“I feel a soul connection with the alewife as a female brewer, let’s bring her back to life, let’s find our way back to these medicinal ales, let’s start choosing things that serve us without having to compromise on taste”
Alewife is a medieval name for a female ‘Brewster’ of medicinal ales, mostly non-alcoholic, fermented beverages that she would sell to her community. Back in these times woman that had professional jobs would have the word “wife” at the end of their working names. An example of a name that has lasted the times would be mid “wife”
She would use herbs and grains from her garden to create these probiotic ales. Some were specially designed for medicinal purposes e.g: raspberry leaf tea fermented for midwifes to assist pregnant woman in labour. Some were made purely for their great flavour but all shared one common factor: they were all fermented. Whether they were alcoholic or not they all delivered health benefits. They were all alive with microbes and good bacteria to improve and maintain gut health, vitality and overall and wellbeing.
This something that has long been lost through industrialisation of our food and beverages.