Celebrating our inspirational women
Posted by Tracey Baty on
In celebration of International Women’s Day on 8thMarch, it felt appropriate that the subject of this month's Directors' Dairy on the newsletter was the role of Women In Brewing.
It’s a little known fact that the original ‘brewsters’ of beer were almost always female. Whilst agriculture has always been seen as ‘man’s domain’, the preparation of food and drink has traditionally fallen to women in most societies since time immemorial. For centuries, women were the ones to make the beer/drink that sustained and nourished their menfolk. It was only with the introduction of hops from Europe which gave beer a longer shelf life and more flavour variety, and the negative images given to female brewers and ale wives in the 15th and 16th Centuries by men who feared being given short measures, that brewing became a more male dominated industry.
Thankfully, much has changed since those times, and the international and UK brewing industry is a lot better for it!
The current UK brewing industry is becoming a much more even playing field in terms of women brewers and the real ale revolution in the early 00’s followed by the craft beer evolution in recent years has done much to help this. Beer has lost its ‘masculine’ persona and many breweries now are embracing the fact that their beers are enjoyed by both male and female drinkers.
One thing that has become abundantly clear is that women who drink beer do not want to drink ‘women specific’ beer! Bottles coloured pink, or flavoured with fruit to mask bitterness are not acceptable.
Here at Wold Top we’ve never tried to brew beers specifically for women. Our aim is just to make them for everyone to enjoy! The brewery is also run by an amazing team of women! Current co-director Kate is ably assisted by Anne, Alice, Alex, Jo, Sam and Hannah (pictured from left to right above). Wold Top is powered by women!
Kate