Cole wrote: “The first was reported to me by three separate women who had all, at different times, been asked in varying different ways by the man on the door … to ‘lift up your arms because we don’t want any hairy-pitted lesbians in here.’”

 

The second incident was one Cole said she experienced herself at the Great British Beer Festival (GBBF), CAMRA’s largest event which is due to take place again next week in London.

 

She wrote: “A group of senior beer industry men decided that they’d play ‘guess the cup size’ about me to while away the hours as they got steadily more wasted.”

 

Cole, who was named as one of the Most Powerful Women in the Drinks Industry by Channel 4 Food and Educator of the Year by Imbible Magazine in 2013, wrote her blog post in the wake of the failed motion to discuss beer sexism and inclusion at CAMRA’s 2015 AGM.

 

She also stated: “I don’t think I personally know a single female beer drinker who hasn’t had to justify, or repeat, the order of a pint of anything over four per cent, or bitter, or dark, or sour."

 

Another incident involved a man who said he'd lost his father to suicide and, upon witnessing and becoming upset by a beer pump clip named ‘Suicider’, was allegedly told by a volunteer to ‘lighten up.’

 

“The problem isn’t just sexism, it’s that too many people in the beer community seem totally fine with either appalling inequality or flat-out offensiveness,” Cole commented.

 

ALES & FEMALES brought the allegations on Cole's blog to CAMRA's attention.

 

Communications assistant Ayo Kila said: "All activities performed under CAMRA's name needs to comply with CAMRA's Equal Opportunities Policy, i.e. to treat everyone fairly regardless of gender, sexual orientation, age, disability, religion, race. ethnic or social/economic background.

 

"With many thousands of volunteers giving up their time to work at hundreds of beer festivals across the country, with potentially tens of thousands of interactions, it's impossible to guarantee there will never be an incident which causes offence.

 

"But if the volunteer involved can be identified and we are made aware of the issue, the incident will be investigated and action taken."

 

In regard to the allegations, Kila said: "We're not aware of the [first] incident at head office. But if this incident was reported to festival organisers, I'm confident action will have been taken. If it's possible to identify the festival and when it happened, we can check the outcome.

 

"[The second incident] sounds like it was beer industry executives who happened to be at GBBF. Obviously this isn't under the control of CAMRA but we'd never condone this type of behaviour and would encourage everyone involved in the beer industry to practice and promote equality.

 

"[In relation to the third incident] Festival organisers have the power to refuse to stock a beer or allow a retailer to sell other merchandise which could be considered offensive. Again, if incidents are brought to our attention, we can deal with them and try to prevent similar issues arising in the future."

 

Cole initially rewrote the allegations on her blog as scenarios with the genders of the people involved switched. She explained it was to 'make her readers think about the difference' between the two and to highlight the assumption that most readers would think the 'scenarios' were made up.

 

ALES & FEMALES has contacted Melissa Cole for further comment.