Beer has always been perceived as a masculine drink that macho men drink in pubs while watching football with other men. But it's a drink, and there is truly no logic that justifies ascribing gender to a beverage. Two Bengaluru women are proving just that by becoming master brewers to reckon with.
Making a mark in the male-dominated brewery industry
Mainstays in the pub-filled city's craft-brewing scene, Lynette Pires and Varsha Bhat, have become trailblazers in the beer world.
Discussing the roadblocks she faced as a woman in brewery, Lynette, the head brewer at Seven Rivers Brewing Co., told AFP, “I’m much younger than the room that I’m in, and then I’m also a woman so standing there, maybe, mostly a male-dominated room, and trying to get your opinion across, trying to get them to listen to what you’re saying, and you know, take it a certain way, uh, that, that took a – the first time was a bit of a learning, you know—and then you have to learn how to overcome those and like, move past it or deal with it. And then, control the room.”
Varsha, the Head Brewer at Mannheim Brews, pointed out that there’s nothing women can’t do, “from recipe development, to the physical work, to managing a team,” to AFP.
Promoting women in brewing
Making their mark on the beer industry in a city known for craft beers, the two have inspired other women who are beer enthusiasts to try brewery, through Women Brewers Collective, which brings together and promotes many women brewers.
Lynette told AFP, “I definitely want to be a role model for other women brewers. I’m sure everyone in the collective feels that way as well because that’s what it’s all about-- to inspire and help develop other women who are kind of entering the industry.”
Why is beer associated with men?
What's interesting is that ancient Mesopotamian clay tablets indicate that most brewers at the time were women. Not only that, but the oldest surviving beer recipe from Sumer honours the goddess Ninkasi. Clearly, the history of brewing is full of women, and even the deities associated with brewing, happen to have feminine forms in mythology.
That probably explains why Girija Chatty, who hosts the beer and brewery-related podcast, Cheers Chatty, told AFP that the whole idea of beer being a man’s drink is a myth: “People need to realise that even if it was by accident, it was a woman who brewed beer. So how can you just take it away from us? We gave bread, we gave grains a new life and that's how the world is enjoying it. So I find it crazy and a little immature and ignorant when people say it's a man's drink.”
All of this begs the question: how many other things have we been unnecessarily gendering? And what if pointless sexism is what’s standing between us and a well-made pint?
Source: AFP
