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When it comes to beer, a woman's work is never done
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People seem surprised when they learn the Nashville Beer Society was founded by a woman, but beer itself was probably first discovered or invented by a woman, so it seems beer is just returning home, so to speak It's true that no one knows exactly how beer came about, but two things are known that lend credence to it being a woman who is responsible.
The earliest known brewers were female priestesses, or brewsters, and ancient cultures thanked their goddesses for imparting the secrets of this sacred beverage to the women of their societies. The ancient Romans paid tribute to Ceres, the Egyptians gave thanks to Isis (and her husband Osiris) and the Sumerians sang to Ninkasi:
May Ninkasi live together with you! Let her pour for you beer [and] wine, ...
While I feel wonderful, I feel wonderful, Drinking beer, in a blissful mood ...
Also, as humans transitioned from hunter/gatherers to a more agrarian society, male and female roles became firmly established. The men were responsible for everything outside the home -- hunting, raising crops, etc., but once they brought the fruits of their labors indoors, it was up to the women to turn them into clothing, meals, beverages and other items to sustain and nourish the family.
One of the earliest recipes for beer had a priestess chewing barley into a mash and then adding that mash to water, herbs and spices in a brew pot. Chewing the grain filled the mash with the enzyme ptyalin from the women's saliva. This enzyme reacted with grain starches, turning them into fermentable sugars and thus beginning the fermentation process. Another early recipe involved soaking half-baked loaves of barley bread in water, straining the liquid and then aging that liquid in clay pots that were sealed with mud.
As people became more mobile, women sold the beer they brewed at home to travelers in taverns, or brewpubs. The alewives of medieval Europe were quite successful women who briefly enjoyed stature and financial independence. And then the church became involved.
Not one to miss out on money, or a chance to control the general populace, the medieval church worked with local government to tax both the production and sale of beer. It soon became almost impossible to make beer unless you were a monk, and the church opened the first commercial breweries in European monasteries, supplying the monks with daily rations and controlling beer's availability to the people. Since water quality at that time was non-existent, beer was one of the few safe beverages to drink, as fermentation destroyed anything harmful in the liquid, so beer was practically a necessity. With the church, a male-controlled institution, now in charge, women's role in brewing was soon forgotten.
Until now. The Nashville Beer Society was founded and this column is written by a woman. Beer is coming home.
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