Cheers with Nat

Today's guest is Lily Waite, Founder of The Queer Brewing Project.

As you'll hear, Lily wears a lot of hats – she's an artist, activist, beer writer and photographer, and with her newest project, a brewer!

Lily tells us how The Queer Brewing Project got started, what her day-to-day looks like now, both with the Project and outside of it, what she enjoys most about being a part of the beer industry, and plenty more.

Here she is…

Today's guest is Ellie Walsh, General Manager at BrewDog Canary Wharf.

Ellie tells us what it takes to run a bar, how her uni studies in film making are surprisingly relevant to her role today, what she enjoys most about being a part of the beer industry, and a whole lot more.

Here she is…

Today's guest is Louisa Ziane, Global Brand and Sustainability Director for Toast Ale.

You'll hear all about how Louisa helped get Toast off the ground and how her varied background – from law and accounting, to consulting and digital marketing – made her the perfect person for the job.

Louisa also tells us about Toast's mission and why it's so important to her and, of course, what she enjoys most about being a part of the beer industry.

Today's guest is Lucy Do, owner of The Dodo micropub in Hanwell, west London.

Lucy tells us what micropub is, what inspired her to open one, how she made it happen, and what she enjoys most about being a part of the beer industry.

Here she is…

Today's guest is Annabel Smith, a self-described professional beer taster. Annabel is an award-winning Beer Sommelier and offers tastings, trainings, and consultancy through her own business, BeerBelle. You'll hear about how Annabel discovered her love for beer, her journey from pub landlady to professional beer taster, and what she enjoys most about being a part of the beer industry. Here she is…

Today's guest is Francesca Slattery, Overseas Manager for The Five Points Brewing Company. Francesca has been a part of the Five Points team since 2016. She got her start at the brewery here in London, but when her personal circumstances changed and she relocated to Dublin... she brought the job with her!

For anyone wanting to know how to break into the beer industry, this is the episode for you. You'll hear about Francesca's resolution to have "a career in beer by the end of the year" and how she made it happen; how her role has changed over the years, including how she made the transition from London to Dublin with Five Points; and of course, what she enjoys most about being a part of the beer industry. Here she is...

Today's guest is Brigid Simmonds, Chief Executive of the British Beer & Pub Association, a role she's held for the past 10 years.

We talk about the many different aspects of Brigid's role, her previous work experience and how she got to the role she's in today, the accomplishment she's most proud of, and a whole lot more.

I will note that as Brigid represents many member breweries on behalf of the BBPA, she admitted it would be a bit too tough to narrow down just one beer of choice.

So we skipped the beer this time, but there's still plenty of chat!

Here she is…

Welcome back to Beer with Nat. On every episode, I share a beer and a chat with people who do what they love for a living... they work in the beer industry.

Come on back next week for the first episode of season two!

Today's guest is Anouk Lagae, President Core Europe for Duvel Moortgat - an independent, family-run Belgian brewery - a role she's held for the past two years, after being promoted from her previous role as Chief Marketing Officer.

After graduating with a degree in business engineering, Anouk held marketing and management roles at Unilever and Coca-Cola, the latter of which saw her travel the world – living in Brussels, Australia, and London - a "life-changing" experience, as she describes it.

After deciding to return to Belgium with her young family, Anouk set her sights on working for a Belgian company with international aims – enter Duvel Moortgat.

Despite having no beer background, Anouk tells us how she felt embraced by her new Duvel family, and in turn, how she embraced learning every detail about Duvel, which helped her to discover and fall in love with the beer.

We talk about her day-to-day role, how her new role in management differs from her previous role as CMO, why she loves marketing, and what drives her today.

Anouk tells me what it's like to be the first, and only, woman on the Duvel Moortgat management committee and about the sense of responsibility she feels to help support other women in the business and the industry more broadly.

We also talk about the best bits of her job, her interests outside of beer (and how those interests are now more relevant than ever with Duvel Moortgat's latest partnership), and, of course, what she enjoys most about being a part of the beer industry.

Here she is...

Full disclosure: I work with Anouk in my role as Marketing Manager at Duvel Moortgat UK

Today's guest is Nanna Guldbaek, Art Director for Norwegian brewery Lervig.

Although Nanna just gradated from her Industrial Design program in Denmark last year, she didn't wait until she finished university to get to work – balancing projects for uni while producing beer labels for Lervig.

Nanna's been working with Lervig for two years now, initially as a designer, then transitioning to her current role as Art Director.

She tells us how she met the Lervig team and how social media played a hand in helping her get the job.

You'll hear her describe her artistic style, what she's aiming to communicate through her designs – whether it's a certain mood or feeling that a particular beer might evoke – and how important both the look and feel of the labels are to her… she considers every dimension and every detail.

We also talk about what it's like to collaborate with other designers, to work beyond the beer label – creating immersive rooms at beer festivals, for example – and about Nanna's product design side-project… which also has to do with beer!

Outside of her role at Lervig, Nanna is collaborating with two other industrial designers to turn spent grain – the byproduct from brewing – into a new, sustainable material, using different bio-binders. The project is still in its early days, but she talks us through the progress they've made and their future plans.

We also talk about Nanna's non-stop travel of late, her interest in exploring and meeting new people, and what she loves most about being a part of the beer industry.

Here she is…