Make Your Own Beer - Homebrewing For Women

Make Your Own Beer - Homebrewing For Women By Sandy Dee

Have you tried to make your own beer yet? I love brewing my own beer and so do some of my female friends. Men might think that brewing beer is a male prerogative , but that is simply not true. There are a growing number of women who now brew their own beer. We love drinking it as well and that includes my 80 year old mother.

I started my rather unusual hobby when I moved to a country that does not permit alcohol at all. Admittedly my first batch was not all that wonderful, but that soon changed. Bearing in mind that normal ingredients and equipment were not available, a certain amount of experimenting had to be done. Whilst certainly not as good as what I now brew, my beer proved to be very popular - and yes the recipe was shared with everyone who wanted it.

Although I still spend a fair amount of time in a certain Arabian country and have to rely on cannibalized beer making equipment along with somewhat unusual beer brewing ingredients, it is a pleasure when I am able to go home and brew a huge batch of really good beer using one or more of the 13 free recipes that I am offering to give to you (see below), so that you can also make your own beer.

What a pleasure it is to spread a blanket under the trees in my garden on a beautiful sunny day, have a wonderful picnic lunch with three or four friends whilst sipping cool, exquisitely flavored beer from tall glasses.

There is no way that you should let the guys have all the fun - homebrewing is as much for women as it is for men. Men are most definitely not the sole masters of the game. We women make excellent beer and we are not afraid to experiment and create subtle new flavors.

By the way a bottle of homebrew and a pair of attractive glasses make a wonderful and interesting gift, especially if you provide the recipe as well.

The next time a bunch of beer guzzling men come round to your house for a barbecue or to watch a game on TV, why don't you quietly serve them one of your own special homebrew recipes (without telling them what beer it is) and just see how they react. They will be begging you for the name so that they can buy their own.

Did you know that back in the middle ages, the brewing of beer was mainly women's work? These ladies were known as ale-wives. Over the years this eventually proved so lucrative, especially in Scotland where 300 women dominated the market, that eventually in late 1600 laws were passed preventing them from brewing, though it is believed they carried on in secret for another 100 years or more. Eventually, when the First World War started and women were charged with keeping the home fires burning, many ladies once again started up the old tradition of brewing beer.

If you haven't yet attempted to brew your own beer then it is long past time you did. Join me and all the other homebrewing ale-wives out there. It is a fun and inexpensive hobby which will have the men in your life begging for more.