Lidl is raising a glass to equality with the launch of the UK’s first gender-balanced beer aisle, giving female brewers and women-owned breweries equal shelf space alongside their male counterparts.
Scottish producers are at the heart of this initiative, with beers from Glasgow’s WEST, Edinburgh’s Stewart Brewing, Innis & Gunn, Dundee’s 71 Brewing, Aberdeen’s Fierce, and the Highlands’ Loch Lomond Brewing all featured.
The initiative, rolling out across 112 Lidl stores in Scotland from Thursday 28 August, highlights a brewing industry in transformation while celebrating its historical roots.
Traditionally, beer-making in Scotland was women’s work, with women brewing in households as a safe alternative to water. Over time, as brewing became commercialised, women’s role in the industry diminished—often limited to keeping production going during wartime or being portrayed in advertising, such as the infamous Tennent’s Lager Lovelies, where women were used as marketing rather than makers.
Now, Lidl is helping to reset the narrative. Not only will female brewers be given equal shelf space, but the retailer will also donate 50p from every beer sold in its Scottish Favourites range to a new scholarship at Heriot-Watt University’s International Centre of Brewing and Distilling. The Lidl Scholarship will help fund a female brewer’s qualification to the commercial level, creating new opportunities for the next generation.
Among the beers included are:
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- 71 Brewing – Radler Peachy (3% ABV) and Super Massive Black Hole Stout (7.2% ABV)
- Stewart Brewing – Jurassic Guava Infused Hazy IPA (5% ABV) and Fresh Hops of Bel-Air West Coast IPA (6.5% ABV)
- WEST – Velo Lemon Radler (2.7% ABV) and Wild WEST Unfiltered Lager (4.9% ABV)
- Fierce – Fancy Juice IPA (5% ABV), Dubai Chocolate Pistachio Stout (6.5% ABV) and Iron Brew Beer Cooler (4.5% ABV)
- Innis & Gunn – Tequila Cask Blonde (5.1% ABV) plus larger packs of Lager Beer and Ossian
- Loch Lomond Brewing – Big Mango Sour, Orange & Passionfruit (8% ABV) and Silvereye NZ DDH Pale (4.7% ABV)
Mara Bäcker Scott, Lidl’s Senior Buying Manager for Beer, described the project as “a significant moment in retail history”. She added: “Women have been an integral part of beer-making for centuries, and today they bring extraordinary skill, creativity and quality to every stage of the process.
“To be able to showcase that talent on our shelves, and know that every purchase will help create the first-ever Lidl Scholarship for a future female brewer, is something we’re incredibly proud of.”
The gender parity initiative will also be marked by a striking “pourtrait” – a photographic celebration of six leading female brewers in Scotland.
