Women only: Beery Edinburgh event is an adventure through brewing history

The stereotype of a beer swigging British man enjoying a refreshment after a hard days slog is a well-worn caricature.

ScotBeer event at Audacious Women festival.

But the hidden history of the brewing tradition tells quite a different story.

In fact, women dominated brewing for thousands of years prior industrialisation.

And as part of the fourth Audacious Women Festival, Sara Robertson founder of ScotBeer, is hosting a special event taking women on a beery adventure through the frothy brewing past.

She said it wasn’t until after World War 2 that the rigorous marketing machine changed beer drinking perceptions.

She explained: “We’re really passionate about introducing people to beer and breaking down people’s expectations of what drinks they should and shouldn’t like, when they’re supposed to drink them and how they’re supposed to drink them. A lot of that has actually been generated by marketing.

“The story about the change from beer being a drink for everyone to a masculine drink starts post World War 2.

“After WW2 there was this huge consolidation of the brewing industry into just a couple of big brewers and the advent of mass marketing - think Mad Men.

“It was visual marketing and brewers started promoting beer as a reward for hard work rather than just an everyday drink.

“So it was advertised for men coming home from war as a reward for their service and an extension of that was an after work beer.”

And Sara said its a fairly unique phenomenon to UK.

“The UK has particularly gendered expectations of alcohol, she said. “In a lot of other countries there is no distinction for example in Germany and Switzerland, or the Netherlands – both men and women drink beer equally.”

The event, on Sunday from 1pm-2pm at St Andrews Brewing Co on Potterrow is an adventure through the history of women in brewing from the beer goddesses of Romans and Vikings to the dark tales of alewives and onto post-WWII mass advertising that saw beer consumption become a symbol of masculinity.

Tickets are £11.35 at www.audaciouswomen.scot – sorry guys, it’s women only.

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