at Big Spring Spirits, running Trail and hosting the annual Craft Beverage Expo has been a lot of juggling for Rogers, and she says the same was true for other members of the self-governing organization. .

“It has become too difficult for people running a business to really try to launch a second business and pay attention to what needs to be done,” she says. “You would have the same conversations over and over again in committee meetings—lots of kicks along the way.”

So, in 2020, the organization decided to hire someone to manage the Trail. Enter Celeste Powell.

Celeste Powell, Marketing Manager, Central Pennsylvania Tasting Trail (Photo by Chuck Fong)

Powell was a perfect fit for the role, with a background in the nonprofit world and experience with Trail as the former general manager of the Happy Valley Brewing Company.

“Celesta is great because she has worked for nonprofits so she knows how to write grants and has a lot of ideas on how to improve traffic and marketing,” Rogers says. “He’s grown so much and Celesta is a key part of that.”

In fact, since taking office, Powell has helped grow the passport program from 350 sold in 2019 to nearly 800 in 2022. from Trail members) for the first time in its 55-year history.

For her part, Powell credits Trail’s success to the women who play a critical role in their business, whether they’re manager, owner or manufacturer.

“Women are doers. … They are customer advisors, staff advisors, making sure the product is great, getting everyone moving and doing it all with a smile,” says Powell.

Lifestyle Business

As tasting room manager at Big Spring Spirits, Rogers handles everything from sales and marketing to HR and event management, even coming up with a new business model offering delivery services and ready-to-go cocktails during the early COVID shutdown.

Other women in leadership roles at Trail include Amy Seaton of Elk Creek Café and Linda Nguyen, who handles sales and special events for Barrel 21, Otto’s and Keewaydin Cider.

According to Rogers, the hospitality industry in general, at least in leadership positions, is dominated by women. Ownership, on the other hand, is not.

Nationwide, only one in three breweries is owned by a woman, according to Forbes magazine, while in Napa Valley, California, only fourteen percent of wineries are run by a woman. It’s harder to find statistics on siderins and distilleries, but almost everyone agrees that for owners and producers, the world of craft drinks is male-dominated.

Still, according to Powell, nearly half of the businesses on the Tasting Trail in Central Pennsylvania are owned or co-owned by women, in part because they are mostly small, family-owned businesses.

Linda Weaver is the owner and CEO of Mount Nittany Vineyard and Winery, which she acquired in 2014 from her parents, Joe and Betty Carroll. Her husband, Steve, runs the vineyard, while Linda, a former banker, handles sales, purchasing, hiring, and housekeeping.

“It’s kind of a lifestyle business. Without the full support of your spouse, it would be difficult,” says Weaver.

Barb Christ and her husband Alvin Stewart opened the Happy Valley Vineyard and Winery together after retiring from their position as professor of plant pathology at the University of Pennsylvania.

Like Weaver, Christ mainly handles administrative and office duties, while Stewart manages a ten-acre vineyard and produces wine. But she says, “I’m sort of a jack-of-all-trades. help in the vineyard; When it comes to harvesting, I’m sort of a crew chief. If I need help in terms of being on the bottling line or helping with the pumps, I’m always there.”

Krist served as president of the Pennsylvania Wine Association in 2020 and she says she was encouraged by what she saw regarding the role women play in the sector.

“There are actually quite a few women in the industry in Pennsylvania who are in more than sales positions. Many women are actually winemakers. So there it is,” she says.

Krist and Stewart are currently teaching their two grandchildren the art and science of winemaking, and one of the grandchildren has expressed interest in taking over the business when the couple retires.

This “all in the family” arrangement is common among Trail wineries, Powell says. The Pisano Winery in Milheim is owned by Andy and Patricia Pisano; Seven Mountains is owned by Scott and Mary Ann Babb. University Winery is owned by Jeff Prok, but his mother and father, Natalie and Jinks, play a key role in running the business.

The Axemann Brewery is owned by another wife and husband team, Dorothea and Rod Stahl.

Rod manages the brewing, while Dorothea manages social media, stocks the Gear Shop, pays bills, sends invoices, coordinates charity events, and handles other administrative matters. She credits the pair’s complementary strengths and personalities to the extent that the brewery has flourished.

“When Rod mentioned that he wanted to try to open a brewery, I said, “I don’t think it will fail. You focus on the details to make a really great beer, but I’m focused on having a great experience,” says Stahl.

While Rod brought her technical background as an engineer and longtime homebrewer, Dorothea brought her many community connections, including eight years on the public college school board.

“I am a social person. This part of me is an asset. My experience and my involvement with the community really helps when you need the community to show up for you,” she says.

The community really came to Stahls when they opened in the midst of a raging pandemic in 2020, quickly snapping up the first 100 cases of Blue Stripe ever stocked from distributor WR Hickey Beer in response to a post by Dorothea on social media.

“It really warmed my heart,” she says. She notes that other women who play key roles at Axemann include Rachel Gobin, assistant brewer, and Christina Roth, marketing director.

trail makers

Axemann Brewery’s neighbor is Titan Hollow, home of Mad McIntosh Cidery and Alloy Kitchen. Along with her silent associates, Angela Elias is the owner as well as the main cider producer.

After a long career in the visual effects industry in Hollywood (“I guess I’m leaning towards a male-dominated career”), Elias returned east after completing Men in Black 3.

Her interest in winemaking led her to become a cider maker (“Cider is just apple wine,” she explains) at the Empire Cider Company in New York. Ultimately, she decided to go her own way and felt that the production space available at Titan Energy Park in Bellefonte was perfect for her vision.

“It’s so masculine and industrial with concrete and metals and rust, but we approached the vibe with a very feminine touch. We filled it with antiques, velvet and beautiful fabrics. It was fun to rethink the space from a feminine perspective,” she says.

Elias believes that a woman’s perspective is part of what makes women good drink makers.

“I think we bring a sensibility to it that men don’t always hone or bring to the fore. Studies show that women have better taste or are more sensitive to things that are better for making wine and cider.”

Barrel 21’s Erica Unruh, Center County’s only female head of distillery, shares this belief.

“The process of creating a perfume requires creativity, attention to detail, problem solving, patience, as well as refined taste, which makes this industry ideal for women,” she says.

Unruh came to Barrel 21 after earning her certification from Moonshine University in Kentucky and learning through trial and error while working at her uncle’s distillery in Wyoming. She recently entered the Discovery’s Moonshiners: Master Distiller competition, which she says will go live soon. She was hired by the show in part because they wanted more female distillers to be featured.

“Being a woman in a male-dominated industry can be an advantage because people want to support women and are looking for ways to support women in these areas,” says Unruh. “But we often have to work harder to earn the same respect and recognition as our male counterparts. Our skills, abilities and knowledge are often questioned, and we generally need to express ourselves in ways that men don’t.”

Eliash is surrounded by a mostly female staff, including manager Ann Bliss and Lori Sabatino, owner of Alloy Kitchen. She believes that this only strengthens the business.

“Because the company is owned and run by women, we were looking for a way to build a business that would bring our feminine values ​​to the fore,” she says. “This can be done with respect for our primary goals in life—family, friends, happiness, safety—not just the bottom line of a spreadsheet. I think this is what women bring to the table. It’s a different way of doing business.” T&G

Karen Walker is a freelance writer at State College.

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