Fool for all seasons

I replied to a call for April 1 articles for a small, local paper. My piece was rejected on the grounds that it too directly referenced a local personage.

Skirt's vs Short's: battle of sexes brewing in craft beer scene

By Imbibio DeBeers

The vast majority of the history of beer belongs to women. Take the case of the witch – one of the most powerful icons of magical femininity.

A 2020 study reported that everything from cats and brooms to pointy hats and enchanted potions are all related to women’s dominance in the brewing activities of prehistoric civilizations.

Cats were kept to guard the grain used in beer production from rodents. Brooms propped open doors where fermented beverages were available and tall hats marked heads of women associated with ales sales.

“Women, or alewives or brewsters, were historically the primary producers of beers/ales for about 20,000 years,” says the research from the International Journal of the Sociology of Leisure.

After millennia of doing the brewing, powerful players in male-dominated institutions sought to corner ale markets. They vilified the alewives, rebranding them as hideous hags and a menace to society.

Now a growing movement of brewsters is trying to turn back the tide of so much control over beer trades having gone to the guys.

“My passion has always been beer, brewing and creatively engineering camaraderie around a meal and drinks,” says Minnie Skirt, who is generating an early buzz around her rumored brewing and bottling plans in A----- County.

Skirt’s Brewstery is the working title for Minnie Skirt’s pink flagship beer brewing, bottling and restaurant operations in A----- County. (Courtesy image)

Skirt is keeping the precise locations of properties she claims to possess through an anonymous holding company behind the veil for now, waiting for the perfect moment to submit her applications and break ground.

She rediscovered the area after a dimly remembered stay early in her childhood, during a time when her family was moving a lot.

“I remember my kindergarten friend teasing me about another kid, that if we got married it’d be the Short-Skirt wedding,” she said.

This unverified image was found on a private social media group dedicated to sharing craft brewing recipes. (Courtesy photo)

Taking early inspiration from brewing and preserving she observed her mother doing when she was growing up, Skirt opened her first brewery not long after obtaining a degree in business and hospitality at Tulane.

Since then she’s developed her own line of brews including the Girl Power Pilsner, the Pumpkin Spice Latte Dopplebock and the Bra Burner Belgian.

Asked about her influences, she cited Luna Contreras, a restaurateur preparing to break onto the Portland, Ore. stage this spring after successful runs managing eateries in San Francisco. She also mentioned Knotch Brewing in Salem, Mass. and Backward Flag Brewing in south New Jersey.

Skirt is one of the growing number of women taking on leading roles in the Michigan craft beer scene operations, including Stormcloud, Five Shores, Earthen Ales, Rare Bird Brewpub, Beards Brewery, Brewery Vivant and MI Local Hops.

Not to mention Fermenta, which was formed in 2014 as a women’s trade group for Michigan brewsters by industry mavens Stacey Roth, Pauline Knighton-Prueter and Angie Williams.

All this is good news for beer drinkers, who are sure to see continued expansion and experimentation in the wider brewing industry.

“Michigan is home to some of the best breweries, microbreweries, and brewpubs in the world,” said governor Gretchen Whitmer in a recent statement, in which she also declared March 21, 2022 to be officially recognized as Oberon Day.