New Jersey is now home to one of the top ten beers brewed by a woman.  Draft Magazine featured the Basil T’s Maxwell’s Dry Stout, brewed by famed brewmaster, Gretchen Schmidhausler.  The Dry Stout earned the recognition of being one of the top ten beers brewed by a woman.

It is estimated that less than 1% of craft brewers are women, and one of them can be found in Red Bank, NJ, at Basil T’s Italian Restaurant.  Basil’s is a brewpub and Italian grill noted for their famous microbrewery which features a minimum of 6 hand crafted ales each season, all brewed by Schmidhausler.

The beer which won a deserving spot on Draft Magazine’s top ten beers brewed by a woman is the Basil T’s Maxwell’s Dry Stout.  This Guinness-style Irish stout is made with fresh coffee and offers a medium body with a rich chocolate and toffee flavor.

Schmidhausler has been brewing beers for over 14 years and is a graduate of the American Brewers Guild’s Craftbrewers Apprenticeship Program, in Woodland, CA.   She is only the second Head Brewer in Basil’s history, taking over for Bob Hettmansperger in September of 2001.

Gretchen’s work with Basil T’s has garnered national recognition and awards including:

• Gold Medal Winner, 2006 Great American Beer Festival (GABF), “Classic Dry Irish Stout”
• Bronze Medal, 2003 GABF, “Coffee Flavored Beer”
• Gold Medal, 2002 GABF, “Coffee Flavored Beer”

Basil T’s was also the recent recipient of the Best Beer award for the 2009 Readers’ Choice Restaurant Poll in NJ.  Basil T’s won the Best Beer category for Central New Jersey.

Learn more about Basil’s award winning beers.

Tags: fresh brewed beer, micro brewery