No matter how many glasses of stellar wine or delicious cocktails I drink, I somehow remain unsatisfied if a booze-soaked night out goes by without beer. Like Alanis Morisette once said, “It’s like ten thousand spoons when all you need is a knife.” That’s how I feel about beer.

Aside from the all-around awesome experience of drinking beer, I love the stuff because it has an interesting, girl-power infused history.

The very first recipe for beer is recorded on a 3-5000 year old tablet in the form of a poem dedicated to the goddess of brewing, Ninkasa. This righteous goddess toiled everyday to brew the beverage that filled Sumerian peoples and Gods’ lives with joy. Despite the fact that back then, beer was thick and porridge-like (how um, refreshing?) and people drank it out of a communal bowl with straws (I hope Sumerians had decent oral hygiene) people really seemed to admire her efforts all the same.

From the Sumerians to the Egyptians to the Vikings all the way to colonial America, women were the star home brewers, and right from the get go, bewing was taken seriously. The Code of Hammurabi (1700 BC), declared that tavern keepers/“alewives” should be killed if they slacked on their brewing duties. Talk about suffering for your craft! In England in the 1700’s, 78% of licensed brewers were female, and although they couldn’t rightfully own their own taverns all by themselves, the tools used in brewing were, by law, women’s property.

Now, with the craft beer renaissance going down, women are really getting back in touch with the roots of brewing as a lady-fueled activity. Did you know Toronto is home to Canada’s only female beer sommelier? Mirella Amato runs her own company, Beerology, where she trains restaurant staff, designs bar menus, and hosts workshops like beer and chocolate/cheese pairings (girls night out, anyone?) She also runs the Toronto chapter of Barley’s Angels, an international beer enthusiast group that promotes the involvement of women in beer – appreciating it, making it, and working in the industry.

For a great into to craft beer, head to Mirella’s Girl’s Guided Beer Tour as part of the Queer Beer Festival, on July 26thfrom 6 – 9 at Exhibition Place. In the meantime though, head to the LCBO and explore the craft beer shelf, mix up some beer cocktails at home, or if you’re a real keen bean, check out the Prud’homme beer certificate course. You can do it online for 150 bucks. But, if you just want to kick back and drink really awesome beers, that works too.

Happy drinking, priestesses of Ninkasa!

~ Kait Fowlie