Consumers can distinguish between bitter tastes in beer -- doesn't alter liking

PENN STATE

 

Although most beer consumers can distinguish between different bitter tastes in beer, this does not appear to influence which beer they like. It seems they just like beer, regardless of the source of the bitterness.

That is the conclusion of Penn State sensory researchers who conducted multiple studies with more than 150 self-identified beer drinkers to see if they could differentiate bitterants in beer. But the question of whether humans can discriminate between types of bitterness remains controversial, according to researcher John Hayes, associate professor of food science.

"Given that countless craft breweries around the country have been very successful in selling a near-endless variety of India pale ales -- better known as IPAs -- we wanted to move past testing bitter chemicals in water to see if consumers could differentiate different bitters in a real food such as beer," he said.

To determine beer drinkers' ability to distinguish between bitter chemicals, study participants in blind taste tests were given commercially available nonalcoholic beer spiked with hop extract Isolone, quinine -- the ingredient that makes tonic water bitter -- and sucrose octaacetate, a food additive so bitter it has been used as a nail-biting and thumb-sucking deterrent.

Participants, about half men and half women, most in their 30s, took part in three experiments. In the first, researchers asked subjects to rate the amount of bitterness and other beer flavor attributes in samples using an intensity scale, to ensure the beer samples were equally bitter.

In the next experiment, beer consumers rated how samples differed from a reference on a seven-point scale. Then, to understand how each sample differed from others, participants checked attributes on a list of 13 descriptors to describe the samples.

In the final experiment, beer consumers tasted the beer samples, rated how much they liked each sample and provided a forced-choice ranking for best-liked to worst-liked.

According to Hayes, who is director of Penn State's Sensory Evaluation Center in the College of Agricultural Sciences, most participants were able to discern differences in bitterness -- even though the samples had been matched for bitterness intensity.

"But our results also show that, despite being able to differentiate between the different bitter chemicals, they were not able to verbally describe these differences, even when provided a list of attributes," he said. "Further, we found no consistent effect on liking or preference. The source of bitterness did not influence which beers they liked."

In the sampled beers, researchers attempted to match the flavor profile of a pale ale style beer, in which high bitterness is not only accepted but desired by consumers, noted lead researcher Molly Higgins, who will receive her doctoral degree in food science this August. Higgins explained that she recruited regular beer consumers because they are more likely to be aware of the various flavor profiles of beer and respond positively to the bitter qualities of samples during testing.

"What we found was unsurprising in hindsight -- beer consumers simply like beer," she said. "So, it seems that for consumers who drink IPAs, a beer just needs to have a bitter profile. For them, it's about bitterness in general, not the specific bitter quality -- if it's there, they will like it."

Higgins suggests that this finding may help in quality assurance at breweries. "Beer consumers may be more forgiving than previously believed when it comes to small variations across batches," she said.

Higgins noted that some breweries use highly trained expert tasters to evaluate each batch. If these experts detect any off notes or flaws in the final product, they may throw out an entire batch. "When breweries can establish an acceptable range for sensory attributes for their final products, they can make better decisions about how much variation is tolerable," she said.

However, there are many segments of beer consumers, Higgins added, and within the craft beer market there is a unique subgroup of consumers who are devoted to their IPAs. Those beer drinkers, she explained, doubtlessly pick up on more of the finer bitter notes created by novel blends of hops. Those consumers patronize craft breweries and are willing to try many different beers.

The bitter beer tasting study, recently published in Nutrients, was part of a larger research project conducted by Higgins at Penn State for her dissertation. Because of its sensory complexity and wide acceptance by many consumers, she contends, beer is a good model food to explore the capacity of people to perceive bitter taste.

Higgins said when people ask her why she would do this kind of a study, she points out that it's not about beer.

"The overall goal of my dissertation research was to learn more about bitterness and bitterness perception, and to better understand how individuals learn to like bitter products," she said. "We hope that understanding bitterness can guide further research that helps people incorporate healthy bitter foods into their diet. The overall goal is to look at more complex bitter foods, such as kale and broccoli, and figure out ways to increase their consumption and liking."

###

The Agriculture and Food Research Initiative administered by the U.S. Department of Agriculture's National Institute of Food and Agriculture supported this wor

Windsor Craft Beer Festival cancelled amid changing tastes

CBC
Wed, October 11, 2023 

 The Windsor Craft Beer Festival set for Oct. 14, 2023, has been cancelled - but a smaller event is being held that day at WindsorEats. (Dalson Chen/CBC - image credit)

At its height, the Windsor Craft Beer Festival attracted thousands of thirsty brew enthusiasts, beckoned by the promise of hoppy IPAs and other artisanal suds.

But the 2023 edition of the festival — which was set to happen this coming Saturday — has been cancelled with short notice.

Adriano Ciotoli of WindsorEats raises a mug at 400 Erie St. East in Windsor. (Dalson Chen/CBC)

Instead of holding a major festival at Willistead Park, event organizers Windsor Eats are planning a much smaller scale event on their property at 400 Erie St. East.

"I don't think (craft beer) has necessarily lost its hip-ness or its cache. It's just that there's a lot more being offered in the market right now for people to enjoy," said WindsorEats co-owner Adriano Ciotoli.

Ciotoli said the Fall Beer & Cider Festival taking place Oct. 14 will have a capacity of around 400 people — compared to the sell-out crowds of more than 4,000 that the Windsor Craft Beer Festival commanded in its early years, 2013 to 2016.

"We wanted to offer something a little more intimate," Ciotoli explained

WindsorEats announced the cancellation of the larger event at the start of the month, and refunded all advance ticket sales.

Jordan Goure of BREW Microbrewery and VIN Winery shows off the independent company's new Rosito canned sparkling wine beverage on their property in Essex on Oct. 6, 2023. (Dalson Chen/CBC)

Ciotoli said the change of plans was partly motivated by rising costs: He estimates the festival's expenses would have reached $80,000 this year.

But another factor in the decision was recognition of changing public tastes — reflected by lower ticket sales.

Ciotoli pointed out that the Windsor Craft Beer Festival isn't the only beer celebration that pulled the plug this year. There have been similar stories across North America.

Two craft beer festivals in Colorado — the Big Beers Festival in Breckenbridge and the WeldWerks Invitational in Greeley — didn't have 2023 editions.

The Washington Summer Brewers Festival, a tradition since the 1990s and considered the largest craft beer event in Washington state, was also cancelled.

Even the hipsters in Portland, Ore., have lost interest in craft beer: The Oregon Brewers Festival, one of the longest-running craft beer events in the United States, was among this year's cancellations.

Products of BREW Microbrewery in Essex. (Dalson Chen/CBC)

"Beer festivals have really been going through a transformation," Ciotoli said. "You're seeing lower attendance across the board at multiple beer-focused festivals."

But if people aren't interested in craft beer anymore — what beverages are they excited about?

"We've seen a big shift toward non-alcohol cocktails, at least at our establishment," Ciotoli said. "We're definitely seeing an uptick in ciders."

Ciotoli said the Fall Beer & Cider Festival on Oct. 14 will have 10 vendors, and four of them will be cideries.

An illustration of beer mugs that's part of a promotional image for the Fall Beer & Cider Festival happening Oct. 14, organized by WindsorEats. (Dalson Chen/CBC)

WindsorEats aren't alone in changing to meet the preferences of the market.

BREW Microbrewery in Windsor-Essex has been a participant and vendor at the Windsor Craft Beer Festival since 2014.

This year's cancellation feels "a bit like the end of an era," BREW co-founder and co-owner Jordan Goure said. "it's a little sad, for sure."

But Goure is excited about his latest non-beer product: Rosito, a sparkling wine beverage in a can, offered through BREW's sister company, VIN Winery.

"The flavour is a little minty, a little sweet," Goure said. "We carbonate it and get it down to 5.5 per cent alcohol. It's more of a wine cooler.. We just launched it this summer. We plan on scaling this up and hopefully getting it into stores over the next few years."

Along with expanding to wine, Goure is pursuing other business interests such as hosting wedding events on the BREW property in Essex County.

"We get to see some of the LCBO stats and some of the internal numbers. Really, the sales trends have been down for craft beer," Goure said. "That's why, as a company, we decided to get into a growth beverage category, which is wine coolers and wine beverages."

Beer sales declining, stats show

Indeed, craft beer festivals being put on pause are only a symptom of a larger consumer trend.

Data from Statistics Canada released in February found that the volume of beer sold per person in Canada reached an "all-time low" from 2021 to 2022.

Total Canadian beer sales during that period dropped to about 2 million litres — the equivalent of 3.7 standard bottles of beer per week for every person in the country who is old enough to legally drink alcohol.

According to Statistics Canada, that's the lowest the figure has been since they began tracking alcohol sales in 1949.

In fact, Canadian beer sales have been trending downward since the 1970s.

Meanwhile, Canadian sales of ciders and wine coolers increased by 13.5 per cent from 2021 to 2022, and by 40.2 per cent from 2020 to 2021.

Despite such data, Ciotoli still believes there's always going to a segment of drinkers who are passionate about beer — especially craft beer.

"Craft beer is definitely still cool," he insisted. "If you love it, then it's cool to you."

 

On tap: What makes beer foams so stable?

Research into stability of foams finds a valuable test subject in a tall glass of beer

American Institute of Physics

Facebook

XLinkedInWeChatBlueskyMessageWhatsAppEmail

 

image: 

Wave interference (interferometry) images of beer bubbles, superimposed onto a glass of foamy beer.

view more 

Credit: AIP/Chatzigiannakis et al.

WASHINGTON, August 26, 2025 – Beer is one of the world’s most popular drinks, and one of the clearest signs of a good brew is a big head of foam at the top of a poured glass. Even brewers will use the quality of foam as an indicator of a beer having completed the fermentation process. However, despite its importance, what makes a large, stable foam is not entirely understood.

In Physics of Fluids, from AIP Publishing, researchers from ETH Zurich and Eindhoven University of Technology investigated the stability of beer foams, examining multiple types of beer at different stages of the fermentation process.

Like any other foam, beer foam is made of many small bubbles of air, separated from each other by thin films of liquid. These thin films must remain stable, or the bubbles will pop, and the foam will collapse. What holds these thin films together may be conglomerates of proteins, surface viscosity, or the presence of surfactants, which are molecules that can reduce surface tension and are found in soaps and detergents.

While the researchers have spent years studying the formation of foams, they realized beer could serve as a perfect testing ground.

“The idea was to directly study what happens in the thin film that separates two neighboring bubbles,” said author Emmanouil Chatzigiannakis. “And the first thing that comes to mind when thinking of bubbles and foams is beer.”

Turning to a collection of scientific imaging and rheometry techniques, the team was able to determine how these thin films could hold together to make a stable foam.

“We can directly visualize what's happening when two bubbles come into close proximity,” said Chatzigiannakis. “We can directly see the bubble’s protein aggregates, their interface, and their structure.”

They found that for single fermentation beers, foams are held together primarily through the surface viscosity of the beer. However, for double-fermented beers, the proteins in the beer come together to form a two-dimensional structure, giving the thin films an elastic quality that keeps them intact longer.

With the multiple different ways beer foams hold together, the researchers believe that beer provides an excellent platform to study the stability of foams in general, with applications in everything from oil separation to firefighting chemicals and treating varicose veins.

“This is an inspiration for other types of materials design, where we can start thinking about the most material-efficient ways [of creating stable foams],” said author Jan Vermant. “If we can't use classical surfactants, can we mimic the 2D networks that double-fermented beers have?”

The authors also hope that their work will make its way to the brewers that inspired them, and that in the future the team will identify ways to increase or decrease the amount of foam so everyone can pour a perfect glass of beer every time.

###

The article “The hidden subtlety of beer foam stability: A blueprint for advanced foam formulations” is authored by Emmanouil Chatzigiannakis, Alexandra Alicke, Lea Le Bars, Lucas Bidoire, and Jan Vermant. It will appear in Physics of Fluids on Aug. 26, 2025 (DOI: 10.1063/5.0274943). After that date, it can be accessed at https://doi.org/10.1063/5.0274943.

ABOUT THE JOURNAL

Physics of Fluids is devoted to the publication of original theoretical, computational, and experimental contributions to the dynamics of gases, liquids, and complex fluids. See https://pubs.aip.org/aip/pof.

###

---

Journal

Physics of Fluids

DOI

10.1063/5.0274943 

Article Title

The hidden subtlety of beer foam stability: A blueprint for advanced foam formulations

Article Publication Date

26-Aug-2025

Why the foam on Belgian beers lasts so long

ETH Zurich

Facebook

WeChatBlueskyMessageWhatsAppEmail

Summertime is beer time – even if the consumption of alcoholic beers is declining in Switzerland. And for beer lovers, there is nothing better than a head of foam topping the golden, sparkling barley juice. But with many beers, the dream is quickly shattered, and the foam collapses before you can take your first sip. There are also types of beer, however, where the head lasts a long time.

ETH researchers led by Jan Vermant, Professor of Soft Materials, have now discovered just why this is the case. Their study has just been published in the journal Physics of Fluids. The Belgian researcher and his team put seven years of work into these issues. It all started out with a simple question put to a Belgian brewer: “How do you control fermentation?” — “By watching the foam,” was the succinct reply. 

Today, ETH scientists understand the mechanisms at work behind perfect beer foam. And perhaps future beer drinkers will be able to admire the head of foam in their glasses a little longer before quenching their thirst.

Lager beers have the most fleeting foam

In this study, the materials scientists showed that Belgian beers that have been triple fermented have the most stable foam, followed by double fermented beers. The head is least stable in single fermented lager beers.

Triple-fermented beers include Trappist beers, a speciality of the eponymous monastic order. A beer from a large Swiss brewery was also among the lager beers the ETH researchers examined. “There is still room for improvement – we are happy to help,” says Vermant with a smile.

To date, researchers assumed that the stability of beer foam depended primarily on protein-rich layers on the surface of the bubbles (see ETH News): proteins come from barley malt and influence surface viscosity, i.e. the stickiness of the surface, and the surface tension.

Surface stress instead of viscosity

The new experiments, however, show that the decisive mechanism is more complex and depends significantly on the type of beer. In single-fermentation lager beers, surface viscosity is the decisive factor. This is influenced by the proteins present in the beer: the more proteins the beer contains, the more viscous the film around the bubbles becomes and the more stable the foam will be.

The situation is different with multi-fermentation Trappist beers, where surface viscosity is actually minimal. Stability is achieved through so-called Marangoni stresses - forces that arise from differences in surface tension. 

This effect can be readily observed by placing crushed tea leaves on the surface of water. Initially, the fragments spread out evenly. If a drop of soap is added, the tea leaves are suddenly pulled to the edge, causing currents to circulate on the surface. If these currents persist for a long time, they stabilise the bubbles in the beer foam.

A protein is decisive for foam quality

However, the protein LTP1 (lipid transfer protein 1) plays a decisive role in stabilising beer foam. ETH researchers were able to confirm this by analysing the protein content of the beers they studied. 

In single fermentation beers, such as lager beers, the so-called LPT1 proteins are present in their original form. They act like small, spherical particles that arrange themselves densely on the surface of the bubbles. This corresponds to a two-dimensional suspension, i.e. a mixture of a liquid and finely distributed solids, which in turn stabilizes these bubbles.

During the second fermentation, the proteins are slightly denatured by the yeast cells, meaning that their natural structure is slightly altered. They then form a net-like structure, a kind of membrane, making the bubbles even more stable. 

During the third fermentation, the already altered LPT1 proteins are denatured to such an extent that fragments with a water-repellent and a “water-loving” end are formed. These fragments reduce the interfacial and surface tensions and stabilize the bubbles to the maximum possible extent. “These protein fragments function like surfactants, which stabilize foams in many everyday applications such as detergents,” explains Vermant.

Collaboration with a major brewery

As he emphasizes: “The stability of the foam does not depend on individual factors linearly. You can't just change 'something' and get it 'right'.” For example, increasing the viscosity with additional surfactants can actually make the foam more unstable because it slows down the Marangoni effects too strongly. “The key is to work on one mechanism at a time – and not on several at once. Beer obviously does this well by nature!” says Vermant.

In conducting this study, the ETH professor collaborated with one of the world's largest breweries that was working on the foam stability of their beers and wanted to understand what actually stabilizes beer foam. “We now know the mechanism exactly and are able to help the brewery improve the foam of their beers,” says Vermant.

For Belgian beer consumers, the head is important because of the taste and as “part of the experience,” as the materials researcher relates. “But foam isn't that important everywhere beer is served - it's basically a cultural thing.”

Potential applications also in technology and the environment

The findings from beer foam research are also significant over and beyond the art of brewing. In electric vehicles, for example, lubricants can foam– presenting a dangerous problem. Vermants' team is now working with Shell, among others, to investigate how such foams can be destroyed in a targeted manner.

Another goal is to develop sustainable surfactants that are free of fluorine or silicon. “Our study is an essential step in this direction,” as Vermant underlines. 

In an ongoing EU project, the researchers are also working on foams as carriers for bacterial systems. And in collaboration with food researcher Peter Fischer from ETH Zurich, they are working on stabilizing milk foam by way of proteins. “So there are many areas where the knowledge we have gained from beer is proving useful,” as Vermant concludes.

---

Journal

Physics of Fluids

DOI

10.1063/5.0274943 

Article Title

The Hidden Subtlety of Beer Foam Stability: A Blueprint for Advanced Foam Formulations

Article Publication Date

26-Aug-2025

 

Study: Tariffs have potential to reshape US beer market

University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign, News Bureau

FacebookXLinkedInWeChatBlueskyMessageWhatsAppEmail

CHAMPAIGN, Ill. — The ripple effects of increased tariffs under President Trump could extend to the $117 billion U.S. beer market, according to new research from a University of Illinois Urbana-Champaign agricultural economist who studies food supply chains.

While tariffs could stimulate increased domestic beer production, any gains in domestic market share would most likely be concentrated among a few multinational firms rather than the nearly 10,000 small, independently owned craft breweries, said Aaron Staples, a professor of agribusiness management.

“The beer industry is commonly divided into three segments: craft beer brewed by small businesses, domestic noncraft beer owned by multinational firms, and imported beer,” he said. “Tariffs can raise domestic beer production costs and the price of imported beer. When these costs are passed down to the consumer, it can influence beer purchasing behaviors. We wanted to gauge how consumers would respond to tariff-driven price increases and predict how it would impact each market segment.”

The paper, published in the journal Food Policy and co-written by Michael McCullough of California Polytechnic State University, examined the potential effects of tariffs on beer demand, market shares and consumer welfare.

Using experimental data from more than 700 U.S. beer drinkers, the researchers arrived at three key findings, each with policy implications and industry relevance:

• Tariffs could stimulate domestic beer production, but the gains in domestic market share would likely be primarily confined to multinational firms rather than local entrepreneurs.
• Small businesses could lose market share if their limited economies of scale and reduced supply chain flexibility lead to higher proportional price increases compared to well-established national brands.
• The net reduction in consumer welfare via higher beer prices ranged from $53.1 million to $306.4 million, where the estimate depends on the tariff structure and the resulting price increases.

While tariffs are not directly imposed on consumers, they can still have a discernible impact on U.S. beer drinkers for several reasons, Staples said. For example, the U.S. market share for imported beer has increased from 14% to 24% since 2013. Mexico alone accounts for approximately 83% of U.S. beer imports, meaning roughly one in five beers consumed in the United States comes from Mexico.

“Most Mexican beer was exempt from initial tariffs under the United States-Mexico-Canada Agreement, but there is now a 50% tariff on the aluminum content of imported beer,” he said. “If this cost is passed down the supply chain, consumers could pay higher retail prices for their favorite Mexican lager. Small international brands may also consider discontinuing distribution to the U.S. if tariffs render the decision unprofitable, thereby reducing product variety.”

In that scenario, the market share for imports could fall, and any gains to domestic beer production from tariffs “would primarily flow to the multinational companies that purchase ads during football games, not the small craft breweries that have become cornerstones of local economies,” Staples said.

“In fact, we’re already starting to see a shift in business strategies among some of the multinational firms,” he said. “From investments in new production plants to marketing beer as ‘American made’ rather than ‘domestic,’ multinational firms are playing up the nationalistic aspect of their beer.”

But the impact of tariffs is not isolated to imported beer. Tariffs can increase domestic beer production costs given the reliance on international trade for agricultural and nonagricultural inputs, including malt, hops, steel and aluminum.

When these inputs are taxed, the cost of domestic beer production increases.

“Businesses may try to absorb these at first, but there comes a point where some of these increased costs will eventually be passed along to consumers,” Staples said.

This is especially worrisome for smaller craft brewers, which operate on tighter profit margins and have limited supply chain flexibility, Staples said.

“The multinationals will likely have a better buffer to weather these cost increases brought about by tariffs,” he said. “They have economies of scale, hedge against market disruptions and can negotiate with suppliers due to their strategic positioning. The average craft brewer can’t do this, making them more susceptible to market disruptions.”

If craft brewers start to falter, it could have broader implications for local economies, Staples said.

“The impact of the tariffs might not be immediate. The effects could be delayed until the inventory on hand dries up or brewers decide they can no longer afford to absorb these added costs,” he said. “But once beer prices go up, we don’t typically see them come back down.”

Tariffs remain a central policy topic, and the legality of certain tariffs has recently been called into question, Staples noted.

“It’s a very fluid and uncertain situation overall, one that ultimately points to higher consumer prices and a shifting market landscape,” he said.

---

Journal

Food Policy

DOI

10.1016/j.foodpol.2025.102947 

Method of Research

Data/statistical analysis

Subject of Research

Not applicable

Article Title

Tariffs and U.S. beer demand: How protectionist policies could impact market shares and consumer welfare

Article Publication Date

6-Oct-2025

Czech beer culture eyes UNESCO listing as pubs take hit


By AFP
April 5, 2025


Many beer drinkers in the central European country are turning away from pubs, often to save money - Copyright AFP Michal Cizek

Jan FLEMR

Going to a pub several times a week to meet friends, media consultant Gabriela Galetkova hopes Czech beer culture — which is taking a hit as bar visits dip — will be internationally recognised.

“I won’t buy beer to drink at home. For me, Czech beer culture is about meeting people in a typical Czech pub,” the 54-year-old told AFP in a Prague bar serving the trademark Pilsner lager with thick froth.

While many beer drinkers in the central European country are turning away from pubs, often to save money, Czech beer professionals are seeking listing by UNESCO among the world’s cultural heritage as a possible boost.

Czech beer culture deserves a place on the UN agency’s intangible heritage lists owing to its “global reputation”, said Tomas Slunecko, head of the Czech Beer and Malt Association.

“Wherever you go in Europe or the world, people ask you about Czech beer,” the former diplomat told AFP.

If Czech beer culture gets listed by UNESCO, it will be the world’s second after Belgium, listed in 2016 — which according to Slunecko “really boosted the reputation of local beer making, not only inside Belgium but also abroad”.

The Czech culture ministry already put it on the national list in January — a necessary condition for international recognition — while Slunecko and others are embarking on promoting their bid.



– No longer cheaper than water –



The Czech beer-making tradition is over a thousand years old and beer is omnipresent in Czech history and culture, while local lagers have made Czech beer-makers famous and inspired brewers worldwide.

The country has more than 550 breweries including 500 small ones that have emerged during a boom over the past two decades.

Czech breweries employ 65,000 people, make around 20 million hectolitres of beer a year and export roughly a quarter, mainly to other EU members such as Germany, Poland, Slovakia and Hungary.

But while the tradition is rich and colourful and the reputation solid, Czech drinkers are shirking their pub duty.

Beer consumption in the country of 10.9 million retained a world-leading level of 128 litres per person in 2023 but is down from 143 litres a decade ago, said Slunecko.

Beer prices have doubled over the past decade on tax hikes and higher input costs, and the popular tipple is no longer cheaper than water in Prague pubs, where a pint of Pilsner Urquell costs around CZK 70 ($3).

This has gradually led drinkers to turn to supermarkets for cheaper bottled beer, industry data have shown.

The Covid-19 pandemic made things worse as it shuttered pubs and closed borders for months, sending more drinkers to their living room sofas and reducing the number of foreign tourists who drink a hefty portion of the beer sold in Czech pubs.

The Czech Chamber of Commerce said that 15 percent of local venues closed and another 15 percent changed hands due to the pandemic.

Many small towns and villages now lack a place to go for a pint.

“The share of beer consumed in pubs and at home used to be 50-50. At present pubs only make up 30 percent,” Slunecko said.

Many Czechs also opt for a healthier lifestyle or prefer to meet their friends online, he added.

“The decline is a trend that we can see elsewhere in Europe,” said Slunecko.



– ‘Social network’ –



Meeting people is the main reason why Czechs go to pubs, said sociologist Jiri Vinopal, citing his continuous research running since 2004.

“Czech beer culture is something that helps people connect and keeps society together, create an identity, whether locally or at the national level,” he added.

Slunecko said women drinkers could help end the downtrend as an increasing number now go to pubs, attracted by their growing standard, variety of drinks on offer and quality food.

“It’s about quality replacing quantity. I think the cultured environment and the broad offer is a way to win drinkers back,” Slunecko said, likening pubs to “a social network”.

“A pub is a pleasant place to meet. And there’s nothing wrong about drinking beer,” he said.

Women used to dominate the beer industry – until the witch accusations started pouring in

Three women dressed in Middle-Age period garb as alewives. 

Hulton-Deutsch Collection/Corbis via Getty Images

What do witches have to do with your favorite beer?

When I pose this question to students in my American literature and culture classes, I receive stunned silence or nervous laughs. The Sanderson sisters didn’t chug down bottles of Sam Adams in “Hocus Pocus.” But the history of beer points to a not-so-magical legacy of transatlantic slander and gender roles.

Up until the 1500s, brewing was primarily women’s work – that is, until a smear campaign accused women brewers of being witches. Much of the iconography we associate with witches today, from the pointy hat to the broom, may have emerged from their connection to female brewers.

A routine household task

Humans have been drinking beer for almost 7,000 years, and the original brewers were women. From the Vikings to the Egyptians, women brewed beer both for religious ceremonies and to make a practical, calorie-rich beverage for the home.

In fact, the nun Hildegard von Bingen, who lived in modern-day Germany, famously wrote about hops in the 12th century and added the ingredient to her beer recipe.

From the Stone Age to the 1700s, ale – and, later, beer – was a household staple for most families in England and other parts of Europe. The drink was an inexpensive way to consume and preserve grains. For the working class, beer provided an important source of nutrients, full of carbohydrates and proteins. Because the beverage was such a common part of the average person’s diet, fermenting was, for many women, one of their normal household tasks.

Some enterprising women took this household skill to the marketplace and began selling beer. Widows or unmarried women used their fermentation prowess to earn some extra money, while married women partnered with their husbands to run their beer business.

Exiling women from the industry

So if you traveled back in time to the Middle Ages or the Renaissance and went to a market in England, you’d probably see an oddly familiar sight: women wearing tall, pointy hats. In many instances, they’d be standing in front of big cauldrons.

But these women were no witches; they were brewers.

They wore the tall, pointy hats so that their customers could see them in the crowded marketplace. They transported their brew in cauldrons. And those who sold their beer out of stores had cats not as demon familiars, but to keep mice away from the grain. Some argue that iconography we associate with witches, from the pointy hat to the cauldron, originated from women working as master brewers.

Just as women were establishing their foothold in the beer markets of England, Ireland and the rest of Europe, the Reformation began. The religious movement, which originated in the early 16th century, preached stricter gender norms and condemned witchcraft.

Male brewers saw an opportunity. To reduce their competition in the beer trade, some accused female brewers of being witches and using their cauldrons to brew up magic potions instead of booze.

Unfortunately, the rumors took hold.

Over time, it became more dangerous for women to practice brewing and sell beer because they could be misidentified as witches. At the time, being accused of witchcraft wasn’t just a social faux pas; it could result in prosecution or a death sentence. Women accused of witchcraft were often ostracized in their communities, imprisoned or even killed.

Some men didn’t really believe that the women brewers were witches. However, many did believe that women shouldn’t be spending their time making beer. The process took time and dedication: hours to prepare the ale, sweep the floors clean and lift heavy bundles of rye and grain. If women couldn’t brew ale, they would have significantly more time at home to raise their children. In the 1500s some towns, such as Chester, England, actually made it illegal for most women to sell beer, worried that young alewives would grow up into old spinsters.

Men’s domination of the beer industry has endured: The top 10 beer companies in the world are headed by male CEOs and have mostly male board members.

Major beer companies have tended to portray beer as a drink for men. Some scholars have even gone as far as calling beer ads “manuals on masculinity.”

This gender bias seems to persist in smaller craft breweries as well. A study at Stanford University found that while 17% of craft beer breweries have one female CEO, only 4% of these businesses employ a female brewmaster – the expert supervisor who oversees the brewing process.

It doesn’t have to be this way. For much of history, it wasn’t.

Editor’s note: This article has been updated to acknowledge that it isn’t definitively known whether alewives inspired some of the popular iconography associated with witches today. It has also been updated to correct that it was during the Reformation that accusations of witchcraft became widespread.

 March 10, 2021

Author

Laken Brooks
Doctoral Student of English, University of Florida
University of Florida provides funding as a founding partner of The Conversation US.

I WOULD NOTE THAT WOMEN PICTURED HERE ALSO COULD BE WELSH WOMEN WHO ALSO WORE FLAT TOP TALL HATS

https://welshhat.wordpress.com/the-welsh-hat/