Ayla Kapahi Doesn't Settle

The Tucson-based brewer keeps pushing for intersectionality and improvement in craft beer.

Jul 04, 2023

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Thanks to her identities as first generation Punjabi on her father’s side and second generation Mexican on her mother’s, Ayla Kapahi has a unique perspective on what success means. In fact, she says it took years (“and a lot of therapy!”) to be happy with who and where she is today. Ayla has been the head brewer at Borderlands Brewing Company in Tucson, Arizona since 2018, helping to create Arizona’s first all-female production team, a feat she says happened organically and can happen anywhere. From her cross-border collaborations to her desire to deepen intersectionality in the women’s brewing space, Ayla has a lot to say.

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The University of California, Davis Brewing Program was supposed to be a fun elective, nothing more, on Ayla’s undergraduate path towards earning a Bachelor of Arts in psychology. But the brewing bug’s bite was strong. It stayed in the back of her mind as she earned a Master of Science in human development and family studies at the University of Arizona, and kept simmering as she worked with LGBTQIA+ women to cultivate safe and inclusive approaches to mental and sexual health.

Pursuing research and creating community as part of the queer community are ongoing and ironclad intentions she brought to her work at Borderlands. Heading a team of all women may seem unusual to some, but it’s something Ayla says she didn’t consciously realize was happening at first.

“It’s silly to say, but it took me a year of working in our production facility when suddenly I looked around, and I’m thinking ‘I see women doing everything. There’s a woman working in our lab, brewing our beer, doing the kegging… wait a second… I don’t think this is common!’”

She laughs at the memory now, but says it took some time to figure out how to balance a desire to promote their setup as an achievable goal for others against seeming performative. But after hearing comments like “I don’t care if the beer is brewed by women—I just care if it’s a good beer,” over and over and over again, Ayla knew she had to speak up.

“People say it isn’t a big deal, but I feel like it’s a big deal,” she says. “It fueled us wanting to talk about it.”

Ayla and her team decided to announce themselves with more than just words. Since 2019, Borderlands had been working on a cross-border collaboration with women brewers in Mexico. In early 2020, Las Hermanas was officially born.

The beer itself, a hazy IPA, was more than just the fastest-selling beer Borderlands ever produced. “That project was the announcement of many different things,” she says. It an opportunity to connect with women in beer—especially brown and queer women—as well as a catalyst towards correcting some of the misconceptions about Mexican craft beer that even she admits she harbored.

“I really didn't know very much about the Mexican craft beer industry until we started pursuing these projects, so I unfortunately had negative stereotypes about the quality of the craft,” says Ayla. “It's the same stereotypes that a lot of folks in the U.S. have today.”

One thing that particularly stuck out to her was the level of brewing education women brewers in Mexico have compared to the U.S. “The women that we have worked with in Mexico have their master's degrees in brewing science, or they’ve completed internships in brewing internships throughout Europe. That’s not as common in the U.S.—most of us can start from a homebrew perspective and work our way up,” explains Ayla. The discovery was eye-opening, and the quality of beer and conversations kept the momentum going.

The second iteration of Las Hermanas launched in September 2022 as a West Coast IPA, with Mexico City-based brewer Marianna Dominguez from Cervecera Macaria spearheading efforts along with Ayla. But since then, the collaboration has evolved from simply building kinship and improving consumer perception of craft beer from Mexico. It opened up lines of support and communication Ayla says didn’t exist before, and are sorely needed by marginalized communities like queer women and non-binary people working in beer.

“We started to realize there's more to this collaboration—it's really prompted us to think about how we've been able to support each other across the border in different situations,” she says, pointing to movements like #MeToo that function differently in the U.S. and Mexico. Las Hermanas has helped foster conversations, often vulnerable and painful ones, that might not have happened otherwise or may have lacked nuance across different identities.

That lack of nuance and intersectionality is something Ayla says needs to keep changing in the craft beer community, even within seemingly progressive organizations like the Pink Boots Society. She joined Pink Boots eight years ago and helped launch a Southern Arizona chapter in 2021, but it took a few years to feel fully comfortable in the women’s educational group.

“The first Pink Boots event I went to I think was at CBC five years ago… I don’t remember seeing anyone who was not white at the meeting,” she recalls. “I remember thinking ‘Am I the only brown person in this room?’ There were almost 100 people in this huge conference center room and it just felt weird to me. Some of the topics that we were talking about, it just felt like I and my communities couldn't relate to them.”

She points to a lack of discussion about any LGBTQIA+ issues as specifically troubling at the time, as well as discrepancies in the advice given for different scenarios in the workplace. “I remember listening to some of the strategies and tactics that they were talking about in terms of supporting yourself and defending yourself as a woman in the industry,” she says. “I felt like I couldn't apply those to myself because they were only talking about one identity.”

Despite her discomfort, Ayla stayed a member in order to improve from within. “If I'm complaining about something that's important to me, I feel like it's my responsibility to be part of the change,” she explains, which is why she eventually decided to co-found the Southern Arizona chapter. Still, she occasionally finds herself getting into bureaucratic skirmishes about hot-button issues, like fundraising for access to abortion or being told to remain apolitical. (Not possible!)

“It’s not perfect,” she admits. “But I am proud of how Pink Boots has evolved over time… that’s how a social justice mindset works. You keep going, and it’s never enough.”

Knowing she’s chasing an impossible goal doesn’t stop her. It simply motivates her to bring in others to join the fight. “Nobody gets to where they are on their own,” promises Ayla. “Leaders aren’t born. They don’t just appear. They’re made.” It’s clear that she’s one strong leader still in the making.

Keep up with Ayla on Instagram at @aylakapahi or connect with her via LinkedIn.

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Ayla Kapahi Doesn't Settle

The Tucson-based brewer keeps pushing for intersectionality and improvement in craft beer.

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