Last Updated on March 23, 2023
Jennifer Alexander, also known as the Beerded Lady, is the “go-to girl” for craft beer expertise. Based in Texas, Jennifer was introduced to craft beer by her father and she has traveled the world to find good beer, waited in line for special releases, prowled beer festivals and even collaborated with a brewery. You can follow Jennifer’s beer voyage and shop Beerded Lady apparel and organic items at thebeerdedladyblog.com or follow her on Facebook, Instagram and Twitter.
Can you tell us a little bit about your background and how you became The Beerded Lady?
Yes. I actually was a dental hygienist for a little while and I would constantly tell people about beer while I was cleaning their teeth, at least ones that were interested in beer, and I decided to just kind of chat to this one patient, and he ended up telling me to go ahead and start blogging and I was like, “No, you’re crazy.”
So I created the blog, started writing about it. Instagram kind of came a little bit later, but that turned into what it is today, The Beerded Lady. And I found my passion a few years ago, maybe may or may not been given beer from my dad before 21 maybe, I don’t know, probably 21, I don’t remember.
But he gave me a beer and I had been drinking Keystone in college and he actually gave me good beer. It was Shiner Black and I fell in love with that. So my dad brought me to a friend’s house to talk about beer. And so I sat next to these or in front of these two 60 year old men telling me about beer and having me try different… So it was like a bottle share, like what we call now bottle share, which you share just a bunch of bottles and you try different flavors and it’s like two ounce pours. So I got to try a bunch of beer and became a very expensive date. So that was what started the passion and then it grew into talking about beer and telling people about beer and going to different breweries and then it grew into what it is today.
You ended up collaborating with a brewery. Can you tell us a little bit about that experience and kind of what you did in that campaign?
Absolutely. We actually created a beer together. I’m actually working on another collaboration with another brewery in town. But we… I kind of have a crazy idea and I know most of the brewers and owners of breweries around town. So I love talking to them. And I had the crazy idea of making a blueberry milkshake IPA, which ended up turning kind of sangria
What I wanted to do was create a beer that women would like or any non-beer drinker would like. And that kind of was it. It was like a dessert beer, so it did taste like you have pancakes with like blueberry syrup on top and whipped cream on top of that. And that’s what I was going for. So we used a lot of oats and rice hulls because you can’t get a stuck mash and etcetera. So I really wanted to learn the brewing process and so that was a great way to understand everything about beer. And so I brew it, I drink it, I can tell you all about it as The Beerded Lady.
Are there any other collaborations that stand out in your mind?
I’m doing a collaboration with another brewery to make a beer and it’s about showcasing the homebrewers around Denton and it’s this place called Barley & Board. And we… Again, crazy. Jennifer likes crazy ingredients and things. I want to do a birthday cake IPA because it’s my birthday on January 10th and I’m really excited about that. So just going to celebrate the whole entire month…
Talk about the hangover cures. I’m interested in those.
Recently I did one with Second Wind Nutraceuticals or Second Wind Naturals and it basically was what I was taking, what I was giving myself like magnesium and tumeric and all that kind of stuff and they just packed it in one vitamin. You take four of those and you actually feel just fine the next day. So essentially it takes away all the… Gosh, I’m not good with the science on this, but it takes away the byproduct that your body produces when you drink alcohol and that’s what gives you the hangover. And so a lot of those, like prickly pear ingredients, help take away those things that cause inflammation. And then tumeric of course is amazing for everything. It’s great for inflammation. So I do love doing those campaigns and using them as well.
You have your own apparel, and we’re particularly interested in the Beerded Organics. Can you tell us a little bit about those?
I actually started putting hops in beard oil and face oil and my own toner as well. So I use all of my products that I make and I sell them wholesale around Denton and I also sell them online. So the reason I included hops into this… It’s a essential oil-based organic product that I produce. So the hops, I don’t know if you guys know, is a antimicrobial. So the IPA that you’re drinking is named because of hops, antiviral, antifungal, antimicrobial. So all of an antibacterial, you can put it around wounds. It’s really helpful and essential oils work. I don’t know if you… I mean as long as you believe they work, they work. So they help with inflammation. Same with the vitamins. If you can’t tell I’m kind of a hippie.
I put that in there to help with inflammation. And my idea was to help with beard growth because it’s also helpful to keep your beard clean and I put jojoba and all that kind of stuff. It smells like a hazy IPA. So why don’t you want your beard to smell like hazy IPA? I don’t know. I would want it like that all the time.
But what I use for my face… You can use the aftershave as well to help with those little red bumps that men get. I actually use it in my shaving areas as well and it helps a lot cause we get red bumps under our armpits and all that kind of stuff. And my oil is the only thing that I use in the summer as well as my toner. So I love all that. And then I made a room cleansing spray with it too. So it’s like negativity off yourself and out of the room and hops are cleansing. So I was like I’m just going to put some of that in there.
Since it’s a new year, what are some of your goals for this year as it pertains to influencer marketing?
I definitely think that the craft beer industry may need to catch up a little bit on influencer marketing. I think that’s important for people to realize about social media. I also love incorporating different things into my influencer pictures. Like if I were to do a meal for example, like I think it’s really easy to have a beer and a meal that I’m about to eat on there and showcase both of them. And it is fun because beer is important to me and to all of my followers as well as showing my face. And so I have to work on my body still. So make that a good thing for influencing.
I think I want to see more paid projects through craft beer because a lot of it’s based on trading, but soon I think that’s going to change because you have such a great advertisement to tell people about your product.
Other than that, I think just having fun with it and saying yes to more opportunities, and really that’s kind of my new year resolution is just having a blast doing it and not making it so strenuous and “got to get the perfect picture” because I find that most of the perfect pictures are the ones that I’m like, “Ugh!” You know, not caring about… And then all of a sudden you get that perfect picture.
Andrew is the Head of Client Services for Intellifluence and has a background in communications. He is committed to helping brands get the most out of their campaigns and is the co-host of the Influencer Spotlight series.
