A WOMAN’S BREW? The Devil’s in the Draught Lines

 A Unite Landworker book review 

A WOMAN’S BREW?

The Devil’s in the Draught Lines

1,000 years of women in Britain’s Beer History

Dr Christina Wade

CAMRA Books

Men now dominate the beer industry with just 4% of head brewers being women and even less being owners.

Beer historian Christina Wade’s highly interesting book, combining throughout each chapter the medieval world with the 21^st century, shows the imbalance, brought on by the Industrial Revolution, is relatively recent.

Even before hops were added, the primary producers of beer were women who today are acting as inspirations for a growing band of women re-assuming their roles within one of the most important cultural sectors of British society.

In 1203, Maud, wife of Hugh, was fined for selling a false gallon of ale. Women dominated the brewing industry in the Middle Ages in England, Scotland and Wales. They brewed sporadically, often when they needed money.

When the price of beer was frozen following the Black Death in the 1300s this proved unpopular amongst brewers in an era of rising wages that encouraged increasing alcoholic consumption, which in turn led to the early development of the public house.

In 1511 The Aberdeen Council Registers detailing the inner workings of the city reveals that 135 of the 136 of those who brewed beer for profit were women who reflecting the legal practices in place were referred to as a wife or widow.

In Scotland many women were accused over many centuries of witchcraft.  205 were executed and the story that ‘alewives’ inspired the modern image of the witch has become common. Wade, who runs a popular blog, meticulously debunks these myths.

Simultaneously in a book packed with unknown gems she credits Jane Robinson with highlighting the importance of Mary Seacole’s British Hotel behind enemy lines during the Crimean War. This served French beer and champagne to soldiers escaping, even briefly, the horrors of war.

Seacole, voted recently the greatest Black Briton, amongst whom today there includes a number of brewing owners such as Helena Adepipe of Peckham based Eko Brewery, also made a mean claret.

In the 19^th century many women ran pubs and alehouses with 24,652 compared to 48,533 men serving as proprietors in 1851. This resulted in, at least, some men seeking to have women removed from the trade by contending it was unproper for women to run public houses.

The situation facing barmaids, many of whom such as Charlotte Drake and Mary Elizabeth Phillips, were suffragettes, was also difficult. Low pay meant long hours. There was harassment.

The barmaids’ cause was taken up Eliza Orme, a leading suffragette and she helped compile report a report on barmaids for the Royal Commission in Labour. Trade union organisation though, like today across the hospitality sector, was difficult due to the barmaids’ isolation.

CAMRA has published Wade’s book which I’d strongly recommended reading over a glass – or two – of your favourite tipple.