5 Witchcraft Symbols That Are Really About Brewing Beer

Even though I have friends in the beer-making industry I myself don't really know much about making beer. I know that a lot goes into making a good beer and one friend even told me it's really chemistry. That could be why I don't have a great grasp on the whole process. My last chemistry grade in college was a D.

What I do know about making beer is that it's an art. You have to know what you're doing but you also have to treat it as a craft. It requires skills and creativity which can't always be taught. Making or should I say brewing beer goes back thousands of centuries. As a matter of fact, in an article I was recently reading by the Smithsonian, they have beer drinking going back as far as 7000 years ago.

It is in that same article that I came across 5 things attributed to witches and witchcraft that are really about beer making and Alewives (See Gallery Below). If you have time you should really dive into the history of beer making and why in recent history men were more often brewers of beer than women. That wasn't true until about the mid 1500s according to the article by the Smithsonian.

As a matter of fact, up until the mid-1500s most beers were brewed by women and it was considered a woman's job. Then came the turn about, believed to be the resulting greed and some puritan beliefs. Suddenly Alewives and women brewers were accused of being witches because of their ability to brew beer. This caused most women to end the practice in order to be spared the punishment that came along with being labeled a witch.

Luckily today's beer industry is taking a fresh look at the number of men vs women in the beer-making industry. The Brewers Association even initiated a diversity study to address the issue of women and ethnicities in the beer brewing industry.

So what are the five items that are attributed to witches that are really about brewing beer?