As Hold My Crown beer is released, organizers discuss growing role of women in industry

CHICAGO - From concept to ingredients to the day it was made, Hold My Crown was intended to be a beer about women.

The dry, citrus-forward farmhouse-style pale ale was made by more than 20 women from a dozen suburban Chicago breweries, and features yeast used by Aldona Udriene, who has been described as "the undisputed queen of Lithuanian farmhouse brewing."

The point? To promote the growing role of women in beer.

"We were trying to have it as female focused as possible from start to finish," said Emily Slayton, co-founder of Skeleton Key Brewery in Woodridge, Ill., where the beer was made in early March,