March 16, 2023 • 26 mins
Here’s a little-known fact you might not have known... The beer industry might be dominated by men today but women were the original brewers and played a vital role in beer’s popularity! In this episode, Eva and Maite explore beer’s fascinating history. Plus - Carmen Velasco Favela, owner and founder of Mujeres Brew House, an all-female run / Latina-owned craft beer company in San Diego, CA joins the show.
See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.
Mark as Played
Transcript
Episode Transcript
Available transcripts are automatically generated. Complete accuracy is not guaranteed.
Speaker 1 (00:00):
One of the most ancient alcoholic beverages. Beer has brought
people together since the dawn of civilization. Today's episode is
all about the history of beer. My name is Eva
Lamboria and I am and welcome to Hungry for History,
(00:21):
a podcast that explores our past and present through food.
On every episode, we'll talk about the history of some
of our favorite dishes, ingredients, and beverages. So make yourself
at home. Even do you have a beer with you
right now? I have like what I have in front
of me. I have a little a little container filled
(00:44):
with ice, and I have a little coronita. I love those.
I have charo beer. You have had? You have that.
It's wonderful. It's like the opposite of this. I love
that we both we both picked Mexican beers. I'm gonna
open this one up? Is it twist? Opening it up
with my teeth? Don't do that. No, I got it.
(01:12):
Oh that's a good sound. I was trying to get
that sound. M Now, you are a fan of beer.
I am not. You're not a fan of beer. I'm
not a beer drinker. No. I feel like I drink
more other things than I drink beer. But on a
hot summer day. There's nothing better than a beer oh
or like a really good mit. Okay, that's my jam.
(01:36):
Now you're now you're speaking my language. I'll drink a
michelala and I'll drink um. Uh. What's the other? The
clemato has that tomato based Yes, that's the one. I
like the clamato with the with the chamoi on the rim,
with the uh pica as a straw. I mean all,
(01:58):
I like it. I like it fully, the full prepared,
say that it is the best, and when it has
a piece of celery sticking out of it, that's even better.
I did not know michell Lava came from Michella elava
my beer ice cold Michella. I love these sort of
(02:19):
play on words, like when you think about where words
come from. I find that so interesting. So even the
word servesa comes from the Roman goddess of agriculture setis,
so setis the strength of setis, so the strength of
agriculture is the set is the goddess weak. Right, Yeah,
(02:41):
Cetis is the goddess. Yeah, because that's where cereal comes
from as well, exactly the exactly goddess of setis. Yes,
ohsa comes from Yeah, very interesting, so many interesting things.
(03:06):
Beer's older than wine. Correct, beer is one of the
most ancient fermented revergence. Like, we don't know exactly when
beer was first fermented, but it was probably at least
four thousand BC when we first see evidence of beer
preparation in the Near East. So it goes back Okay,
(03:27):
a very very very very very long time. I know,
we don't know exactly when it started, but who did
it and when did it become like popular, that's a
good question. We don't know exactly who did it first,
and it's probably something that was discovered, not necessarily something
that was invented. So the first evidence of beer dates
(03:49):
to you know, the Fertile Crescent, this area stretching from
modern day Egypt, the Mediterranean to Turkey, Iran, Iraq, these
whole areas that we started study in fourth grade. Basically
we see the evolution of beer starting when people move
from a hunting and gathering society to becoming sort of
sedentary and growing wheat to bake bread. So it probably
(04:14):
just happened and this sort of fermentation that were probably
making dope for bread and it was fermented, so we
start seeing beer for the first time so that goes
back even like ten thousand BC, but the first evidence
is around four thousand and there's this image from ancient
Mesopotamia on modern Iraq. That's a little pictogram of two
(04:37):
figures drinking beer from a straw. So it's this container
and then two figures drinking beer from it. So this
is the first evidence of sort of sharing a drink
becoming a symbol of hospitality and a symbol of friendship.
But beer was consumed by everybody, rich, poor men, women.
It wasn't like the quila, which was like for the
(05:00):
gods or the royals, right, everybody consume Everybody consumed beer.
It was the drink for everybody. Yes, rich, poor men, women,
you know, elderly, children's, everybody was drinking beer. So it's
very different than a lot of other you know, ancient
beverages and even you know today we have so many
(05:21):
different varieties of beer. This is something that has always
been around. I mean, the ancient Egyptians had at least
seventeen different kinds of beers, and they had different names.
You know, they had names ranging from the beautiful and
the good, the heavenly, the joy bringer. But you mentioned
like the Gilan, you know or Bulkan mayawel and all
(05:45):
of these ideas of We talked about this a little
bit with when we did our tequila episode and also
with the wine episode that drinking and getting a little
bit buzzed connecting us to the gods. So this is
the same with with beer. Right, This whole idea of
beer's ability to intoxicate and inducing a state of you know,
altered consciousness was something that was magical. It was like
(06:08):
it was a gift from the gods. I think I
stole that from you that every time I drink wine,
I go, I'm just connecting to the gods. Don't mind me,
don't mind me. But yeah, it was like it seemed magical.
It was like a magical experience. And you know, talking
about our wine episode, you know, I had read that
beer was easier to make because grapes were seasonal. Wine
(06:29):
couldn't be stored without pottery, and pottery really didn't emerge
until six thousand BCS. So beer could be stored like
in leather bags or animal stomachs or I mean like
really stone vessels. Like it wasn't It was a very
low maintenance alcoholic. Absolutely, it was very low maintenance and
because of this, eventually it becomes a drink of the
(06:50):
lower classes because it wasn't wine, and we start seeing
this shift, whereas for millennia it was such a for everybody,
especially you know, the ancient Greeks and the Romans. They
started creating this division, even though everybody was still drinking
beer because it was accessible, it was easy, it was enjoyable.
(07:14):
So yeah, but yes, absolutely, I love that that beer.
Like in original writings, like the earliest collections of written language,
beer is one of the most familiar words that was
written down because of tax purposes, and so they were
obviously taxing it, but it was like one of the
most common words, one of the earliest and most common
(07:35):
words that was like recording. Yeah, I find that so interesting,
especially like writing was originally invented to record the collection
and distribution of grain, beer, and bread, these three things.
That's why writing. The earliest you know, documents in Cuney
form basically were about bread, beer, and and grain, which
(07:57):
is so interesting to me. But they would use it
medicinally too, sometimes sometimes saffron and beer massaged into a
woman's abdomen was prescribed for labor pains. I was like, okay, yeah,
it's like, Okay, that's interesting. Yeah, and this comes from
a document what it's called the ebers Papyrus, an Egyptian
medical text from around fifteen fifty BC with hundreds of
(08:21):
different examples of beer. Another one is half an onion
mixed with beer is said to cure constipation. Oh, I
gotta try that. That does not sound appetizing to me,
not at all, not even a little bit. It's so
funny that. Yeah, but the olive, the olives, the olives
with beer cured indigestion. So I just think people were very,
(08:46):
very innovative, and the specifically the Egyptians. They also thought
in the afterlife that a good afterlife depended on having
an adequate supply of bread. I wonder what that means.
It's like, what is adequate? What would be adequate to you?
If it were wine, be adequate to you, Oh, it
would be bottomless, like bottomless mimosas, but bottomless, bottomless vats
(09:06):
of wine. I love it. Don't go anywhere. We've got
more on the history of beer when we come back.
(09:26):
I think what I find the most interesting about beer
in general is that traditionally brewers were women. What for
many women sort of fermenting beer was a household you
know task, It was an important thing. And ancient Sumerian women,
double just priestesses, a fermented beer for religious purposes, to
(09:49):
honor their goddess um Nicasi, who they believed gave beer
to humans and brought peace and well being to society.
So for thousands of years when and had extensive knowledge
of plants associated with currying ailments, cooking, brewing, and also
which craft, I love this story. This is my favorite story.
(10:12):
I'm obsessed with the Middle Ages and all of that
Renaissance England. And during the Middle Ages and Renaissance England,
women transported their their beer brews in cauldrons so that
they would make it in their house in these big
cauldrons and then they would go to market. But when
they went to market, the markets were so crowded they
(10:34):
had to wear pointy hats so people could spot them
and know where to find the beer. So this is
where the term which is brew comes from, or the
word brewery, which I found so funny. But also the
fact that this led to some religious movement that you know,
(10:55):
just as women were like establishing their mark not only
in beer, but like in the economy. I don't find
it ironic that religion was like, oh, hang on, hold
on a minute, women are getting too far ahead of themselves.
The religious movement made it more strict for women to
(11:16):
make beer and condemned witchcraft, which was like associated with brewery.
And then the male brewers saw the opportunity and to
reduce competition, and so some of those male brewers would
accuse female brewers of witchcraft and being witches, and they
were brewing up spells and potions instead of the beer.
(11:37):
And that was it, like the rumors took over, and
then over time it just became dangerous for women to
practice brewing beer for the fear of being misidentified as
a witch. Like what, it's insane. Yes, because of the
whole Reformation movement that was so okay, no, no, no,
we can't have women in the economy. We can't have
powerful women. The fact that to date, to date and
(12:00):
men dominate the beer industry and all these beer companies,
you know, really position beer as a male drink. And
it's really you see, you can connect the dots of
history and go, oh, that's where it's you know, it's
so it's so fascinating, it's that blows my mind. This
whole which which is with the pointy hats making beer,
(12:22):
they were just you know, they were just trying to
make a living. And another part of that story, some
of the women had their shops, but maybe they worked
with their husbands and had their shops. So they used
to have cats to keep mice away from their grains
that they were using to make beer. So that's a
whole other thing that Pointy had. And if that's a
(12:43):
whole added, a whole added story, let's talk about the
history of beer in Mexico because you know, I covered
this in Searching for Mexico when I was in Nouivo
Leon and there's a huge beer movement in Nouivo Leon.
(13:07):
Uh And I got to go to a couple of
beer factories, breweries and and solve the whole process and
how they make it. And there's like this huge artisanal movement.
So is the artisanale beer Is it the same as
a craft beer movement? That's different from like that I'm drinking,
But it's the charo that you're drinking, right, that's this
(13:27):
is like this, Yeah, char a craft beer. Yeah, charos
a craft beer. Yeah, it's a it's a premium Mexican pilsner. Uh,
and it's definitely made differently. And these are also these
artisanal you know, craft beers are much smaller batch beers,
like much more much smaller production. It's not the millions
and millions and millions of gallons that are produced. They're
(13:48):
much more thoughtful. Um. Yeah, you don't even want to
know how much water goes into making one bottle. Really
it's at Wow, it's a lot of water. I mean
from from beginning to end, I mean from how much
you have to water wheat and barley and the crops
to fermenting it, dumping that out, fermenting it, dumping that out,
boiling it, dumping that out. Like it's a lot of
(14:11):
a lot of gallons per bottle. So beer is beer
the most consumed alcoholic beverage? It is or one. It
is right, it is the most. It is the most.
So barley and we were brought to Mexico, New Spain
early on between fifteen twenty one and fifteen twenty three.
And beer was first made the summer of fifteen forty two,
(14:33):
so really early on by a man named Alfonsorera. He
was a member of Nancortes's expedition and he established a
European style brewery near you know, Mexico City, on the
foot of the volcanoes around Mexico City, and this is
an area known for its water. You just mentioned how
much water is needed, so there was a lot of
water there and he was making amazing beers, but three
(14:56):
fourths of the profits had to be sent to Spain.
So and then Spain didn't like that local beer was
competing with the sale of imported wines. So the brewery
closed after a couple of years. And for centuries, beers
were imported from Europe, you know, primarily from Germany and Belgium,
(15:16):
alongside beer and other liquors. But because of this, beer
was super expensive, so the locals, you know, population, they
couldn't afford it, or much of the population couldn't afford it,
and they preferred the native pulque, which is another fermented
you know drink. And then after the before the revolution
(15:38):
with when Portfilio the as President Bofilia Diaz was in
power in the late eighteen hundreds, he started cracking down
on drinking. He started imposing regulations on pulque, which was
very popular among the indigenous population. Because he wanted Mexico
to be seen as more modern and European. So these
(15:58):
European brewers, it started opening up breweries around Mexico, started
spreading rumors that Pulke was dirty, that pul was written
with feces, stigmatizing Pulke and its producers, and by the
nineteen fifties beer had overtaken Pulke and many of Mexico
cities Bulke as closed. Just like the railroad network built
(16:32):
in Mexico allowing the importing of that of all this
machinery forced Mexican brewers to compete against North American beers,
and that's how we started this mass distribution throughout Mexico.
And I thought that was interesting, like the railroad brought
the access to the machinery, because you know, I've been
(16:55):
through that with in Central America. I've visited so many
farms into America on Luras, Nigarawa, El Salvador, and the
thing that holds them back is lack of tractors. They
don't have the technology to be a force, but yet
they have the soil and the climate, and so you're like, wait,
you know, this is crazy, this something as small as
(17:16):
a tractor, but it's not that small. It's like it's
it's a big deal. And we the charity I was with,
took down some tractors that we're going to change the
lives of some of these families. So it's interesting when
I saw that, I was like, the importing of machinery
from the US allowed Mexican brewers to compete, Yeah, to
grow otherwise, Yeah, it makes it makes perfect sense. Otherwise,
(17:38):
how are they gonna how are you gonna get it
from one place to the to the other. So then
we start seeing by the end of the nineteenth century,
we start seeing brewery on a large scale. And then
how did prohibition affect be prohibition US prohibition in the
nineteen twenties, Americans couldn't drink. Americans cross the board to drink.
(18:01):
And this was in the nineteen twenties. They already had
the machinery in the railroads. And this really helped propel
the brewing industry in Mexico's brewing industry. And by nineteen
twenty five, the beer industry was thriving, and we started
seeing you know, glass industry, the bottlecap industry, advertising industry,
(18:25):
so ice, iced ice, everything just really started to grow
around that time in the nineteen twenties. Wow, and then this,
I mean so pro us prohibition really forced Americans to
travel South to drink. I mean that helped tequila, That
helps spirits, that out rum, that helped everything. When we
(18:50):
come back, Carmembla of Mohere's Brewhouse sends us a message,
stay with us, Welcome back to the show. Moherrez Brewhouse
is a southern California brewery that is redefining gender and
(19:13):
race in the craft beer industry. Plus it's an all
female run Latina owned brewhouse. Amen Here's Carmen Velasco Favela,
one of the founders to tell us more about this
incredible business. My name is Carmen Velasco and I was
born in San Diego. I'm the first generation of parents
(19:36):
from Sinaloa and Sonora, and I am the founder and
owner of Moheres Brewhouse. Some Mohdes Brewhouse actually started as
a beer club back in two nineteen. It was a
six month series to basically educate and empower Latina's in
the craft beer industry. So we started with the history
(19:59):
of craft beer all the way to making a beer
together with the girls, and from an idea, it turned
out that we had over fifty women show up on
our first class, and that was really the beginning of
this project, which has now become its own brewery, which
is now mouhett Is Brewhouse that opened up during the pandemic.
(20:19):
We had built so much momentum with the girls that
doing zoom and other things was just not an option.
So there have been a vacant brewery in the community,
and so we reached out to them. We said, hey,
we've got all these women. We would love to use
your space to continue our education further. And one thing
led to another. Here we are two years later and
(20:40):
we have Mouhettes Brewhouse that is all operated by women
and basically dedicated to women. A lot of the recipes
we come up with, they, you know, some of them
are true to style. So we have a straight West
Coast ipa and then we have beers that are like
la It's Thamadino Belgian with and we incorporate some of
(21:03):
the flavors that I grew up with as far as
being Latina Mexican into our beer, and people really love
to see that. They enjoy that. Not only do we
make beers with some of the ingredients we grew up with.
But also we make miche lavas that I'm from Sinaloa,
so I'm a Marisco girl and I love my miche lava.
(21:24):
And so those are things that we've incorporated in our
brewery that celebrate what we grew up with as as
Latin x or as Mexican. I'm just so proud of
my team, all the girls that have come this far
to be part of this project and to represent because
it's not easy. Anytime you go into an area that's
(21:46):
now male dominated, it's intimidating. But you know what, at
the end of the day, if you're if your heart,
if it's speaking to you and that you need to
do something, you can do it. And so I just
recommend that for any woman in the craft beer industry
or in any other business it's male dominated, to move forward. Well,
(22:15):
I think the craft beer is the original beer. The
craft beer is the original beer. Absolutely, it is the
original beer. And there is a company in Mexico craft
beer movement in Mexico called Impetuosa. Do you know about this.
It's a group of women, it's a it's a it's
a Mexican craft beer movement, you know, buy women and
(22:37):
it's all of these women that are getting together and
making craft beer and their proceeds go to women organizations. Um,
so that is very very cool. I haven't had that
many Mexican craft beers other than Chato. Really, I don't
think I've had that many Mexican craft beers. I love Chato.
I'm not a beer drinker, but Charo's my jam um.
(22:59):
I really it's just smooth. And then I was like, oh,
maybe I'm a pilsner girl. Like I. Charo brought me
into beer, like to really experience it and like like
other things like wine and tequila, where you have notes
and you have like finishes and you have yoh yeah,
you can smell the barley, you can taste the honey,
and I'm like, I taste beer. Um. But Charo really
(23:21):
like a lot of the craft beers. Really you have
a better experience than the mass produced ones because you
can really feel those those notes and the care and
concern that is brewed in every bottle. You go, Okay,
this is like. I went to a bar in Monterrey
that had ninety nine beers, which is funny play on
(23:42):
ninety nine bottles of beer on the wall, but ninety
nine draft draft beer, and one tasted like mango, one
tasted like chocolate, one tasted like They had a really
fun menu and it was really a really fun place.
It's in the searching for Mexico. So you you guys
will have to check. I have to go. I'm going
(24:03):
to Terre in April for a wedding, so you have
to give me, give me list. It's um, it's it's
it's built. The restaurant is built out of old train
box cars, so it's super cool. And the food like
it's a bar, but the food and they have brisket.
(24:23):
They have a lot of Texas stuff. They have a
lot of barbecue and stuff like that there. And I
was like, oh my god. And they were so excited
to serve me the brisket because I was that's awesome.
It was like and it was briskets and beer, briskets
and beer. It's like the best, the best thing. I
will say. I'm so proud that that, like even mass
market Mexican beers are so good and very on par
with the good European beer. I agree that really they were,
(24:46):
that they were modeled after total I thought, I thought
the evolution of beer in Mexico is something. It is.
I agree, and I love a good even though it's
not the fanciest, it's not the you know, craftiest, there's
just something very good about this sort of little sunshine
in a bottle. Love it. What a fascinating history, and
(25:13):
there's so much more. I mean, we went down the
lane of Mexico because that's who we are, but like,
if you really did a deep dive of beer, it
could take you down many family trees, many family trees
of countries. And I was, I was, I like, obviously
having the lens of Mexico. But what fascinated memost is
(25:34):
the women's involvement in the early evolution of pearly. You know,
like all good things that are invented, it was invented
the war exactly not invented, but but helped along the way.
I totally totally, Well, thanks everybody for listening. Cheers. I'm
holding my beer ups. Cheers too, everyone who has clicked
(25:57):
and subscribed to our podcast. People listening, We'll have some
more fun episodes coming up. Thank you and cheers everyone.
Hungry for History is an unbelievable entertainment production in partnership
with Ihearts my Kulpua podcast Network. For more of your
favorite shows, visit the iHeartRadio app, Apple podcast, or wherever
(26:20):
you get your podcasts.
One of the most ancient alcoholic beverages. Beer has brought
people together since the dawn of civilization. Today's episode is
all about the history of beer. My name is Eva
Lamboria and I am and welcome to Hungry for History,
(00:21):
a podcast that explores our past and present through food.
On every episode, we'll talk about the history of some
of our favorite dishes, ingredients, and beverages. So make yourself
at home. Even do you have a beer with you
right now? I have like what I have in front
of me. I have a little a little container filled
(00:44):
with ice, and I have a little coronita. I love those.
I have charo beer. You have had? You have that.
It's wonderful. It's like the opposite of this. I love
that we both we both picked Mexican beers. I'm gonna
open this one up? Is it twist? Opening it up
with my teeth? Don't do that. No, I got it.
(01:12):
Oh that's a good sound. I was trying to get
that sound. M Now, you are a fan of beer.
I am not. You're not a fan of beer. I'm
not a beer drinker. No. I feel like I drink
more other things than I drink beer. But on a
hot summer day. There's nothing better than a beer oh
or like a really good mit. Okay, that's my jam.
(01:36):
Now you're now you're speaking my language. I'll drink a
michelala and I'll drink um. Uh. What's the other? The
clemato has that tomato based Yes, that's the one. I
like the clamato with the with the chamoi on the rim,
with the uh pica as a straw. I mean all,
(01:58):
I like it. I like it fully, the full prepared,
say that it is the best, and when it has
a piece of celery sticking out of it, that's even better.
I did not know michell Lava came from Michella elava
my beer ice cold Michella. I love these sort of
(02:19):
play on words, like when you think about where words
come from. I find that so interesting. So even the
word servesa comes from the Roman goddess of agriculture setis,
so setis the strength of setis, so the strength of
agriculture is the set is the goddess weak. Right, Yeah,
(02:41):
Cetis is the goddess. Yeah, because that's where cereal comes
from as well, exactly the exactly goddess of setis. Yes,
ohsa comes from Yeah, very interesting, so many interesting things.
(03:06):
Beer's older than wine. Correct, beer is one of the
most ancient fermented revergence. Like, we don't know exactly when
beer was first fermented, but it was probably at least
four thousand BC when we first see evidence of beer
preparation in the Near East. So it goes back Okay,
(03:27):
a very very very very very long time. I know,
we don't know exactly when it started, but who did
it and when did it become like popular, that's a
good question. We don't know exactly who did it first,
and it's probably something that was discovered, not necessarily something
that was invented. So the first evidence of beer dates
(03:49):
to you know, the Fertile Crescent, this area stretching from
modern day Egypt, the Mediterranean to Turkey, Iran, Iraq, these
whole areas that we started study in fourth grade. Basically
we see the evolution of beer starting when people move
from a hunting and gathering society to becoming sort of
sedentary and growing wheat to bake bread. So it probably
(04:14):
just happened and this sort of fermentation that were probably
making dope for bread and it was fermented, so we
start seeing beer for the first time so that goes
back even like ten thousand BC, but the first evidence
is around four thousand and there's this image from ancient
Mesopotamia on modern Iraq. That's a little pictogram of two
(04:37):
figures drinking beer from a straw. So it's this container
and then two figures drinking beer from it. So this
is the first evidence of sort of sharing a drink
becoming a symbol of hospitality and a symbol of friendship.
But beer was consumed by everybody, rich, poor men, women.
It wasn't like the quila, which was like for the
(05:00):
gods or the royals, right, everybody consume Everybody consumed beer.
It was the drink for everybody. Yes, rich, poor men, women,
you know, elderly, children's, everybody was drinking beer. So it's
very different than a lot of other you know, ancient
beverages and even you know today we have so many
(05:21):
different varieties of beer. This is something that has always
been around. I mean, the ancient Egyptians had at least
seventeen different kinds of beers, and they had different names.
You know, they had names ranging from the beautiful and
the good, the heavenly, the joy bringer. But you mentioned
like the Gilan, you know or Bulkan mayawel and all
(05:45):
of these ideas of We talked about this a little
bit with when we did our tequila episode and also
with the wine episode that drinking and getting a little
bit buzzed connecting us to the gods. So this is
the same with with beer. Right, This whole idea of
beer's ability to intoxicate and inducing a state of you know,
altered consciousness was something that was magical. It was like
(06:08):
it was a gift from the gods. I think I
stole that from you that every time I drink wine,
I go, I'm just connecting to the gods. Don't mind me,
don't mind me. But yeah, it was like it seemed magical.
It was like a magical experience. And you know, talking
about our wine episode, you know, I had read that
beer was easier to make because grapes were seasonal. Wine
(06:29):
couldn't be stored without pottery, and pottery really didn't emerge
until six thousand BCS. So beer could be stored like
in leather bags or animal stomachs or I mean like
really stone vessels. Like it wasn't It was a very
low maintenance alcoholic. Absolutely, it was very low maintenance and
because of this, eventually it becomes a drink of the
(06:50):
lower classes because it wasn't wine, and we start seeing
this shift, whereas for millennia it was such a for everybody,
especially you know, the ancient Greeks and the Romans. They
started creating this division, even though everybody was still drinking
beer because it was accessible, it was easy, it was enjoyable.
(07:14):
So yeah, but yes, absolutely, I love that that beer.
Like in original writings, like the earliest collections of written language,
beer is one of the most familiar words that was
written down because of tax purposes, and so they were
obviously taxing it, but it was like one of the
most common words, one of the earliest and most common
(07:35):
words that was like recording. Yeah, I find that so interesting,
especially like writing was originally invented to record the collection
and distribution of grain, beer, and bread, these three things.
That's why writing. The earliest you know, documents in Cuney
form basically were about bread, beer, and and grain, which
(07:57):
is so interesting to me. But they would use it
medicinally too, sometimes sometimes saffron and beer massaged into a
woman's abdomen was prescribed for labor pains. I was like, okay, yeah,
it's like, Okay, that's interesting. Yeah, and this comes from
a document what it's called the ebers Papyrus, an Egyptian
medical text from around fifteen fifty BC with hundreds of
(08:21):
different examples of beer. Another one is half an onion
mixed with beer is said to cure constipation. Oh, I
gotta try that. That does not sound appetizing to me,
not at all, not even a little bit. It's so
funny that. Yeah, but the olive, the olives, the olives
with beer cured indigestion. So I just think people were very,
(08:46):
very innovative, and the specifically the Egyptians. They also thought
in the afterlife that a good afterlife depended on having
an adequate supply of bread. I wonder what that means.
It's like, what is adequate? What would be adequate to you?
If it were wine, be adequate to you, Oh, it
would be bottomless, like bottomless mimosas, but bottomless, bottomless vats
(09:06):
of wine. I love it. Don't go anywhere. We've got
more on the history of beer when we come back.
(09:26):
I think what I find the most interesting about beer
in general is that traditionally brewers were women. What for
many women sort of fermenting beer was a household you
know task, It was an important thing. And ancient Sumerian women,
double just priestesses, a fermented beer for religious purposes, to
(09:49):
honor their goddess um Nicasi, who they believed gave beer
to humans and brought peace and well being to society.
So for thousands of years when and had extensive knowledge
of plants associated with currying ailments, cooking, brewing, and also
which craft, I love this story. This is my favorite story.
(10:12):
I'm obsessed with the Middle Ages and all of that
Renaissance England. And during the Middle Ages and Renaissance England,
women transported their their beer brews in cauldrons so that
they would make it in their house in these big
cauldrons and then they would go to market. But when
they went to market, the markets were so crowded they
(10:34):
had to wear pointy hats so people could spot them
and know where to find the beer. So this is
where the term which is brew comes from, or the
word brewery, which I found so funny. But also the
fact that this led to some religious movement that you know,
(10:55):
just as women were like establishing their mark not only
in beer, but like in the economy. I don't find
it ironic that religion was like, oh, hang on, hold
on a minute, women are getting too far ahead of themselves.
The religious movement made it more strict for women to
(11:16):
make beer and condemned witchcraft, which was like associated with brewery.
And then the male brewers saw the opportunity and to
reduce competition, and so some of those male brewers would
accuse female brewers of witchcraft and being witches, and they
were brewing up spells and potions instead of the beer.
(11:37):
And that was it, like the rumors took over, and
then over time it just became dangerous for women to
practice brewing beer for the fear of being misidentified as
a witch. Like what, it's insane. Yes, because of the
whole Reformation movement that was so okay, no, no, no,
we can't have women in the economy. We can't have
powerful women. The fact that to date, to date and
(12:00):
men dominate the beer industry and all these beer companies,
you know, really position beer as a male drink. And
it's really you see, you can connect the dots of
history and go, oh, that's where it's you know, it's
so it's so fascinating, it's that blows my mind. This
whole which which is with the pointy hats making beer,
(12:22):
they were just you know, they were just trying to
make a living. And another part of that story, some
of the women had their shops, but maybe they worked
with their husbands and had their shops. So they used
to have cats to keep mice away from their grains
that they were using to make beer. So that's a
whole other thing that Pointy had. And if that's a
(12:43):
whole added, a whole added story, let's talk about the
history of beer in Mexico because you know, I covered
this in Searching for Mexico when I was in Nouivo
Leon and there's a huge beer movement in Nouivo Leon.
(13:07):
Uh And I got to go to a couple of
beer factories, breweries and and solve the whole process and
how they make it. And there's like this huge artisanal movement.
So is the artisanale beer Is it the same as
a craft beer movement? That's different from like that I'm drinking,
But it's the charo that you're drinking, right, that's this
(13:27):
is like this, Yeah, char a craft beer. Yeah, charos
a craft beer. Yeah, it's a it's a premium Mexican pilsner. Uh,
and it's definitely made differently. And these are also these
artisanal you know, craft beers are much smaller batch beers,
like much more much smaller production. It's not the millions
and millions and millions of gallons that are produced. They're
(13:48):
much more thoughtful. Um. Yeah, you don't even want to
know how much water goes into making one bottle. Really
it's at Wow, it's a lot of water. I mean
from from beginning to end, I mean from how much
you have to water wheat and barley and the crops
to fermenting it, dumping that out, fermenting it, dumping that out,
boiling it, dumping that out. Like it's a lot of
(14:11):
a lot of gallons per bottle. So beer is beer
the most consumed alcoholic beverage? It is or one. It
is right, it is the most. It is the most.
So barley and we were brought to Mexico, New Spain
early on between fifteen twenty one and fifteen twenty three.
And beer was first made the summer of fifteen forty two,
(14:33):
so really early on by a man named Alfonsorera. He
was a member of Nancortes's expedition and he established a
European style brewery near you know, Mexico City, on the
foot of the volcanoes around Mexico City, and this is
an area known for its water. You just mentioned how
much water is needed, so there was a lot of
water there and he was making amazing beers, but three
(14:56):
fourths of the profits had to be sent to Spain.
So and then Spain didn't like that local beer was
competing with the sale of imported wines. So the brewery
closed after a couple of years. And for centuries, beers
were imported from Europe, you know, primarily from Germany and Belgium,
(15:16):
alongside beer and other liquors. But because of this, beer
was super expensive, so the locals, you know, population, they
couldn't afford it, or much of the population couldn't afford it,
and they preferred the native pulque, which is another fermented
you know drink. And then after the before the revolution
(15:38):
with when Portfilio the as President Bofilia Diaz was in
power in the late eighteen hundreds, he started cracking down
on drinking. He started imposing regulations on pulque, which was
very popular among the indigenous population. Because he wanted Mexico
to be seen as more modern and European. So these
(15:58):
European brewers, it started opening up breweries around Mexico, started
spreading rumors that Pulke was dirty, that pul was written
with feces, stigmatizing Pulke and its producers, and by the
nineteen fifties beer had overtaken Pulke and many of Mexico
cities Bulke as closed. Just like the railroad network built
(16:32):
in Mexico allowing the importing of that of all this
machinery forced Mexican brewers to compete against North American beers,
and that's how we started this mass distribution throughout Mexico.
And I thought that was interesting, like the railroad brought
the access to the machinery, because you know, I've been
(16:55):
through that with in Central America. I've visited so many
farms into America on Luras, Nigarawa, El Salvador, and the
thing that holds them back is lack of tractors. They
don't have the technology to be a force, but yet
they have the soil and the climate, and so you're like, wait,
you know, this is crazy, this something as small as
(17:16):
a tractor, but it's not that small. It's like it's
it's a big deal. And we the charity I was with,
took down some tractors that we're going to change the
lives of some of these families. So it's interesting when
I saw that, I was like, the importing of machinery
from the US allowed Mexican brewers to compete, Yeah, to
grow otherwise, Yeah, it makes it makes perfect sense. Otherwise,
(17:38):
how are they gonna how are you gonna get it
from one place to the to the other. So then
we start seeing by the end of the nineteenth century,
we start seeing brewery on a large scale. And then
how did prohibition affect be prohibition US prohibition in the
nineteen twenties, Americans couldn't drink. Americans cross the board to drink.
(18:01):
And this was in the nineteen twenties. They already had
the machinery in the railroads. And this really helped propel
the brewing industry in Mexico's brewing industry. And by nineteen
twenty five, the beer industry was thriving, and we started
seeing you know, glass industry, the bottlecap industry, advertising industry,
(18:25):
so ice, iced ice, everything just really started to grow
around that time in the nineteen twenties. Wow, and then this,
I mean so pro us prohibition really forced Americans to
travel South to drink. I mean that helped tequila, That
helps spirits, that out rum, that helped everything. When we
(18:50):
come back, Carmembla of Mohere's Brewhouse sends us a message,
stay with us, Welcome back to the show. Moherrez Brewhouse
is a southern California brewery that is redefining gender and
(19:13):
race in the craft beer industry. Plus it's an all
female run Latina owned brewhouse. Amen Here's Carmen Velasco Favela,
one of the founders to tell us more about this
incredible business. My name is Carmen Velasco and I was
born in San Diego. I'm the first generation of parents
(19:36):
from Sinaloa and Sonora, and I am the founder and
owner of Moheres Brewhouse. Some Mohdes Brewhouse actually started as
a beer club back in two nineteen. It was a
six month series to basically educate and empower Latina's in
the craft beer industry. So we started with the history
(19:59):
of craft beer all the way to making a beer
together with the girls, and from an idea, it turned
out that we had over fifty women show up on
our first class, and that was really the beginning of
this project, which has now become its own brewery, which
is now mouhett Is Brewhouse that opened up during the pandemic.
(20:19):
We had built so much momentum with the girls that
doing zoom and other things was just not an option.
So there have been a vacant brewery in the community,
and so we reached out to them. We said, hey,
we've got all these women. We would love to use
your space to continue our education further. And one thing
led to another. Here we are two years later and
(20:40):
we have Mouhettes Brewhouse that is all operated by women
and basically dedicated to women. A lot of the recipes
we come up with, they, you know, some of them
are true to style. So we have a straight West
Coast ipa and then we have beers that are like
la It's Thamadino Belgian with and we incorporate some of
(21:03):
the flavors that I grew up with as far as
being Latina Mexican into our beer, and people really love
to see that. They enjoy that. Not only do we
make beers with some of the ingredients we grew up with.
But also we make miche lavas that I'm from Sinaloa,
so I'm a Marisco girl and I love my miche lava.
(21:24):
And so those are things that we've incorporated in our
brewery that celebrate what we grew up with as as
Latin x or as Mexican. I'm just so proud of
my team, all the girls that have come this far
to be part of this project and to represent because
it's not easy. Anytime you go into an area that's
(21:46):
now male dominated, it's intimidating. But you know what, at
the end of the day, if you're if your heart,
if it's speaking to you and that you need to
do something, you can do it. And so I just
recommend that for any woman in the craft beer industry
or in any other business it's male dominated, to move forward. Well,
(22:15):
I think the craft beer is the original beer. The
craft beer is the original beer. Absolutely, it is the
original beer. And there is a company in Mexico craft
beer movement in Mexico called Impetuosa. Do you know about this.
It's a group of women, it's a it's a it's
a Mexican craft beer movement, you know, buy women and
(22:37):
it's all of these women that are getting together and
making craft beer and their proceeds go to women organizations. Um,
so that is very very cool. I haven't had that
many Mexican craft beers other than Chato. Really, I don't
think I've had that many Mexican craft beers. I love Chato.
I'm not a beer drinker, but Charo's my jam um.
(22:59):
I really it's just smooth. And then I was like, oh,
maybe I'm a pilsner girl. Like I. Charo brought me
into beer, like to really experience it and like like
other things like wine and tequila, where you have notes
and you have like finishes and you have yoh yeah,
you can smell the barley, you can taste the honey,
and I'm like, I taste beer. Um. But Charo really
(23:21):
like a lot of the craft beers. Really you have
a better experience than the mass produced ones because you
can really feel those those notes and the care and
concern that is brewed in every bottle. You go, Okay,
this is like. I went to a bar in Monterrey
that had ninety nine beers, which is funny play on
(23:42):
ninety nine bottles of beer on the wall, but ninety
nine draft draft beer, and one tasted like mango, one
tasted like chocolate, one tasted like They had a really
fun menu and it was really a really fun place.
It's in the searching for Mexico. So you you guys
will have to check. I have to go. I'm going
(24:03):
to Terre in April for a wedding, so you have
to give me, give me list. It's um, it's it's
it's built. The restaurant is built out of old train
box cars, so it's super cool. And the food like
it's a bar, but the food and they have brisket.
(24:23):
They have a lot of Texas stuff. They have a
lot of barbecue and stuff like that there. And I
was like, oh my god. And they were so excited
to serve me the brisket because I was that's awesome.
It was like and it was briskets and beer, briskets
and beer. It's like the best, the best thing. I
will say. I'm so proud that that, like even mass
market Mexican beers are so good and very on par
with the good European beer. I agree that really they were,
(24:46):
that they were modeled after total I thought, I thought
the evolution of beer in Mexico is something. It is.
I agree, and I love a good even though it's
not the fanciest, it's not the you know, craftiest, there's
just something very good about this sort of little sunshine
in a bottle. Love it. What a fascinating history, and
(25:13):
there's so much more. I mean, we went down the
lane of Mexico because that's who we are, but like,
if you really did a deep dive of beer, it
could take you down many family trees, many family trees
of countries. And I was, I was, I like, obviously
having the lens of Mexico. But what fascinated memost is
(25:34):
the women's involvement in the early evolution of pearly. You know,
like all good things that are invented, it was invented
the war exactly not invented, but but helped along the way.
I totally totally, Well, thanks everybody for listening. Cheers. I'm
holding my beer ups. Cheers too, everyone who has clicked
(25:57):
and subscribed to our podcast. People listening, We'll have some
more fun episodes coming up. Thank you and cheers everyone.
Hungry for History is an unbelievable entertainment production in partnership
with Ihearts my Kulpua podcast Network. For more of your
favorite shows, visit the iHeartRadio app, Apple podcast, or wherever
(26:20):
you get your podcasts.
Popular Podcasts
Dateline NBC
Current and classic episodes, featuring compelling true-crime mysteries, powerful documentaries and in-depth investigations.
Stuff You Should Know
If you've ever wanted to know about champagne, satanism, the Stonewall Uprising, chaos theory, LSD, El Nino, true crime and Rosa Parks, then look no further. Josh and Chuck have you covered.
The Nikki Glaser Podcast
Every week comedian and infamous roaster Nikki Glaser provides a fun, fast-paced, and brutally honest look into current pop-culture and her own personal life.