Now, beer for menopause

Cracking open a cold one with the boys is probably the most common way of enjoying beer. And then there are some breweries that make beer specifically targeted at women. However, Joanne Francis, creative director and co-owner of The Portsmouth Brewery realised that women in the slightly older age bracket had been summarily excluded from most new beer types.

So, she designed Liberation, a type of beer designed for women experiencing menopausal symptoms and to ‘celebrate the liberating aspects of this stage of life.’ The brewery, in a post, announced that the beer had been designed after consultation with women health practitioners and herbalists to develop ingredients that can help relieve symptoms like sleeplessness, hot flashes and mood swings. 

A gruit style ale, liberation is golden straw in colour, with fruity, spicy, earthy flavours. It contains a combination of ingredients to help with hormone shift like motherwort, lemon balm, chamomile, stinging nettle, mugwort, rose, chickweed and damania. There’s also a small dose of saphir hops in the secondary fermentation for a pleasant tangerine note that helps with sleep.