Caylee Betts: A Lady Who Loves Beer

With a love for good food, good design, and good drinking, this Seattle-based, small-business owner loves helping craft breweries, boutique wineries, and independently owned/operated restaurants grow their brands. When she's not hard at work doodling and designing, you can find her drinking with fellow members of her adult beer-league kickball team, and enthusiastically documenting the local food, wine, spirits and craft beer in Seattle.

This is Caylee Betts, and she loves beer.

Before Caylee was a beer drinker...

Before I really got into craft beer, I got into great Washington wine. Quickly, spirits and beer followed. Now I’m an all around beverage geek who roadtrips and flies to great beverage destinations and is actively immersed in the scene here in Seattle.

Do you brew, or help someone who does? What’s your level of experience? What do you enjoy about it?

I don’t! I love documenting it from behind my lens, though. I’ve been on bottling and canning lines and have documented brew days. I love hanging around breweries and observing; the process and the culture are unique from other professions and are so interesting to me.

When she’s not drinking beer, she enjoys...

Being active! I play soccer weekly. I like to bike, run, kayak, hike and swim. I also play on an adult beer-league kickball team, and seasonally I love to snowboard, wakeboard, surf — anything. I love my work and the food and beverage industry - I spend a lot of time at events, eating out, or generally socializing with industry friends.

Her favorite place to drink is... 

I love to be nomadic with my eating/drinking choices. I support tons of local businesses each week and like to revisit/rotate often. For beers close to my house, I enjoy The Dray for quiet nights with nerdy beer, maybe while doing laundry next door. Or The Noble Fir or the brand new Sixgill (both beer bars are owned by the same couple) for snacks and beers. One of my all time favorite places to drink beer is Beveridge Place, though. It’s a bit of a drive but I stop by after every soccer game in West Seattle. My favorite brewery to grab a flight or a pint at, also a drive, is Black Raven. It’s my "Cheers" as I’m buddies with lots of the staff. They’ve always been really great to me and my family. And don’t get me started on watering holes in other cities, we could be here awhile.

Can you tell us about women-friendly spaces of note in your area (or wherever you travel regularly)?

There are beer bars or breweries with strong female influence, but so many women drink beer in Seattle that I just don’t find this to be a factor when choosing where to go. I go for the beer! However, here are a few super influential Seattle women that are active in the beer community: Janet at Naked City, Dione at Airways, Linda, Laura and Rose Ann from Pike, Ellen of Sixgill/Noble Fir, Robyn from Marination Ma Kai and Stoup Brewing, and Heather McClung at Schooner Exact and the Washington Brewer’s Guild. Always love visiting these women at their place of work, working with them on projects, or bumping into them at events.

Her favorite person to drink with is...

My favorite person to drink with is Sam Calagione. Ok, so, I am kind of cheating here. I got to go to a beer versus wine dinner a couple Seattle Beer Weeks ago, and he was wildly entertaining. More seriously, at this time my favorite people to have a beer with are my Monday night kickball team... we have an absolute blast.

What do you most like/loathe about the culture of beer? 
How do you see women represented locally, nationally, globally?
What would you’d like to less/more of?

I love the super casual nature of brewers and breweries. The craft industry in Seattle continues to grow daily. It’s nuts how many breweries keep popping up, and how much good beer is being made. However, brewers are still fully approachable, welcoming people. It’s not uncommon to get to see the production facility, have any questions answered, etc. Love that. 

What I’d really like to see more of is the same importance and credit given to growers and specific hop fields. In the Washington wine industry, some vineyards have such prestige that they nearly the sell the wine by just being mentioned on the label. Certain growers are Washington wine legends. And the consumer is aware of some of the greatest vineyards. Lately, I’ve seen consumers much more interested in hop varietals; Citra, Cascade, Centennial, Sorachi Ace, Simcoe, Sauvin, etc. I think, for Washington, this could lead to more beer, more jobs, and more interest in the central/eastern part of our state. And the western side of the state (Seattle) would benefit from increasingly amazing ingredients. It would be fun to give wine country a run for their money with a badass hop/beer country!

What kind of projects are you currently working on?

Within the beer industry, we recently finished up our first can designs, and have since had a few inquiries (as we had hoped!) to do more for other breweries. We're also in the process of designing logos for a couple new breweries, which is some of my favorite work. I love to be a part of businesses early on.

Connect with Caylee through Betts&Co. or follow her on Twitter, Facebook, Instagram, and Untappd.

Are you a lady who loves beer? Do you know someone who is? To get in on the already evolving lineup, email me at heybrewtiful{at}gmail{dot}com with your story. Meet me here each Friday for a weekly focus on women and beer, or meet the ladies who've already contributed to the growing collection of interviews.