Yes, we all know, March is the month of women. But I assure you that this post goes much further, because we want to tell you about the vital importance that women have had in the history of beer. And it is so exciting (and unknown) that we are going to to spend the whole month.
Do you, brewer or brewer, know that for centuries women were the main producers of this drink? Yes, women were the origin and guardians of this drink that we are passionate about today, and this ancestral trace is still maintained in different cultures around the world. In most ancient societies, the protective deities of the brewery were female entities associated with fertility. And it is logical: beer comes from cereal, cereal is the symbol of abundance and fertility, and these are female symbols
So women have been consumers, but mostly producers, for at least 3,500 years. Want to know more? How did this drink come about? Why were women in charge? Why was the bond between women and beer broken? I'll tell you the whole story:
The beginning of time: Sumer, Babylon and other very ancient peoples
Beer has a very old legacy: it came before wine, before whiskey and even before bread.
Do you remember the Gilgamesh poem, the one they told us about in high school history class? Well, in addition to being one of the first epic poems on record, in it appears Ninkasi the goddess of beer or "the Lady who fills the mouth". This deity was born from “fresh and bubbling waters”, and her mission was to “satiate the heart” of Enki, the god of Sumerian mythology.
Okay, a goddess who is born to fulfill the needs of a god. But she invented beer
In Sumeria and Mesopotamia, only the priestesses of this goddess could make the sacred brew, maintaining absolute control of production. And it was used both in ceremonies and in the daily food ration.
In Babylon, beer production is so great that it is beginning to be commercialized, and again, it was the women who ran the taverns and bakeries (as you can see, beer and cereal always go hand). The price of beer had to be paid in raw grain, and the oldest law book, the Code of Hammurabi, regulates its payment.
Another gift that the women of these civilizations gave us was the straw to drink the beer. Due to the brewing method, the liquid contained traces of grain husks and other impurities that floated in the surface. Thus, with a straw, you could drink the lower part, that is, the beer, without problems.
Egypt: beer as currency
The word salary comes from salt. But the incredible thing is that in Egypt part of that salary was also paid in beer: about two vessels per day of work. In fact, beer was so important in daily life that the hieroglyph for food was a jug of beer and a loaf of bread.
The precious liquid food was also produced by hand at home, there were women in the domestic service dedicated solely to this task, and a place in the house reserved for it, which was called “la purity”.Pretty, isn't it?
However, the importance that the drink gained in the country and abroad (it was exported to Rome, Palestine and even India) made men take control of the trade, and women were relegated to more secondary roles As soon as the money arrived, women were pushed aside…
As for all ancient peoples, for the Egyptians beer has a divine origin since the fermentation process was not yet understood. And they also have a myth, starring another goddess, for the origin of the drink. This account as Sejmet, warrior goddess, with the body of a woman and the head of a lioness, was sent by Ra, god of the sky, the Sun and the origin of life, to punish humanity for stopping worshiping him .
But the lesson taught by Sekhmet was so harsh that Ra himself, to calm her down, gave her red beer to drink (the drink was usually made with red wheat and spelled) telling her to It was about the blood of all men. Intoxicated by the drink, Sekhmet became Hathor, goddess of love, joy, dance and music. The magical power of beer.
In the North: Viking Warriors and the Finnish Kelavala
Between the 8th and 10th centuries B.C. The Vikings spread throughout Europe. They were feared for their ferocity in fighting. Where they went, they messed it up. And each new conquest was celebrated with Aul, a beer with the status of a sacred drink. And who brewed this elixir of victory? Well, again the women, who had the exclusivity of this task.
Some of the beers brewed by the Vikings contained hallucinogenic ingredients. Different fermentations and added fungus caused LSD-like reactions. Women drank side by side (or pitcher to pitcher) with men, and developed the concept of "bragg", or the power to see the future, under the influence of this drink. Thus, some brewers became priestesses, and their position in society improved.
And to close this post, I bring you one last little-known mythological story, which also tells how beer was created. In the Kelavala, the compilation of Finnish epic poems, again three women work to brew the world's first beer, but to no avail. Then one of them, Kelavatar, combined the saliva of a bear with wild honey and achieved the first foamy beer, which they gave to men.
The curious thing about all this is the number of verses dedicated in this poem to the creation of beer compared to the space dedicated to the creation of the world... more than double! The Finns were clear about their priorities.
I'm sure these stories have surprised you as much as they have me. It's not what they usually tell us when we're little. But it makes sense. As I already told you, beer appeared long before wine. And besides, for centuries, beer was the healthiest drink that existed. Because the water came largely from rivers and wells, it was susceptible to causing disease; On the contrary, beer, due to its alcohol content, was much safer, so much so that it was drunk since childhood
In the next post I will tell you what happened to beer with the Romans and during the Middle Ages… and what was the role of women
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