Women and beer

If you think that beer is a man's drink, you couldn't be more wrong.
I would like to invite you to down the path of history which will prove that beer is in fact a woman's brew.
Let me start with a little bit of mythology. If you are looking for someone to bless your beer, you can choose from the following:

Beer goddesses:
Ninkasi is a beer goddess in Sumerian religion (Mezopotamia) . They believed that Ninkasi had given beer to humans to promote peace and well-being.
Egyptians had a beer goddess named Tenenit. There are hieroglyphic depictions of women brewing beer and drinking it through straws in ancient Egypt.
Raugutiene is a goddess who protects beer in ancient Baltic mythology.

1.First evidence of brewing something like a beer comes from around 7000bc in China but archaeologists reckon it could have been made from as early 10 000bc. All evidence points at the first makers being women, as it was a household chore and it was done while men were out hunting.

2.Beer was brewed by women not only in ancient China but also in Japan, Mezopotamia, ancient Egypt, Africa, Scandinavia, etc.
Women brewing in Africa

3.Women who made beer in England in Middle Ages were called Ale wives or Brewsters.

4.The things we associate with witches are said to have come from the times when women brewed beer to sell on the market - they would stand in front of a big cauldron where the beer was made and wear tall pointy hats so customers could spot them easily among the crowds. They would often keep cats to protect the grain they used for making the brew from rodents.

5.To muscle in on the trade and reduce competition men made up rumours that these women were witches and brewed magic potions. Unfortunately these rumours were seen as the truth by many and the women dealt with accordingly, so it became too dangerous for women to brew beer.

6.A nun, master brewer, writer and biologist called Hildegard von Bingen, who lived in modern-day Germany, wrote about hops in the 12th century and added the ingredient to her beer recipe. This revolutionised beer making but not until later.

7.Women had completely stopped brewing beer by 1700 because of the prosecutions.

8.Up to now the beer industry has been dominated by men with women only being involved as far as advertising, as in - the female sexuality used to sell the product (sexy bar maids, servers, etc.) and beer seen as only a man's drink.

9.The good news is that women elsewhere other than England have continued to brew at home. In US for example, they have continued to brew all the way through the prohibotion and even afterwards through 50's and 60's when it was a tough man's world.

10.According to various sources, women in the US are really starting to popularise women's involvement in beer brewing by bringing the history to light, discovering and sharing ancient recipes, by coming together and supporting one another and claiming back their rightful place in the industry.

11.Women's involvement in beer brewing is in fact increasing all over the world, although proportionally it is still tiny comparing to how many men are setting up and running breweries. There are women now occupy high posts in big and small breweries. There are also breweries established by women in Canada, Latin America, Germany, Belgium.

So there! Next time you see someone frowning upon a woman drinking beer, just think of the irony!

Wanting to finish this post nicely, I found this very nice toast on ambar.com and I can't think of anything better to say in conclusion. So I would like to raise a nice cold pint glass of the magic brew to my witch sisters and say:
SO TODAY WE RAISE A TOAST TO THEM, WE TOAST WITH THEM. TO ALL THE WOMEN WHO HAVE BREWED AND BREW BEER, AND TO ALL THOSE WHO ENJOY THE RESULT OF THAT WORK. TO WOMEN!