MORE THAN 7,000 YEARS AGO, BREWING BEGAN TO DEVELOP IN MESOPOTAMIA, UNTIL TODAY....
Plato said that whoever invented beer was a wise man. He was wrong. In reality, it was a woman. Wise. Yes, it was women who invented beer! And not only are they responsible for the discovery, their contributions throughout the history of brewing have been crucial in its development to conceive it as we do today. More than 7,000 years ago, brewing began to develop in Mesopotamia; it was women who mixed cereal grains with water and herbs. They cooked them... and from that intuitive mixture driven by the need to feed themselves resulted a brew that fermented spontaneously. Soon they began to develop their skills around that cloudy and thick liquid, but very nutritious, which was also capable of uplifting the spirit. According to British historian and beer sommelier Jane Peyton, at that time and for several thousand years, their level of knowledge made them the only ones who could produce and also market it.
It was in the Middle Ages when the production and consumption of beer took a new turn by adding hops to the mixture. A flower that gives the drink its characteristic bitterness, and whose preservative properties allowed it to be stored for much longer. The person responsible for the discovery that gave this radical turn to brewing was the abbess Hildegarda de Bingen. Of course, this good woman, who combined her role as a master brewer with that of a theologian, writer, and botanist among others, was eventually canonized. It’s no wonder they made her a saint! With the industrialization of production processes, the role of women ceased to be central in the field of brewing, although more and more women enjoy, know, produce, and share their passion for this drink that, as we have told you, was never just a man's thing.
