Women and Beer 3 - History

I'd already written a couple of blogs about the role of women and brewing/selling beer a while ago, in The Beer Goddess and in Brewsters and Witchcraft?  However, I've fairly recently bought the paperback book The Devil's in the Draught Lines (Dr Christina Wade, Campaign for Real Ale Ltd, 2024), since which was published an article by the same author in CAMRA's BEER magazine Summer 2024 called The Ancient History of the British Alewife.

Basically, Dr Wade knows a helluva lot about the history of beer, is multi-qualified, including being a beer judge, and I'm guessing that part of her doctorate, or maybe her M.Phil, or both, included research about the history of women in brewing and selling beer, because there is so much specific information about brewsters (female brewers) and licencees! Also, she records interviews with many contemporary brewsters. In addition, she has her own website called braciatrix, which includes links to her book, and is about women and beer, to precis it... 😕 

If you are a CAMRA member you can access the BEER article at the website.

Or buy the book, or just read my blog 1 and  blog 2, a bit simpler/less info 😉 Seriously though, I can't compete, so buy the book, it's chock full of data, cheers!

First Real Ales of 2018!

Well, my first trip to a public house in 2018 was on Tuesday to the Tower, 251 London Road TN37 6NB (tel: 01424 721773), which, depending on how you consider your geography, is described as St Leonards on Sea, which is in the borough of Hastings, but the smaller area the pub is in is called Bohemia... Whatever, it is up the hill about 1250 metres from the beach, and I prefer to call it Bohemia, because, well it sounds more bohemian (see Ordnance Survey website). And, by "real ale" I mean cask-conditioned ale, see CAMRA website; though Belgian beers do come a close second to proper British cask-conditioned draught ales, in my opinion...

The Tower is the reigning CAMRA (Campaign for Real Ale) South East Sussex Pub of the Year 2017, and sells 6 real ales from hand pumps; 2 regular excellent ales from Sussex brewer Dark Star (website), their 3.8% session ale Hophead and the stronger 4.7% American Pale Ale (APA), so-called because of the style and the use of hops from the other side of the Atlantic Ocean. There are also 4 regularly changing guest ales (and more often than not from local breweries too), and 6 real ciders and 1 perry (the perry currently from Westons; concerning 'real cider and perry' see CAMRA website).

The 'guest' ales included Hopback Summer Lightning (5%, see website), an excellent pale bitter I've used to help convert lager drinkers to real ale many times over many years! Also, the 3.9% pale session bitter from Red Willow (website), their Stateless, which is brewed with more hops from across the Pond, Cascade, Columbus and Chinook... it does what it says on the label, it's pale with citrus flavours and finishes with a dry bitterness. But...

OK, it's obviously the right time of year to be appreciating darker beers, but I particularly want to express just how good the Porter shown in the photograph was, however, I next drank, from Kent, Whitstable Brewery Christmas Spirit (I noted 4.6%, the website says 4.7%, I could be wrong! Website). Darker, a reddish chestnut colour, and brewed with English hops, Admiral and East Kent Goldings, as one would expect, producing a slightly spicy beer, not too heavy but with more body than the paler ales, and with a hint of chocolate in the aroma and taste too...

To the Aromatic Porter (4.5%) from Brewsters then (website), a brewery I've mentioned before when talking about women, brewing and witchcraft (eg blog and blog)! I didn't really get the 'aromatic' here though, and the chap sitting next to me at the bar, a well-known local CAMRA enthusiast, had been put off by the term 'aromatic', he needn't have been. Of course there was an aroma, but more subtle than the name implies, I tried to work out what it was, and I think I've come up with a dark berry, mostly blackcurrant, to the nose, certainly fruity. A much darker, well-bodied, bitter beer, with a dry finish and a hint of roasted barley in the taste, it was pretty damn excellent, and just £3 a pint, cheers Louisa!

Not to forget, ignoring Wetherspoons, the Tower is the best value real ale pub in Hastings, with the two regulars £2.90 a pint for Hophead and £3 a pint for APA, and on the day, the most expensive ales were £3.20 a pint, eg the Summer Lightning, and all in lined glasses too...

Keep up the good work Lou!

Women and Beer: 2. Brewsters and Witchcraft?

I have been investigating which pub is the oldest pub in Hastings, following the closure of the King's Head, the previously well-acknowledged oldest pub. I have my own thoughts on this; more of this in blogs at www.steveonhastings.blogspot.co.uk - However, when looking into the history of the Stag Inn in All Saints Street, I discovered some very interesting information concerning brewsters, and allegations of witchcraft!

The building of the Stag Inn is 17th century, when the practice of walling up a cat, with the animal often still alive, is known to have been a medieval precaution against evil spirits. The tradition survived into later centuries in remote areas such as the high Pennines. Marion Gibson, Professor of Literature at Exeter University, whose 'research investigates the relationships between writings about magic and the supernatural and those about identity, spanning the period c.1500-present', says that "Cats were often put into walls as some kind of good luck charm. It seems to have been quite a widespread practice across the European continent.” 

During the medieval era, as we know, hundreds of women were falsely accused of witchcraft (one presumes falsely) and executed. Many of those women were actually brewers or 'brewsters' as well as midwives etc. Indeed, the visual motifs we associate with female witches date from this time. The extraordinary thing is that all of them, the 'familiar' or cat, the bubbling cauldron, the broom, the pointed hat, are also symbols associated with brewing beer.  

Cats would be kept to keep vermin at bay that would otherwise eat the malted barley; the bubbling cauldron, or 'kettle', is the vessel in which the ingredients are boiled. Then, when the brew cools down, yeast is added and ferments the sugars, creating a dramatic froth. The broom was used for sweeping up but, also by law, anyone selling beer was required to display an 'ale stake' above their door as a sign that beer was on sale. An ale stake was a wooden pole with a bunch of twigs tied on the end, and doubled up as a broom. Hanging foliage above the door to proclaim that alcohol was available for purchase dates back to Roman Britain, and, in a society where most people were illiterate, visual signs rather than written signs were used. The pointy hat was also a practical way of being seen in a crowd. Women with surplus beer would go to the marketplace to sell it, or a middle woman known as a 'huckster' would act as an agent and sell the beer. They too wore pointed hats to make themselves prominent at market!

The Shepherd Neame website says "The Stag... dates from 1547... The front is in Georgian style, added by the Victorians... There are two bars. The front is the most commonly used and features the famous "mummified" cats... they were found in a chimney on the first floor during the 1940s... There is no historical evidence, but it is popularly believed they belonged to Hannah Clarke, a witch, who is said to have occupied the Stag in the earlier part of its existence. 

Whatever, intolerance of single women in particular has certainly seen many executed as witches over the centuries, notably in the 17th century, but we don't think like that nowadays, do we? Though ales from Brewster's Brewery certainly are pretty magical (website), cheers! 

Women and Beer: 1. The Beer Goddess

I am going to blog two, perhaps controversial, pieces about women and beers/brewing/pubs, and I got the idea of writing this first blog a few years ago, from reading Travels with Barley, written by the American journalist Ken Wells, within which he discusses the idea of the "Beer Goddess"; a book, incidentally, sent to me by a friend of my youth, Anne, who now lives in Florida. And I immediately thought of the Sumerian Goddess of Beer, Ninkasi, as one does...

But, no, Mr Wells was really looking at the influence of women on men drinking beer in the contemporary U.S. of A., we could be talking about poor lagers, of course, but we are also talking about the craft beer 'revolution' that has been going on over there for quite a few years now. Craft brewers in the USA have, in recent years, been instrumental in, not just the development of new strains of hops, but also the use of hops aplenty in the brewing process, most of their beers aren't 'real' ales as us Brits expect, but they can certainly pack a punch with flavour, and strength! Notably, hops from over the Pond are regularly used in ales here now too, particularly the new-ish style (fad?) of American Pale Ales (eg Dark Star APA).

Women have had an enormous influence on brewing over the years, indeed, over many many years! As far as the history books show, women have dominated brewing from the first beers brewed in Sumeria 4,000 years ago, and for most of the centuries since, and there are quite a good number of women brewing (brewsters) for micro breweries now (eg Brewsters!), thank the goddess of brewing!

But, Mr Wells also was referring to female bar tenders or bar stewards, what some people in the UK call "barmaids", which apparently, is too sexist a term for the Americans and their pressure groups, so, to him, a barmaid is a "beer goddess." However, although the Bavarian barmaid can carry many glasses of foaming beer without spills, as this photograph attests to, and which may show a propensity towards superhuman strength, they are well oversized glasses, so nowhere near full. Us ale swilling British males, not always the most beautiful aesthetically, do enjoy the company of barmaids, though, let alone goddesses. However, I have to admit I've only ever had one relationship with a barmaid in my life, when I was in my early 20s, though my ex-wife runs a pub in Sheffield with her new husband (a lucky, and lovely, couple!); maybe many barmaids are goddesses, whatever, they've certainly avoided lowly me...

More seriously though, in recent years in Britain the Campaign for Real Ale (CAMRA) has used the female image to help its cause too, eg with this more up to date image of the goddess, Ninkasi, which I imagine was partly a way to encourage more women to drink real ale, although I'd imagine it has encouraged many men to drink even more real ale! 

A few years ago, Jennifer Ellison was used as part of CAMRA's successful campaign to stop the Government's beer tax escalator; she may well be a caricature of how barmaids are supposed to look, maybe a 'beer goddess' even. However, barmaids and barmen (I can attest to this having been a bar steward in many hostelries in the past) are usually much like the rest of us, ordinary people, not gods or goddesses, carrying out a wonderful role serving up quality ales to us, and may they continue to do so, many thanks.

Mr Wells also mentions a beer writer in the USA who calls herself "The Beer Goddess", Lisa Morrison, whom I follow on Twitter and Facebook, and I do like reading her articles, but, whatever, more next time...

Hail Ninkasi, indeed, cheers!