Loy Maierhauser Shines Bright
The Montana-based beer educator is paving her own path.
Thank you to our sponsor!
From full-scale brand building to ongoing label solutions and creative services, Stout Collective in Chicago, Illinois is a comprehensive resource for brewery and beverage partners. Learn more about them, their work, and how they’re building a more visually interesting beer world at stoutcollective.com.
Interested in becoming a Prohibitchin’ sponsor? Drop me a line and let me know! (*More info below.)
It didn’t fully click in my brain until my thirties that we’re all just making up how to adult. People invent the jobs they want, decide to climb mountains for the hell of it, pursue hobbies simply to experience joy—things that, at first, aren’t to build wealth or clout. They’re simply to provide enrichment in healthy, holistic, happy ways. Some humans are better than others at shrugging off society’s expectations and creating their own singularly unique and beautiful existences. From what I can tell, Loy Maierhauser is one of those people.
I don’t always have to look far for the next Prohibitchin’ feature. In Loy’s case, I just had to look at my inbox.
“Loy is one of the most brilliant women I've ever met,” read the first email nomination. “I can't put into words how awesome she is.” The second read just as effusively. “In case you are in search of wonderful Montana people to feature in Prohibitchin'... Loy just makes me so happy to talk to.” One peek at Loy’s Instagram page as @yourbestbeerfriend and it’s clear the nominators are onto something.
Loy is COO at MAP Brewing in Bozeman, Montana, but she’s also an Advanced Cicerone, Certified BJCP beer judge, and co-founder of Bozeman Craft Beer Week with Jesse Bussard. She’s taught school through Teach for America on the Rosebud Reservation in South Dakota, and oh, by the way, did you know her family owns a zoo in South Dakota?
“I sort of always thought—even until maybe four or five years ago—in the back of my mind that I would end up going home and running the family business,” laughs Loy on our call. “[But] I’m pretty set on the beer trajectory.”
That trajectory began in college, when she was studying the “irrelevant but enjoyable” field of art history at the University of Oregon. As her roommates' 21st birthday loomed, “her parents gifted her a homebrewing kit,” she explains. They started brewing together, entering homebrewing contests almost immediately.
“The feedback was horrendous,” Loy laughs. “But I remember getting the score sheets back and thinking to myself how cool it would be to be a beer judge.”
Once the beer judge bug bit, she started studying for both the BJCP and Cicerone exams, partly out of interest, but partly also out of a desire to be taken seriously. When she started looking for jobs at breweries around 2014, she found herself struggling.
“I didn’t have any experience other than homebrewing, so I could not get a foot in the door. I needed to prove myself, and since I couldn’t get a job to prove myself, I felt like getting certifications was the way that I would prove I was worthy,” says Loy.
For a time, she was one of the few Certified Cicerones in the entirety of Montana—not necessarily for lack of widespread interest, but difficulty accessing study materials, groups, and exams. “In Montana, we don’t have a lot of opportunities for that kind of thing,” she says. “I have to travel to [other] cities to do that kind of stuff.” Considering Montana ranks third in breweries per capita, according to the Brewers Association, Loy hopes that her work will increase opportunities for others to access educational materials and community.
“I recently got the ability through the Cicerone program to proctor Level 2 tasting exams. That’s a neat opportunity that I’m able to provide for people in our state so they don’t have to spend the financial burden of traveling to Seattle or Chicago to take the exam,” she says.
That same desire to share knowledge is what caused her to launch @yourbestbeerfriend, what she describes as a vehicle for education through social media. However, Loy admits, using social media has its drawbacks. “I felt like I was creating some bad habits, like disconnecting me from the real life people that I am with everyday at work and at home,” she says. Now, it’s more of a window into her world and work, which now includes putting together the first Montana Beer Awards—an event she believes is long overdue.
She points to places like Tennessee, Texas, Oregon, and Washington as states that have already launched statewide beer awards. Come February, Montana will be on that list, thanks to a partnership with the Montana Brewers Association. She’s well poised to organize such an event; Bozeman Craft Beer Week proved to be a pivotal moment in her career and honed the abilities that led her to where she is today.
At MAP, Loy moved from being a tasting room manager focusing on marketing and events to production, before COVID adjustments shifted her back into the tasting room. But after a few months of dealing with the amplified challenges of customer service post-COVID, Loy asked to return to where her heart truly lay: production. She remained there until she was offered the chance to have a hand in running the entire company as COO. Bittersweet though it was, it was an opportunity she couldn’t refuse.
“I wasn't necessarily ready to leave production, and it actually took me a while to be able to talk about it without crying because I just missed brewing so much,” Loy admits. “But the opportunity to have a bigger impact on the direction of the company just felt like something that I couldn't pass up.”
That impact is already being felt—MAP introduced a sabbatical policy and launched annual core value awards to show appreciation for the team. But it’s the chance to shape a positive culture that she hopes leaves a lasting legacy.
“Take care of yourself, because I think when you are goal-driven or have something you really want to achieve, it can be easy to lose sight of yourself in that process,” she says. “No job is worth your mental, emotional, or physical well being.”
Life is more than work, and building a rich life can be hard. We’re literally all just making it up as we go along. But when you have someone like Loy in your corner, it seems like it just might be a little easier.
Follow Loy on Instagram at @yourbestbeerfriend and stay tuned for more information on the inaugural Montana Craft Beer Week here.
What’s Going On
‘Tis the season for shopping and I’m not above shamelessly plugging a sale. You can get 15% off everything at my store (which is really just cute totes and signed copies of my book) through December 10 by using the code CIDER4LIFE at checkout. Also, the fine folks at Press then Press put together an amazing cider + book bundle with six or 12 cider options. This is definitely a Cool Gift Idea™ for the aspiring or current cider lover in your life.
What I’m Writing
I’m working on a print feature about San Diego’s Little Saigon neighborhood restaurants, and let’s just say eating my way through the list has been one of the brighter—and more delicious—spots of recent weeks. Now the real question: bún bò Huế or pho? (My answer: why not both?)
*Sponsorship Opportunities
Prohibitchin’ relies on sponsors like Stout Collective in order to keep this award-winning newsletter free for readers. Stout has sponsored Prohibitchin’ on and off for some time (along with Rev Nat’s Hard Cider), and their financial support is the only reason I’m able to keep this going.
With that said, I’m looking for a 2024 sponsor to ensure Prohibitchin’ can keep publishing each month. There are no contracts, set prices, or timeframes for sponsorship—it’s more of a partnership based on supporting independent journalism and diversity across beverage alcohol (two things the world could use more of, IMHO). Subscriber numbers have steadily and organically grown since moving to Substack in November 2020, and I plan to keep that going. If you, your business, or anyone you know might be interested, please reach out to me at beth@bethdemmon.com to see how we could work together.
Do you know of a woman or non-binary person working in beverage alcohol who hasn’t seen the spotlight—and should? Nominate them for a future feature!
The Prohibitchin’ logo was designed by Jess Hicks Design.