Judith M. Bennett's "Ale, Beer, and Brewsters in England: Women's Work in a Changing World 1300-1600" is a fascinating exploration of the "by-industry" and commercial industry of brewing in late Medieval England, dominated for centuries by women (mainly wives).

Ale and beer production was crucial to the operation of local economies, owing to its cheapness and healthiness vs other prevailing options (like water, wine, etc.). It was largely produced by women brewers or "brewsters" and was consumed in vast quantities:

"Edward I had to provide his soldiers with about 1 gallon of ale each a day, and this per diem appears to have been quite standard; it is found in household accounts, monastic corrodies, and even allowances for the poor inmates of hospitals."

"If everyone in England drank just a quart of ale a day, more than 17 million barrels had to be produced each year." But it required few specialist tools. "As a result of its accessibility, brewing was an industry of thousands of petty producers, not a specialist craft."

Bennett operates with the crucial category of the by-industry: "Many women and men in medieval and early modern England worked in by-industries, that is, productive work pursued in the home as one of many employments, not a sole occupation."

"Although all members of a household might have helped in brewing, women took primary responsibility for it." They likely managed their husbands, children, and servants in malting process. "Women were the people most often identified in public records...with the brewing trade."

Employments like brewing "might have been intermittent and unpredictable, but they were absolutely essential. The extra income women brought home...probably often made the difference for their families between starvation and survival."

Some women made it big by selling to elite households. "In the early 15th century, the household of Richard Mitford, bishop of Salisbury, purchased about 125-150 gallons of ale every week from Alice Shepherd of Potterne."

Women tended to brew intermittently, but not necessarily in a discernible pattern (eg taking breaks for pregnancy, toddlers). "The most common pattern was to limit commercial brewing both early and late, brewing for profit most often during the middle years of married life."

"She negotiated with grain suppliers, maltsters, waterbearers, servants, and of course her customers; she talked with local or civic officers about the quality, prices, and measure of her ale; she managed a complex business that involved both production and sales; ...

"...and she brought income into her household. She might not have been recognized as a worker as skilled as a rural plowman or an urban gildsman, but she was probably recognized as a skilled housewife and a good provider for her family."

Gradually women begin to disappear from and men begin to slip into the trade trade as brewing becomes more wholesale and as hops are introduced which allow the beer to keep and industries to sell beer over longer distances.

Bennett comes to the same conclusion as another historian of early modern England, Joan Thirsk, "If a venture prospers, women fade from the scene." (Bennett connects this to modern issues of income inequality, which potentially cedes a lot of capitalism's worst premises.)