This came up just now in the Irish Times in regards to a brewery in Mechelen in Belgium. (Yet another reason to get back there.)
“Women’s role in the history of beer is often forgotten,” says Sofie Vanrafelghem, author and master beer sommelier. “One of the very first written documents to refer to beer,” she says, “was an ode written 3,800 years ago to the Sumerian goddess Ninkasi, whose priestesses brewed beer in her honour.”
This data’s been on my radar for a while now. I remember being in one of our favorite places in Dublin, Porterhouse Central, and spotting a sign hanging up above one of the aisles that said BEERS BREWED BY MEN, NOT MACHINES. A nice enough sentiment, but unfortunately / unnecessarily gendered.
I was in a bit of a mischievous mood and said to the barman, “No women?” “Nope,” he said.
I said, “You should really get at least one woman brewer in here. For historical reasons if nothing else. Didn’t you know that until a couple of centuries ago it was illegal for men to brew in Dublin?”
He was kind of stunned. True, though. It was traditional in the city from Viking times that only women should brew. In fact there was a sense that it was unlucky for men to brew, that the beer would fail, that it didn’t like them.
My bartender was a little bemused by this. “But why would that be?”
I just kind of laughed. “Women,” I said. “Yeast. We have a relationship.”
I wish I could describe the series of expressions that went across his face. :)
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