FINE I’ll just do your homework for you. Trust me, it’s not just “what we think”, we have ample evidence and it’s pretty much unanimously agreed upon among brewers that women were traditionally the ones brewing and often drinking the beer. So long long story short: yes, brewing was very much a women’s craft in the majority of cultures worldwide pre-industrialisation. A couple of popular brewing textbooks state:
“Initially, brewing was carried out as home brewing by women for domestic use only. It was part of the daily housework next to cooking and baking bread.” (Handbook of Brewing, Priest and Stewart, 2006)
“Traditionally, [African] beers are made by women brewsters, as was the case medieval Europe, and they may be consumed with some ceremony.” (Brewing, Briggs, Brookes, and Stevens, 2003)
Honestly though, just google “women brewing history”.
lol wow thank you!!! i will spread this information in the world
also will use it to shut down Manly Beer Drinker of all sorts
THIS IS USEFUL! I SHALL BE TAKING THIS INTO MY LOCAL MICROBREWERY AND BEING OBNOXIOUSLY FEMINIST. I LOVE YOU FOR THIS SO MUCH!
Fun fact: men (specifically, monks) started adding hops to beer. Hops makes beer taste bitter - the tast men today insist is the “true” tast of beer which makes it a masculine drink. The fun part of it is that hops is a phytoestrogen which is (according to some sources - there are disproving articles so I won’t say it’s absolutely true) responsible for low sex drive, lower energy, man boobs, and abdominal fat. Actually, monks started using hops in beer in order to lower libido of men in the monastery.
yeah, at least it’s what we think, since women were the ones who started brewing shit. the goddess of brewery and beer is, well, a goddess and not a god, which is probably because women were the ones starting it historically.
“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. :)
Also really cool info: In medieval Europe, women would sell their excess home-brewed beer. They would identify themselves by wearing pointed hats at market and by placing broomsticks outside of their doors. Surprising absolutely no one, the Church was not really into female entrepreneurs and/or women having power and respect in the community. Church officials spread word that these women were evil servants of the devil and should be avoided because they would bewitch you with their potions. This is where we get much of the iconic Western European witch imagery ie. broomsticks, pointed hats, cauldrons. Basically the Church got pissy because women had power in their communities and basically started the a ridiculously long-lasting smear campaign against female beer-brewers. link to a full article: http://www.stylist.co.uk/life/recipes/women-and-beer-a-snap-shot-history
One theory on the origins of alchemy in ancient Egypt was that it started as a handful of Alexandrian brewers (all women) and perfume makers (mostly men) trading techniques and discoveries and just sort of exploded from there. (Pun mostly not intended.)
(So yes, alchemy itself originates as a union of masculine and feminine principles. Apropos, is it not?)
“Alewife” is a dictionary-recognised term; “Alehusband” isn’t.
Also, re. @dduane in “The Porter House” - “I wish I could describe the series of expressions that went across his face…”
It was Shock and Awe. Well, more accurately, as the penny dropped it was Shock and Ew… :-> Wimp.
"She sniffed, and smiled a bit, but not too much because if there is one thing worse than someone who doesn’t understand you it’s someone who understands perfectly, before you’ve had a chance to have a good pout about not being understood."
Kraftwerk. Trans-Europa Express. For those who like Kraftwerk, trains, or both.
I qualify on both counts. It’s good electro music to run quietly in the background while working.
“From station to station back to Düsseldorf City / Meet Iggy Pop and David Bowie.”
“Wir laufen rein in Düsseldorf City / Und treffen Iggy Pop und David Bowie.”
Interesting that it remains City not Stadt in the German version so as to maintain the rhyme and two-syllable rhythm.
The TEE was fast, though nothing to match a modern TGV or ICE, famously comfortable, well-catered by Mitropa, and a train we’ve always regretted not having a chance to ride. (Much more here.) It was usually diesel because electrics initially couldn’t handle the different national voltages, but the trainsets had different designs depending on their country of origin.
This (the one in the video) is the German version…
This one is Dutch…
…and this one is French.
A bit later this electric was developed by the Swiss to handle those different national voltages…
…but the German
long-nose
with “smile line” remains the classic TEE so much that a Kraftwerk label can be reduced something as minimal as this…
These trains would look comfortable in any portfolio of Dieselpunk Art, but they turn up in other, less serious-minded places too… :-D
Images of TEE sometimes blur the boundaries between airline and train service.
I recognise a couple of the riverside views in the video from when @dduane and I took the Eurocity “Rheinpfeil” (Rhine Arrow) from Amsterdam to Basel in about 1989 or 1990. It was another of those leisurely trips where travel through a picturesque landscape, much of it in the dining-car which besides food and drink had larger windows that acted as frames for the scenery, was as much a part of the holiday as the ultimate destination.
Trains are fun: you go from city centre to city centre rather than outskirts to outskirts, someone else does the driving so you can have a drink, you don’t need to find a parking-space when you get there, the food on board is better than on planes and the cabin staff don’t give you funny looks if you get up and walk about.
Airline-style seat service is becoming a feature on trains nowadays, especially for first class passengers, but
we still prefer proper dining-cars when we can get them. High-speed stock has point-to-point speeds that can rival aircraft (probably even faster in some cases, once advanced check-in times and security clearance are factored in) so it’s nice to have a reminder we’re actually on a train. Also you get to meet people.
Even if they’re not Iggy and David… :-)
Just to add my two cents … I’m not well versed in Kraftwerk history. Did the English version preceed the German one (since you say “maintain” rhythm and rhyme?) To me it would make more sense if they came up with the German lyrics first and then translated them into English, slightly changing the meaning.
I’m guessing they used “Düsseldorf City” (not an actual train station) instead of “Hauptbahnhof” (main station, the only stop for the TEE I’m guessing) for the rhythm and the rhyme but as a German word, “City” doesn’t mean “Stadt” … it means “city centre”, “downtown”. It’s female, if anyone is interested.
It’s a bit like “Handy” (German for “mobile phone”) where Germans took an English word and (slightly in the case of “city”, not so slightly in the case of “handy”) changed the meaning …
I’m guessing they kept “city” in the English version for the rhyme even though the meaning is different … or maybe they just didn’t care. They’re Kraftwerk after all.
I’ve been watching Crufts on the youtube livestream for the last few days. First time I’ve watched a dog show.
Low-points
1) The relay agility event. So many handlers letting their dogs down. I don’t like aggressive people in general but there was one lady who was very loud (most handlers just guided their dogs with hand movements and an occasional “tunnel”) and she was very decisive. I liked watching her with her dog best because her dog was going fast and always knew where it should be and where it should go next. No doubt, no hesitation, no mistakes. That was more or less the exception though. Poor dogs.
2) In the group breeders group there was a dalmatian cowering before its handler. The dog looked absolutely terrified of its human. Disgraceful.
High points
1) The best thing about the last few days was a performance by a lady called Mary Ray who trained her dogs to perform to “Singing in the rain”. It was so lovely, it almost made me cry. I’ll post the video if I can find it.
2) The gamekeeper group. Lovely dogs, lovely handlers. Most show dogs look too stylish for my taste (all those big, brushed-up coats, ugh) but there were some who looked they could be working dogs. And one of the handlers in this group was a grandpa who just made the loveliest pair with his spaniel.
3) Some lovely breeds I have never seen before in my life. Gosh, there are some really pretty dogs out there.
Just do me a favour everyone and don’t buy Maremmas. They aren’t pets. They are working dogs.
And that’s it, really. Thank you to @spartathesheltie for alerting me to the youtube livestream.
It is a truth universally acknowledged, that a single man in possession of a good fortune, must be in want of a wife. And then the murders began.
Mrs. Dalloway said she would buy the flowers herself. And then the murders began.
In the beginning God created the heaven and the earth. And then the murders began.
The phantom of the opera did exist. And then the murders begun.
Maman died today. And then the murders began.
It was a bright cold day in April, and the clocks were striking thirteen. And then the murders began.
In 1815 Monsieur Charles-Francois-Bienvenu Myriel was Bishop of Digne. And then the murders began.
Arma virumque cano, Troiae qui primus ab oris Italiam, fato profugus, Laviniaque venit litora, multum ille et terris iactatus et alto vi superum saevae memorem Iunonis ob iram; multa quoque et bello passus, dum conderet urbem, inferretque deos Latio, genus unde Latinum, Albanique patres, atque altae moenia Romae. Deinde homicidia coeperunt.
When Mr. Bilbo Baggins of Bag End announced that he would shortly be celebrating his eleventy-first birthday with a party of special magnificence, there was much talk and excitement in Hobbiton. And then the murders began.
Last night I dreamed I went to Manderly again. And then the murders began.
Stately, plump Buck Mulligan came from the stairhead, bearing a bowl of lather on which a mirror and a razor lay crossed. And then the murders began.
