Article

2010-04-02 Britain

Men have women to thank for making beer popular

Archived material is restricted to Rantburg regulars and members. If you need access email fred.pruitt=at=gmail.com with your nick to be added to the members list. There is no charge to join Rantburg as a member.

Posted by tipper 2010-04-02 08:53|| || Front Page|| [1 views ] Top

#1 They may have a point. For most of human history, beer, wine, and later whiskey, was a way to store grain long past the time when it would have rotted. Especially in cooler climes, when food ran very low in early Spring.

Thus, whoever ran the kitchen was the maker and keeper of the beer.

Posted by Anonymoose 2010-04-02 10:17|| 2010-04-02 10:17|| Front Page Top

#2 If it weren't for women, there would be no need for beer.

Posted by gorb 2010-04-02 10:29|| 2010-04-02 10:29|| Front Page Top

#3 In fact for most of humankind's history men have performed the tasks who fed the family while women who were less productive (both for reason of strength and pregnancies) performed "auxiliary" tasks who made life more pleasnt.

Thus when humans ate mostly game, women engaged in agriculture (if crops were bad it was not a such big deal) but once agriculture became critical for survival men ensured most/all of the work in the fields. In the same way, once brewing "became a professional sport" ie some families relied on it for providing most/all of their earnings, men had to take over since not having beer or only in small quantities (like when a woman has also to care for the children or exhausted due to pregnancy) was no longer an option

Posted by JFM 2010-04-02 12:15|| 2010-04-02 12:15|| Front Page Top

#4 ...suppose, in order to make my comparison as little complicated as possible, that he brews nothing but beer as strong as the generality of beer to be had at the public-house, and divested of the poisonous drugs which that beer but too often contains; and I shall further suppose that he uses in his family two quarts of this beer every day from the first of October to the last day of March inclusive; three quarts a day during the months of April and May; four quarts a day during the months of June and September; and five quarts a day during the months of July and August; and if this be not enough, it must be a family of drunkards. Here are 1097 quarts, or 274 gallons. Now, a bushel of malt will make eighteen gallons of better beer than that which is sold at the public-houses.

That's from William Cobbett's Cottage Economy (link is just the brewing part). Once you get past the rant on tea, about halfway down, you come to a very interesting and useful discription of brewing at the level of a country household.

Before the rise of craft brewing in the late '70s, this was one of the very few good descriptions of how to brew from malt at a small scale. It's still one of the best.

I highly recommend the whole book, actually, it's available from Gutenberg, and it's in print. Check out William Cobbett on Wikipedia.

Posted by KBK 2010-04-02 12:58|| 2010-04-02 12:58|| Front Page Top

#5 Women have beer to thank for making marriage popular.

Posted by Keeney 2010-04-02 13:38|| 2010-04-02 13:38|| Front Page Top

#6 "Men have women to thank for making beer popular"

Men may have to thank women for making beer, but beer made itself popular among men.

Posted by Barbara Skolaut 2010-04-02 19:28|| 2010-04-02 19:28|| Front Page Top

#7 I'll toast all of you with Ninkasi's Sumerian Ale. After Passover is over, of course.

When you pour out the filtered beer of the collector vat,
It is [like] the onrush of Tigris and Euphrates.
Ninkasi, you are the one who pours out the filtered beer of the collector vat,
It is [like] the onrush of Tigris and Euphrates.

Posted by Eric Jablow 2010-04-02 22:49|| 2010-04-02 22:49|| Front Page Top

00:16 JosephMendiola
23:26 JosephMendiola
23:11 Pappy
23:08 gorb
23:02 tipper
22:52 gorb
22:49 abu do you love
22:49 Eric Jablow
22:46 gorb
22:43 gorb
22:39 Anguper Hupomosing9418
22:34 abu do you love
22:31 abu do you love
22:23 phil_b
22:06 phil_b
21:55 JosephMendiola
21:50 JosephMendiola
21:50 tipper
21:48 JosephMendiola
21:44 JosephMendiola
21:39 DarthVader
21:38 Glenmore
21:36 DarthVader
21:33 Halliburton - Mysterious Conspiracy Division