Women Dominated Beer Brewing Until They Were Accused of Being Witches

[demmiblue]

What do witches have to do with your favorite beer?

When I pose this question to students in my American literature and culture classes, I receive stunned silence or nervous laughs. The Sanderson sisters didn’t chug down bottles of Sam Adams in “Hocus Pocus.” But the history of beer points to a not-so-magical legacy of transatlantic slander and gender roles.

Up until the 1500s, brewing was primarily women’s work—that is, until a smear campaign accused women brewers of being witches. Much of the iconography we associate with witches today, from the pointy hat to the broom, may have emerged from their connection to female brewers.

Humans have been drinking beer for almost 7,000 years, and the original brewers were women. From the Vikings to the Egyptians, women brewed beer both for religious ceremonies and to make a practical, calorie-rich beverage for the home.

In fact, the nun Hildegard von Bingen, who lived in modern-day Germany, famously wrote about hops in the 12th century and added the ingredient to her beer recipe.

From the Stone Age to the 1700s, ale – and, later, beer – was a household staple for most families in England and other parts of Europe. The drink was an inexpensive way to consume and preserve grains. For the working class, beer provided an important source of nutrients, full of carbohydrates and proteins. Because the beverage was such a common part of the average person’s diet, fermenting was, for many women, one of their normal household tasks.

Some enterprising women took this household skill to the marketplace and began selling beer. Widows or unmarried women used their fermentation prowess to earn some extra money, while married women partnered with their husbands to run their beer business.

https://www.smithsonianmag.com/history/women-used-dominate-beer-industry-until-witch-accusations-started-pouring-180977171/#.YEjLeAK6P5J.facebook

[Peregrine Took]

1. "They wore the tall, pointy hats so ... customers could see them in the crowded mar

...."They wore the tall, pointy hats so that their customers could see them in the crowded marketplace."

So that's where we got the image of the old witch!
Makes so much sense.
Thanks so much for posting this.

[Wicked Blue]

2. Calling women witches is a way of tearing down intelligent, enterprising women

Some men just can't stand the thought that some women might be smarter, stronger, more creative or more skilled. Accusing these women of being witches, and possibly destroying their lives, helps protect fragile little male egos.

[niyad]

6. It also enriches them. Don't forget that the church confiscated all the goods and monies and

properties of any woman accused of being a witch. And, when you remove the competition. . .hmmmmm.

[Wicked Blue]

7. Absolutely right

and the RC church keeps insisting that women can't be priests. Why, are they afraid women will do a better job of it?

[empedocles]

3. Cultural histories have so many tics and hates

[niyad]

4. Thank you so very much for this most interesting and informative article. Women healers, women

brewers, any independent woman who did not bow to patriarchal authority, was labeled a witch. And we know what happened to witches.

[niyad]

5. Thanks to your wonderful OP, I just remembered Ninkasi, the Sumerian Goddess of brewing.

The wiki article on Her contains some fascinating insights. Alas, my old computer will not let me link or copy and paste.