All Hail the Alewife

For the uninitiated, what is an alewife?

Alewives, also known as brewsters, were women who brewed from home—either to sell to their neighbours or for their own households (or both). Unlike modern homebrewing, however, for alewives brewing was more like a regular domestic duty rather than a hobby—like breadmaking or weaving.

What happened to alewives?

As brewing became more centralized and industrialized (in part due to the introduction of hops as a preservative that allowed beer to last far longer and be shipped further), it became more profitable. When an industry becomes profitable and centralized, men tend to push women out. This is essentially what happened with medieval brewing.

What did beer in medieval times taste like? Were they making any hazy IPAs?

Definitely no hazy IPAs, but certainly there were hazy beers, since oats were a very common brewing grain (more common than barley). Hops were not a regular ingredient in beer until the 14^th century in the Netherlands and even later for other European countries.  Before hops, beer was flavoured with herbal additives that we now call gruit.

Beer without hops would only last a few days before it began to sour, so people were often drinking sour beer. If your beer was clear, it was likely to be sour since the haze had had time to settle. Sometimes honey would be added to offset the sourness and improve flavour. Dark beers would have likely tasted somewhat smoky because of how malt had to be roasted over flames. It wasn’t until 1817 that the drum roaster was invented, and this allowed brewers to make dark beers with rich flavour rather than a woodsy smokiness.

What’s the closest thing to a medieval beer that people can order or purchase today?

Anything marketed as “gruit” would probably be the closest. Unhopped ale tastes a bit odd to us now, since we are so used to having hops in beer, but beer throughout most of the medieval period was unhopped.

How has the role beer plays in society changed over the years? 

That’s a huge question, and it depends on whether we’re going back 8,000 years to beer’s origins in ancient Sumeria or beginning with my own field (the medieval period). I’d say one major shift that has happened is beer’s movement from part of female domestic spaces to industrialized spaces governed by men, to the extent that beer is now thought of as a man’s drink. Another big change is its role in our diet; through much of beer’s pre-modern history, it was consumed by people of all ages as a source of nutrition. It was often low in alcohol. In some cases, it was safer to drink than water (although this was not always true—many medieval cities had water hygiene systems in place and beer was not always boiled). It was a daily drink that was considered part of a balanced diet.

What first sparked your interest in beer history?

I’m interested in medievalism, defined as the re-creation or adaptation of medieval concepts by post-medieval societies. I noticed that a lot of modern beer marketing used medieval figures like monks or Vikings, or referred to beer’s origins in the Middle Ages (even though that’s not true—beer had been around for far longer and was first produced in the Middle East and North Africa). This interest led me into my first book project, Craft Beer Culture and Modern Medievalism: Brewing Dissent.

What’s one surprising thing about beer that people might not know?

That it pairs with food better than wine does in many cases. Beer has a wide variety of potential tastes (such as bitterness, which wine does not have) and is incredible as a food pairing drink.

What’s your go-to beer order?

I don’t really have a go-to beer, because it depends on the time of year and the kind of brewery I’m in. I’ll tend to order the beer style that I know that brewery makes the best. I’m usually not very interested in novelty beers (peanut butter marshmallow stouts and that kind of thing). I like classic styles made very well: German Pilsners, Belgian-style Saisons, and American west coast IPAs are three of my favourites.

What is the strangest beer you’ve ever tried?

A taco-flavoured beer from Detonate Brewing in Summerland. Such a weird beer but apparently popular because they have it on tap all the time! The Turkey Dinner IPA by Storm Brewing in Vancouver was another interesting one!

You are a professional belly dancer. How does that tie in with your interest in literature and beer?

Dance is my creative outlet! I’m not sure there’s much overlap, although I do include all my interests in my Instagram handle (@beerbooksbellydance). I have my intellectual life (being a professor and an academic), then I have my tasting life (beer judging), then I have my physically exertive and creative life (belly dance). It keeps me from feeling burned out on one thing.

Lastly, the Barbara Walters-style closing question: What kind of beer represents your personality. i.e. If you could be any beer, what would it be?

Oh man… that’s difficult to answer. I think I’d probably be a Trappist tripel produced by a Belgian monastic brewery (any beer labelled Trappist must be produced within and by a Trappist monastery, and there are 12 Trappist breweries in the world). It’s rich and spicy, has more of a kick than you’d expect and is connected to a long history of hand-crafted beer. It’s everything I like about beer 😊.

—Michael Kissinger, BEd ’94