Hanoi brewer Dung Ngô wins 2023 UC Davis Tapping Potential Diversity scholarship
UC Davis Continuing and Professional Education, part of the US-based UC Davis university in northern California, has awarded its third annual Tapping Potential Diversity Scholarship to Dung Ngô, a professional brewer in Vietnam who is one of only a handful of women active in the country’s brewing industry.
The scholarships were created to support students who have experience or understanding of the barriers faced by underrepresented populations of race, ethnicity, gender, sexual orientation, or disabilities, and who demonstrate a high potential for leadership in promoting cross-cultural understanding in the brewing industry.
The award provides support for students to attend UC Davis Continuing and Professional Education’s in-person and online brewing programmes. It is paid for through an annual crowdfunding campaign supported by individual donors and brewing industry partners, such as Barebottle Brewing Company, Sudwerk Brewing Company, Touchstone Brewing Company, Sacramento Area Brewers Guild, CLS Farms and BSG (the Brewers Supply Group).
A professional brewer since 2017, Dung’s first job was as an assistant brewer at Furbrew, the first independent craft brewery in Hanoi, a position she took up after she graduated with a degree in food technology from Hanoi University of Science and Technology. She has recently moved to Pilot Craft Beer where she now runs a 500-litre brewing system.
Although there are a lot of professional brewers in Vietnam, there are probably fewer than 10 of them whom are female, and most of them are foreigners who don’t speak Vietnamese, according to Dung.
She particularly enjoys the creativity of the craft brewing process. “I’m inspired by the way people in Vietnam use spice to make pho and I am using those same ingredients to make beer,” said Dung. She adds roasted spices at boiling and secondary fermentation, and uses other Vietnamese ingredients such as fruits and wild bacteria found around the brewery, to make her beers.
“When I entered craft beer, I doubted my career path because I didn’t see females like me in brewing,” said Dung. “There is no craft brewery in Vietnam run by women. I can be the first.”
