The Churn
Did Black Women Invent Beer? And Does The Beer Industry Care?
Mike JordanFebruary 2, 2021
Did Black Women Invent Beer?
Who made beer first? It’s a trickier question than you might think, and one that could depend on A) who you ask, and B) how much beer they’ve had.
A lot folks will probably say Belgium (incorrectly). Some will say it was Iran, Iraq or China. And others insist that Egypt deserves the credit.
We’re not here to argue with any of those places, because we weren’t there. Besides, beer is for sharing.
But most folks agree that the earliest-known beer recipe was written in the form of a poem, by Mesopotamian women honoring Ninkasi, the Sumerian goddess of brewing.
Jen Price, the founder of the forthcoming Atlanta Beer Boutique, is a Black woman who does beer things. We asked her if this seems to be accepted as truth in the brewing industry and she says yes.
“In the circles that I’m part of, the fact that the original brewers were women, plus the fact that beer was born in the Middle East, is definitely accepted as truth. For folks who really care about the history of beer and brewing — those of us who read, research, and have honest conversations with our other beer friends — it’s hard to miss these facts. The information is there and I’m happy to see more and more stories that talk about the beginnings of beer.”
Here’s the basic story:
- The first evidence of beer was found in China. It was made at least 9,000 years ago, somewhere around 7000 B.C. It included rice, honey and fruit, which sounds a lot more like sake.
- In the early 1990s, archaeologists found traces of beer in a Mesopotamian jar dating back to somewhere between 3500 and 3100 B.C., in what we now call Iran. It is believed that the idea came from baking — grains used to make cereal may have been unattended, which caused them to ferment.
- These Sumerian beer brewers’ creation was thick — like, thicc-thick. It was closer to porridge than what we call beer today, and it inspired the Sumerian invention of the straw, which was used so that drinkers could get past the malty top layer of what was essentially alcoholic oatmeal.
- The Egyptians came and changed the game, perfecting beer by making it lighter and smoother to drink. The lower viscosity meant beer went from being served in bowls among Sumerians to cups. This is why historians generally cite Egypt as the place where the stuff we call beer was created.
- The earliest recipe for beer ever found is The Hymn to Ninkasi, etched into clay tablets around 1800 B.C., and found in what is now Iraq. Who is Ninkasi? Oh, just the Sumerian goddess of beer and brewing, as well as drunkenness, seduction, fertility, harvest, and of course, war. We might-should be worshipping her today.
- It is accepted as an irrefutable fact that women did the brewing in those days, and had authority over where and how it was drank.
- Along with Ninkasi, the Sumerians also had a queen named Kubaba, who was their first woman ruler, and also a bartender. The Egyptians had a beer goddess named Menqet, and they worshipped Sekhmet (the warrior-goddess daughter of Sun-Ra), who was so bloodthirsty that folks once had to put red dye in beer so that after guzzling it she’d be too drunk to violently end all humanity.
You can read more about women being the OG brewers here and at Vice.
These were clearly women of color, so to speak. But were they “Black?” That might depend on your interpretation of Sumerians being known as “black-headed people.” Some interpret that to mean the color of their hair. Others say that because the Middle East and North Africa were once shared the same tectonic plate, and people were known to have darker skin, it’s all connected anyway.
“I had always heard that beer originated in Africa,” says Branden Peters, co-founder of Atlanta-based beer lifestyle brand Draught Season (pronounced “draft season”). “I didn’t find out that Black women actually created the first known recipe until I dug deep and did my own research. As with most things, the information is out there, you just have to look for it.”
Price agrees. “I think there is still a lot of room to continue to tell these stories and to make the truth known. That’s one of the missions of Craft Women Connect, a group that I founded in 2019 along with four other women of color here in Atlanta. We seek to highlight our voices in the industry and to be a constant reminder that we are present and that we belong here.”
To be clear, the beer industry, and certainly the craft beer segment, has a long way to go before it can be called anything near diverse, equitable or inclusive.
It was just two years ago that Celeste Beatty opened Harlem Brewing Company in New York, becoming the first Black woman in America to own a brewery. And it hasn’t even been half a year since Anheuser Busch named Natalie Johnson its first-ever Black woman brewmaster.
This, despite all of last year’s virtue signaling from the brewing industry to make things more fair (or at least more related to beer’s history, right?), is proof that the people in power need to pour something a little stronger if they want their efforts to be believed. And Price says the fact that there are so few women of color in the industry is not lost on her.
“Until the Black is Beautiful movement in 2020, I’d never seen so many breweries claim to be worried or concerned about improving diversity, equity and inclusion. I’m not knocking the many breweries who participated. I think a part of the issue is that white owned breweries didn’t know where to start, and participating in BIB was a really tangible, timely, and easy way for them to do it.”
Kevin Irvin, who co-founded Draught Season with Peters, says he wants to see more of what is already happening. “We are seeing a lot of specific effort on diversity in craft beer over the last year,” he says.
“Nationally, the Michael James Jackson Foundation is funding scholarship awards to BIPOC within brewing and distilling trades, and Crowns & Hops (based in CA) had their 8 Trill Pils grant, where they gave out a total of $100,000 specifically to Black-owned craft beer businesses, to provide support in the areas of business development, growth, and sustainability. And locally, Monday Night Brewing has launched a paid internship program focused on supporting BIPOC and women looking to get into or further their careers in the industry.”
Still, Price says, even with efforts such as Monday Night’s here in Atlanta, when it comes to diversity efforts, White-owned breweries have mainly reached out to Black brewers and homebrew clubs led by men. She says that of the 29 breweries in Georgia who participated in Black is Beautiful, only a handful reached out to Black women or women of color to be a part of their projects.
“As a woman who’s been involved in the beer industry for a decade, that was hurtful. So, I’m interested in seeing what happens next,” Price says. “What will these breweries do going forward if they’re genuinely interested in making change in the industry? Everyone can do something.”
She says it’s not incumbent upon the underrepresented to figure it out for brewing companies. Instead, it’s lasting and authentic relationships with women and people of color that are needed, so that diversity, equity and inclusion can be truly achieved.
“The beer industry is a huge fraternity,” she says. “It’s dominated in all facets — from brewing to distributing to selling and serving — by white men. We can no longer depend on others to tell the stories. I am proud of the women and the people of color who I know are a part of elevating the history of beer through our own participation in the industry.”
Despite the setbacks of COVID-19 on the economy, Jen Price is still scouting locations and seeking funding for Atlanta Beer Boutique, which she hopes to open soon. Keep up with her progress at AtlantaBeerBoutique.com, and follow her organization Craft Women Connect on Instagram.
You can also purchase gear from Draught Season, including their “Beer is Black History” shirts, at DraughtSeason.com.