Blog — history

Note: This post was originally published as a feature in the February 2017 issue of the Community Edition. It is available online here.                                                                                            It’s no surprise that the recent flood of small craft breweries in Ontario has led to the rise of related industries. Escarpment labs in Guelph is Canada’s first liquid yeast lab, and companies like Harvest...

In 1972, Rosa Merckx became the first official female brewmaster and operations director in 20th century Belgium. After the death of her former boss, she was given control of the 300 year-old Liefmans Oudenaarde brewery, where she had worked since 1946 (Nurin). Merckx is an absolute pioneer in the female brewing revolution, which has taken until the new millennium to really build momentum in Europe. Want proof? It took until 2012 for a woman - Sara Barton - to win the British Guild of Beer Writers Brewer of the Year award. And it was just last year that a group...

Oh Brother, wherefore art thou hops? As a hop lover, part of me just f@*!ing hates gruits. That same part of me feels like they are a waste of a brew day. Why would I put time and energy into a left-behind brewing practice that favours inferior ingredients? Do you know why I use hops? Because they are amazingly well-suited to beer. Once you get a taste for the pungent flavours and bitter notes there is no substitute. Well, there is no substitute that actually stands up. But that's just my inner hop head talking. Gruits and herb beers definitely have their...

The world’s earliest brewers were women; from ancient Sumeria to medieval England, women were responsible for crafting the barley-based beverage that is so often associated with bearded men today. So, what changed? How and when did women start brewing, and why did they stop? In this three-part series, I’ll explore the origins, devolution, and re(volution) of women’s role in brewing. For the first instalment, let’s start with the understanding that the female-dominated craft of brewing developed in much the same way all over the world. Installment One: The Origins of Women in Brewing Ancient Sumerians believed that beer was a...