On Brewing & Baking

It is impossible to say which of the two first delighted our palates. One might think that beer has always been around, just like bread, especially in a region such as the Innviertel, where enjoyment is something of a human right.

A few years ago, the German evolutionary biologist Josef Reicholf caused a stir with his theory: His theory was that humans only became settled in the first place so that they could grow enough grain to brew beer. Was it perhaps not bread, but beer, that transformed them from nomadic hunters and gatherers into settled farmers and townspeople? Who knows? Yet there is further evidence to support this theory, such as the ‘Monument Bleu’, a series of clay tablets dating back thousands of years to the Sumerian period. They can be admired at the Louvre in Paris and show how emmer grains are hulled, baked into flatbreads and processed into beer.

Bread and beer clearly go hand in hand. Which brings us to another fact – one that may come as a surprise to some: not only was bread-baking, but also beer-brewing once firmly in the hands of women. Women ran the household and the kitchen; it was only a small step from baking bread to brewing beer. Consequently, a brewing kettle was often part of a bride’s dowry. Science has an interesting theory to offer here too: if men had brewed the beer, it would have tasted different. This is because during the brewing process, not only did yeast from the air enter the beer, but also yeast present on the skin. In the case of women brewers, therefore, these were female yeasts. Even in fairy tales, bread and beer form an inseparable pair.

‘Today I bake, tomorrow I brew, the day after tomorrow I’ll fetch the Queen’s child,’ sang Rumpelstiltskin, for example, as he leapt around the fire. The Brothers Grimm made no mention of a wife, which is why the mischievous little fellow probably became a brewer and baker himself. Over the centuries, it was increasingly men who excelled in the disciplines of ‘bread and liquid bread’. In the Innviertel, for example, brewing is reserved entirely for men, although the gentlemen – united in the ‘Innviertel Beer Region’ – are led by a woman in this association.