Katie McBarron has been at the core of Out of Office (OOO) Taproom and Brewery since its beginning in July 2022. Her job mainly centres around running production, running ‘Beer Club’ events and hosting tours of her brewery. Her rise through the company started as a brewer and was promoted to Head Brewer quickly after starting. Katie was a student in Manchester when she first started attending beer events, and began thinking that she could bring the new-found love of brewing back to Belfast in some capacity. She began posting on UK Facebook forums and started looking for jobs, first working for Boundary and then OOO, where all products were carefully made by Katie’s one woman show.
Katie was a student in Manchester when she first started attending beer events, and began thinking that she could bring the new-found love of brewing back to Belfast in some capacity. She began posting on UK Facebook forums and started looking for jobs, first working for Boundary and then OOO, where all products were carefully made by Katie’s one woman show.
“It can be a struggle having so much work to do as one person in the brewery, but I now have an assistant once weekly which helps me get through work quicker. The work/life balance isn’t great but it’s getting better. Jonny, the venue manager does all the Duty and legal paperwork which allows me to focus on making creative beers. The pros for me are that I get creative freedom and complete ownership of the draft beer. The communication is great as it’s just essentially two of us that both really believe in the business. Being small is good so that our ingredients are ordered in small batches, and we never have left over or out of date stock.”
According to Katie, the challenge lies within the fact that these larger breweries hold, “massive contracts for cheap ingredients and create a generic product.” The smaller scale equipment that craft breweries such as OOO use paired with their limited space for holding fermenters, one of the most important pieces of equipment in the brewing process, further stresses production. Since she is the only member of staff, the production process makes work/life balance difficult to find, oftentimes with Katie working 7 days a week to ensure that the brewery continued running.
Katie’s work has broken down barriers in the industry for her commitment to her beers and boasts an impressive record, creating over 60 recipes in 2 years, which is unheard of by a smaller scale brewery like OOO. Those recipes have been highly sought after, with kegs still being shipped out weekly to popular venues like The Dirty Onion on Skipper Street and Bullitt Hotel, Belfast; some of Katie’s produce even travels as far afield as Bangor and Portrush Beer Festival. Her assistant, Finlay Tranter, noted that:
“I think craft brewing and beer production as a whole is still very male dominated, whilst I can’t compare it having not worked at another brewery, I can say it was incredibly fulfilling to see someone taking space and showing that craft beer should have more representation; like the International Women’s Day Beer Club and the launch of Spice Girls [Pale Ale] which she made with 10 or so craft beer enthusiasts from Belfast was so sick to see and it’s not something I’ve noticed happening in many other local spots.”
Tackling misogyny in a heavily male dominated industry was something that Katie initially struggled with. She described brewing for the hospitality industry as “difficult”, as she felt that the focus in the Belfast was more on capital than the love of beer.
Most importantly, Katie used her time in the Brewery as a force for good in the local community and further beyond. Through the Beer Clubs she’s been able to help more women get access into the brewing industry. She said:
“Women in the industry are definitely impacted by systemic misogyny, thinking ‘That’s a man’s job, I couldn’t do a job like that’ but they can… Most breweries now are probably looking at women applying and thinking ‘We could really do with a woman on this team.’”
Her activism in the community and beyond also inspired Finlay and influenced him in his own work in the brewery:
“She put on a raffle for her final beer club for beers she was parting ways with and raised over £800 quid for medical aid for Palestinians, working in collaboration and for someone who places a lot of focus on social justice and causes; managing to weave it into their work is very rare, especially in an industry that is often afraid to comment on world issues for fear of alienating customers.”
Katie’s new role in Glasshouse, Birmingham, is a larger team and is a far bigger scale operation (going from being able to produce 600 litres of beer to a staggering 20,000 litres) which she is now well equipped for after her time in Belfast.
Out of Office stated on their social media:
“We would like to wish our brewer Katie the very best of luck on her new adventure in England. Katie has been at the forefront of Out of Office since the beginning and her passion, charisma and encyclopaedic beer knowledge has been second to none. Those of you who will have been to our beer clubs, hosted by Katie, will have appreciated her infectious enthusiasm, love for brewing and excitement at showing you all the fresh beer she had just produced… …Good luck Katie!”
