I have a news flash. Viking women took care of themselves.

I know, it’s hard to believe, but it’s true. When the men went a’Viking, raiding or trading, other peoples and tribes were doing it, too. When others attacked, who do you think defended the villages and farms?

Women and slaves did.

There is a persistent myth about “Shield Maidens” in Norse culture. While I have no doubt that there were a minority of women that raided like the men, Shield Maiden was actually a term used to describe the Valkyries. They would gather the spirits of the Noble Dead from the battlefields and take them to Folkvangr (Freya’s hall) or Valhalla.

Women did fight though, and fight for their lives. When the raiders came, they used any think that could be used as a weapon to defend their homes, children and dependents. They didn’t just lie down and let themselves be taken.

I find it interesting, then, that so many women are afraid of fighting back. It’s not just a physical fighting back, either. We seem to be more afraid of someone calling us Bitches than we are of anything else.

If “Bitch” means that I won’t let someone take away what’s mine, including my dignity and choice, then bitch I am. If bitch means speaking out the truth of my life, then I own the title willingly.

I’m not against applying a knee to the nuts of any man who tries to screw with me these days, either. At the age of 49, I found my fierce. Life is better now.

Eleanor Roosevelt said that no one can make you feel inferior without your permission. So if you feel as if others are better than you, you need to stop. You aren’t. 

There is this meme, this common belief among the population at large, that in cultures like the Norse and Celts, women were of the “Sit down and shut up” variety. Folks look at mythology like the Indo European ones, and somehow think that women were considered less important than men. I will not speak to the Greek and Roman ones, those are not my area of expertise, I will say that, especially in Norse Mythology and culture, that is simply not the case.

I know that some sources suggest that it was. There is very little, if any, written documentation of Norse culture before the Christian Era. Most of what we have was written in the late Viking period, and either written and transcribed by priests. While most may have been well meaning, we cannot say that those priests did not have a political or religious agenda, and we don’t know how they changed the original texts to suit their agenda. The best known texts we do have are the Poetic and the Prose Eddas. These were written by a Christian man, not so much to preserve the mythology, but to demonstrate to poets the proper ways of writing Norse style poetry and prose. That has to be taken into consideration when reading or digesting the information it contains.

On a superficial level, what do the Eddas and other myths contain? They contain stories of Goddesses that seemed somewhat weak, that were concerned with hearth, home and sparklies. One of the best known stories of a powerful goddess is that of Freya and how she acquired Brisigamen, her necklace of power. She is seen as somewhat of a tramp, because she lay with the dwarves as the price of the necklace. This is a false reading of the myth. Brisigamen is a necklace of power. What she did was give power, in the form of her body, for power, in the form of the necklace. It was an exchange of equal power, not some woman sleeping with the dwarves for a pretty. Freya was a Goddess of extraordinary power. Half of the valiant dead that fell in battle were hers to command, the other half went to Odin. Interestingly enough, the lore is very clear on the fact that Freya chose hers before Odin, and Odin took the rest. That honor is not given to Xena Warrior Prostitute, it is given to one of immense power and influence.

Frigga is considered by some to be simply a home keeping woman. She concerns herself with her husband and her children, rarely seen except to try and save her son Balder from death and Hel’s realm. What isn’t so frequently talked about is that, just as Odin is the All-Father, she is the All-Mother. She has the gift of being all knowing and she neither tells what she sees, nor tries to stop events from unfolding as they should  (with, of course, the exception of Balder.)

Those are stories, what do we know of the actual lives of women?? Not much, I’m afraid. We can, however, extrapolate from recent archeological finds and the mythology, quite a bit. We have found women who have been buried with rich grave goods including swords. Swords are not buried with just anyone, and not often with women. If, as some say, women were just home keeping who did nothing besides keep house and cater to men, it would never have happened.  The women that the swords were buried with were powerful and important, not just in their homes, but in society at large.

We can also tell by laws that we knew existed that women were important, listened to and carried great sway in society. Women were able to obtain divorces, and when divorced, lost nothing. They kept, after the dissolution of the marriage, all property they came into it with, and equal access and say in the lives of their children. Compare that to other cultures that, if a woman was divorced, lost those things and led lives of poverty and exclusion from society. Women could hold property and inherit, often in equal shares with their brothers. Upon marriage, a woman received, as part of the ceremony, the keys to the home. This not only acknowledged the fact that she was now the manager of the property, she was often considered the owner, as her husband likely spent much time away.

Terrific, you say. What the Hel does that have to do with anything anymore?

In these times where, in many parts of the world, women are marginalized to the point where they have no right to speak, it’s necessary to note that it wasn’t always this way. In the US, where one political party is seeking to do away with a woman’s right to choose just about everything, we have to remember that our ancestors did things differently.

On a personal level, this means that I don’t have to put up with this shit any longer. It means that the strength of my Mothers runs in my veins and that I need not fear speaking out. It means that I have a voice and that if I do not speak out loud enough to be heard, I can shout and scream until I am.

All women have the voice. Society as a whole has marginalized women long enough, using tradition and faulty scriptures and lore as an excuse. Recent events have made me take stock of some of beliefs, and have forced me to examine my life in a different way. I have been told to sit down and shut up in ways both blatant and overt. Recently, while posting on a social networking site, I was told, on my own page, that I was on the “Gynocentric Bullshit Train.” He said, flat out, that women ARE equal by law, and that efforts to abolish abortions and curtail women’s rights were just trying to make the playing field with men more even, since when it comes to reproduction, men have little say.

Well if fighting for my rights to determine what’s best for me and my body is driving the Gynocentric Bullshit train, then that’s what I’m doing. I’m not going to stay on the tracks either. I’m gonna run right over anyone stupid enough to wander on the tracks, and I’m going to keep on driving.

My mothers, my sisters, and my daughters deserve no less. I will pick up the sword and carry on. It’s the traditional thing to do….

I’m sitting here with a home brew, (wheat/pear for those who are interested) and thinking about all the things people say when they taste my beer, wine or mead. The most common of those is, “I don’t know what I expected, but this is really good!”

Let’s be honest here, you thought about the phrase ‘homemade,’ and your mind automatically when to jet engine fuel. We all know you did, just admit it. I’m okay with that, why shouldn’t you be? After all, I exceeded your expectations, it’s all good.

That’s one reason I prefer the term, “home brew,” instead of homemade. Most brewers do. We all have memories of something craptastic that someone was so proud of being homemade, and think of that, instead of the wonderful creations of others that were truly master craftpeople.

I do hear that with a lot of the crafting I do. It’s not just with the brewing, people have seen my weaving or stitch work and marvel at how good it is. I guess that many of us don’t think of our friends and family as being as talented as they are. It’s a shame that we don’t think more of each other.

Still, I don’t think of myself as a home brewer, so much as a craft beer and wine maker with serious mad scientist tendencies. Instead of a laboratory with test tubes and dangerous viruses, I work in my kitchen, and the danger is in exactly what kind of alcohol yield I can get without distilling.

For those who are interested, my personal best is a 26% (or 52 proof) wine with the innocuous name of Hippie Chick. Go figure.

This weekend, I’m going to grab the husband, go into the kitchen, and work with some wine. It’s messy, tiring work, and lifting those 5 gallon buckets is hard work, but it’s just about the most fun I can think about having.*

*except for stitching, spinning, weaving, drawing, knitting, crocheting,  etc…. My life is filled with awesome. What can I say???  

We now have what we need to brew, the equipment at least. The next question is, “What kind of wine, mead or beer do I want to make?”

I can say that I have never harmed a grape in my wine making. I don’t use grapes at all. I make a variety of wine that, in colloquial terms, is described as “Country Wines.” That’s just the snooty way of saying that I don’t use grapes. Somehow, and for some reason that I can’t fathom, wine made from things other than grapes is looked down on by the Hoity Toity. Their loss, I’m sure.

What are my choices, you may ask. The sky is, almost, literally the limit. If it’s made of plant matter, and it’s non-toxic, you can make a wine from it. Add sugar and yeast, let it sit for a while, and you have wine. The drinkability is another issue. There are some things that I’m convinced won’t taste good, but that’s more a personal taste issue.

I’ve made wine from Rose hips and Hibiscus. I’ve made wine from Sweet Tea. I keep trying to ferment cacao nibs into a chocolate wine, but I keep running into an oil problem.

So, a few guidelines are in order. The first is that if it’s leaves, and with a few notable exceptions, you’re probably better off going with dried leaves and herbs than you are with fresh ones. Herbs and leaves in the fresh state, have natural oils, some more than others. Oils inhibit yeast from doing the happy dance that causes fermentation, and you don’t want an oily wine. I’ve been told that, if you allow it to age long enough, the oils will be eaten by the alcohol, but I’ve never seen it happen. I’m not doubting, I’ve just never had the patience to wait that long. I use dried, because I get better results. The one glaring exception to this rule is Dandelion wine. I have no idea as to the scientific reasons, but you want fresh Dandelions for that.

Fruit always makes a good wine, the juicer the fruit, the better off you’ll be. If you’re using a fruit with a large pit, like a mango or a peach, it sometimes works better to pulverize it first, the put it in a mesh bag. With berries that have small seeds, you can still do that, but sometimes breaking the seeds can cause bitterness to the wine that’s hard to get out. Your best bet there is to macerate the berries in some sugar first, to break them down, the crush them, and put them in a mesh hopping bag. (or you can spoon them into the bad and crush them at the bottom of the fermenter. Either way works.)

When using fresh fruit, always, and I do mean ALWAYS, consider pectin enzymes your best friend ever. Seriously, if you want your wine to clear in any sort of reasonable time frame, pectin enzyme is a must. It’s inexpensive to buy, and there is no reason why you shouldn’t use it.

Some flavorings are easier and more predictable if you use a method other than adding the ingredients. Vanilla overtones can be added using different yeasts or oak chips, and you don’t get the oils and overpowering flavor with those that real vanilla beans can give.

I’m a mad scientist when it comes to making wine. I’ll try anything at least once. Dan, my pusher… er the man that runs the local brewing store, loves to see me come in. First, I’m a really good customer, second, I usually come bearing a bottle of whatever I just bottled, and third, he likes to hear about what new concoctions I have going.

When brewing, have fun. That’s why you got started. Don’t be bound by rules, those are boring, and you never know what you’ll get if you break them. Think outside the box. Go the scenic route. Take a few chances.  The worst that will happen is that what you make will taste terrible. Learn the lesson and try again. I’ve been trying to make a pure chocolate wine for two years.

Babe Ruth’s lifetime batting average was .342. That means that he didn’t get a hit twice as often as he hit. Think about that for a few. When it comes to wine, I’m doing better than Babe Ruth!! I may have to open a bottle to celebrate!!!

When it comes to the fermentation of alcohol, I’m a mad scientist. I don’t follow any but the most basic rules. The rest, I toss into the trash bin, where they should have been for the last thousand years. I mean, the women who have brewed in the past didn’t follow any of the lousy rules, why should I??

If you buy a book on brewing, or you go to your local supply shop, they’re going to try to sell you a kit, or give you a list of things that they promise you’ll need. Some of it’s great to have, and some of it is just a waste of money. There are a lot of things I got that I either can’t figure out how the hell to use, or just never used in the first place. There are other things that would have made things easier, that I didn’t get at first.

What does the first time brewer absolutely HAVE to have?

2 food grade plastic buckets; A siphon hose of some sort; Ingredients; Yeast; Camden tablets or potassium or sodium metabisulfite; Sterilizing solution of some sort; Air lock or fermentation lock.

That’s pretty much all you HAVE to have. Other things, pectin enzymes and testing kits are good to have, but not necessary.

There are a few things I’d like to say about the equipment. There are some out there that will tell you that you have to use glass. It’s garbage, don’t listen to them. They’ll say that plastic will retain the flavors of your last batch, and that it will spoil your most recent one. I’ve had a couple of buckets for over two years, almost in constant use with one wine, beer or mead or another. I’ve never had that problem. Wash them immediately after you empty them, don’t use any abrasive cleaners, and sterilize properly, and it’s just simply not an issue. Mostly, people that tell you that just want to sell you the more expensive glass containers. Glass is heavier, harder to work with, and if it breaks, you have a massive fucking mess. I wouldn’t bother with it. If you think you want glass, and have the money to pay for it, then do so. Otherwise, don’t bother. You need a bucket with a hole in the lid for the fermentation lock. They come in many different sizes and styles. The type you use is a matter of personal taste.

The siphoning hose isn’t an absolute necessity, per se. I made several batches of mead without one. I will say that life is a whole lot easier with one. They aren’t that expensive, and worth the money, if only for the fact that there is less hassle and the possibility of spilling your precious brew with one. I have one that has a pump attached. A couple of pumps, and the wine flows effortlessly from one bucket to the other. It’s definitely worth the $10 buck or so you pay for it.

You need to decide what you want it made of, and then you choose the yeast. There are a lot of different kinds, and what you want your finished product to be will pretty much determine the yeast you use. You will need the Camden Tablets, they kill off the wild yeasts before you add the brewer’s yeast. That keeps nasty flavors and aromas from contaminating things.

Sterilizing solution is the last thing. This is a must have. When you brew, your equipment need to be sterile. You don’t want bacteria in your buckets or on your equipment. I can’t stress this enough. Sterilization solution is your friend. You can use bleach and water, but I don’t recommend it. It does the job, and does it well, but it’s fuck all to get rinsed out, and it does have to be totally rinsed out. Save yourself some grief and buy the no rinse kind.

Next time, on Mad Scientist Theater, I’m going to tell you how I pick ingredients… Bwahahahahahaha

I was told recently, that I need to start a blog about brewing. Okay, I thought, but my life isn't just about brewing. I do lots of things, brewing being only one of them. I spin, weave, knit, crochet, sew, embroider, cross stitch, and cook. I look in the mirror every morning and wonder how to deal with my own awesomeness.

In short, I'm on a one woman crusade to learn all I can about how women used to live, and the arts they had to master to be considered accomplished. Only one of those was brewing. 

I like history, and I like reading and researching the history of women. There isn't much there. Women didn't create what historians call, durable goods. Everything they created was consumed in one way or another. The food they produced, the cloth they spun and wove, the beer, ale, wine and mead they made, all of it was used up until nothing was left. This gives the casual observer the idea that women's work was, somehow, unimportant. This is as far from the truth as can be imagined, but it's still there. Even today, "women's work" is synonymous with unpaid or low paid work, unimportant and unfulfilling. 

Women's work is practical. It was all about "What can I do that won't put the children and elders in my care at risk if I take them with me?" So they didn't dig many build many houses or hunt aurochs. They didn't go away from home and fight wars. They tended the houses, they cooked the aurochs and tanned the hides. They wove the cloth that the fighters wore and birthed and raised the next generation. It wasn't their lot in life, it was their life's work. 

My life is one of tradition. It's the kind of woman I choose to be. It's not about what I have to do, it's what I find my bliss doing. It's not about taking care of my husband, it's about finding meaning in little things that others overlook. It's not about being lazy or wanting a life of leisure, it's about staying busy practicing arts that connect me to the women that have come before. 

Oh, did I mention that I make kick ass beer?? That, too, is women's work.

Let's take a few moments to contemplate beer. Wine and mead work, too. Whatever makes you happiest. It makes very little difference to me which you prefer. I make it all, and have lots of fun doing it.

First, like all good children, you'll have to learn a bit first. Peas and carrots before dessert, as it were. The first thing that you need to understand is that women did the brewing in the ancient world. Yes, boys and girls, WOMEN did it. Though we have no written records, it was probably women that first discovered that. left too long, juice will ferment if left too long. Wild yeasts take over and it's happy time in the village (or cave or whatever...)

The oldest proven records of beer are from 6000 years ago in Sumeria. Around 4000 years ago, they wrote a Hymn to Ninkasi, a Goddess of beer, that included a recipe for beer in it. Egyptian cuneiform writing shows women making beer. The yeast was obtained from bread dough, and dates were added to enhance the flavor. 

The Greeks made beer, but it was thought to be a bit vulgar, and was replaced by wine for the upper classes. In the North, grapes were difficult to cultivate, so beer was the drink of choice. In the Finnish Saga Kalewala, 200 verses are devoted to the creation of the earth, but 400 were devoted to beer. At least we know that the ancients had their priorities in the right order.  

Today, in indigenous cultures, women still ferment the beverages for ritual and mundane uses. From tribes in Africa to the Natives of South America, it's the women who do the fermenting. 

Barley and hops were late comers to the beer making process. It wasn't until the 16th century that barley and hops replaced leaves, twigs and berries. It was also along that time that the Christian priests got into the act, gaining a monopoly on things like barley and hops, and women were replaced by men as the primary brewers of beer, and the brewing of beer became more regulated and more of a professional endeavor, rather than something that women did for religious and personal use. 

In the mid 19th century, Louis Pasteur began research on how yeast actually worked. This brought on a revolution, of sorts, and yeasts became safer, more standardized and more reliable. It was also during this time that brewers realized that the clarity of beer was related to the temperature that it was fermented at. 

So, to the present. Here in the US, it's legal for adults to brew a limited amount of wine and beer in all 50 states. The amount you can legally produce varies depending on where you live, but it is legal. The story is different for distilling, but that's a whole different can of worms, and one that I won't go into now. 

The craft brewing industry has taken off, but there are still remarkably few women involved. For an art that was practiced throughout history as a feminine one, the men have taken over. Even if it's in our own homes, it's time to reclaim the sacred art of brewing as our own. Men are welcome into the club, too, as far as I'm concerned. 

Next blog will be on mechanics. What you need, how to start, what you need to know. We're gonna have some fun, now!