It’s a Woman’s World: Em Sauter of Pints and Panels

Photo by Red Skies Photography

A handful or more years ago, I attended an exclusive media event at Two Roads Brewing Co. in Stratford led by brewmaster and owner Phil Markowski. Invited on this lavish tour, tasting, and beer dinner experience were about 10 of the who’s who of beer writers. At this point in my food and drink writing career, I certainly wasn’t classified as beer media, so my invite was as a plus-one.

An actual invited guest that day was Em Sauter, a New Britain based beer cartoonist behind the award winning Pints and Panels and her book, Hooray for Craft Beer!, both of which are all about educating the public on all things beer that include informative run downs on beer styles, food pairings, trends, brewing, and so forth.

Since that day at Two Roads, I’ve been following Em on Twitter and more recently on Instagram and Facebook. Along the way, her panels have taught me plenty about what classifies certain brews as a particular style. Her doodles have certainly assisted me plenty of times whenever I’ve been assigned a beer article.

What’s also great about Pints and Panels is that anyone can use it as an educational tool. For free. Just be sure to do the right thing and give proper cartoon cred.

For our semi-regularly column featuring women in the industry, I thought Em would be a fantastic person for all of you, beer geeks or not, to get to know.

In addition to P&P, Em is one of around 165 Advanced Cicerones (and one of about 25 women) in the world!

I recently caught up with the New Britain resident to discuss Pints and Panels’ origin story, her gateway “drug” craft beer, if she works in the industry (hint: she pulls shifts at one of the best breweries in Connecticut), and a little about the process to become a certified cicerone.

Pour yourself a pint and enjoy this Q&A! Cheers!

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I feel like before Pints & Panels was even dreamt up, there’s an origin story connected to a love for beer. What’s your intro craft beer story? And what were your gateway craft beers?

My beer story was love at first sip. I was watching the Super Bowl at a bar in Keene, NH in 2006 and I ordered a Samuel Adams White, their witbier spring seasonal. It was delicious. I couldn't believe beer could be this good. It was then I knew I would devote my life to beer. I can remember it like it was yesterday. My first book is dedicated to that beer.

Jumping off from that previous question…How did P&P come to be?

I went to art school at the Center for Cartoon Studies in White River Junction, VT and graduated in 2011 with an MFA. I started Pints and Panels in May of 2010 after my first year as a drawing exercise, reviewing beer in comic form. I would review one beer a day and draw a comic about it. It was lots of fun and living in VT gave me access to some incredible beers. Pints and Panels was a beer review site until 2019 when it switched to education. P&P now is a website dedicated to Visual Beer Education, where people of all beer knowledge levels can come and learn about beer in an easy to understand, accurate way, all for free.

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I know you’re an advanced cicerone and are available for lectures at breweries, school, libraries, or wherever beer knowledge is needed. Tell us a little about what that process is to become a certified cicerone.

There are four levels of Cicerone- Certified Beer Server, which is an online exam, Certified Cicerone which is a four hour in person exam, Advanced Cicerone, which is an eight hour in person exam and Master Cicerone, which is a two day in person exam. There are only 22 master cicerones and 165 advanced cicerones in the world (and only three master cicerone women and approximately 25 advanced cicerone women). A Certified Cicerone or level 2 requires a fair amount of study as it's a difficult exam. Tasting Beer by Randy Mosher (2nd edition) was formulated to help people study for it, and I recommend that book to anyone thinking about taking that test. It's a great textbook and guide. Also get acquainted with the BJCP guides and start judging homebrew competitions as that's a great way to try beers and evaluate them.

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Have you worked in the brewing or restaurant industry? And if so, where?

My first beer job was in West Lebanon, NH at the beer store called the Beverage King where I mostly sold cigarettes, but we had a great selection of beer. I then went to Eugene, OR for a year to work at a beer store called 16 Tons Beer and Wine. I was the fourth administrative hire at Two Roads Brewing Co. in 2012 where I ran the communications strategy for 5 ½ years. Pints and Panels is my full time job now, but I do work a few days a month at Fox Farm Brewery in Salem, CT in their tasting room and I've been doing that for five years.

What trends are you digging in craft beer right now?

Dark beers like dark lagers be it Munich dunkel or Czech dark and British styles like dark mild are having a moment and I'm a big fan of those styles. Super drinkable and great with food. They are great beers that work in all four seasons and deserve this attention.

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I know you have a trip to Belgium coming up where you’ll be the tour guide. What else is in the pipeline for you and for P&P this year?

I've got a lot of beer judging this year! I love to judge beer competitions and do that a fair amount throughout the year. I will be going to South Africa for the first time to judge the African Beer Cup, which is going to be very cool.

How can people purchase P&P artwork? But also tell us anything we need to know in regards to you taking commissions, hiring you to give a lecture, and so forth.

P&P has an online shop where you can find information about commissions plus you can browse the extensive list of merch from prints, posters, cards, shirts, glassware, pins, stickers and more. If you are interested in anything else, please feel to contact me via social media (Instagram, Facebook, or Twitter) or the contact button on the P&P website. Always happy to answer any questions about beer!

Check out Pints & Panels online at: pintsandpanels.com