Ladies - we need you!

Are you good at flavours? Ever thought “I’d like to create my own beer”? Well, ladies, here’s a chance to fashion your own recipe and have it brewed by one of the UK’s leading brewsters, Sara Barton of the award-winning Brewster's in Grantham.

Jane Peyton, principal of School of Booze has teamed up with Sara and fellow taste-fiends Divine Chocolate to offer women the world over the chance to strut their stuff on the brewhouse floor.

With hundreds of breweries in the UK, there are still only a few dozen brewsters at the moment. Yet all the ancient gods of beer were women. In the middle ages, brewing was a homespun activity, one of the numerous chores looked after by the lady of the house, alongside the baking and the washing.

Unhappily for us, this all began to change when hops arrived in the UK. Beer became longer-lived and thus a saleable commodity, and it didn’t take long for blokes to cotton on to the potential for profit. Brewing guilds were established which, with their men-only policies, began to edge the ladies out of the brewhouse.

In recent times this has begun to change, and over the years I‘ve met some wonderfully talented brewsters. From the eloquent Emma Gilleland at the sizeable Marstons through to newer kids on the brewing block, such as the determined Claire Monk at recently-opened Welbeck Abbey, and the softly spoken Hayley Barton at Cumbrian Legendary Ales. What they have in common is an innate desire to translate purity and depth of flavours from good ingredients into something desirably drinkable.

As if illustrating this point of principle, Sara at Brewster's specialises in getting hold of the newest hops around and conjuring up some inspiring ales, from her regular IPAs through to her series of enchanting Wicked Women beers.

Divine may be just a few decades old, but it also lives and breathes strength of flavours. The only Fairtrade chocolate company to be 45% owned by the farmers themselves, it firmly believes in finding the perfect match, hence its handy tips for chocolate and beer, wine – and tea. Yes, tea! but that’s another story.

Divine has worked with Jane over the years to partner its ten types of chocolates with the best beer for the job, whether it be a mild for a milk chocolate or a fruit-and-nut dark chocolate with a strong Trappist beer. And that’s the idea: choose which Divine chocolate is to be your muse and create a beer inspired by that chocolate. You don’t need to brew it, just describe its style and explain why you’d like to be a brewster.

In a nod to women's pivotal role in the history of brewing, the ever-cultural Jane Peyton  – check out her Operalicious series of musical tasting events – has named the competition Ninkasi's Nectar, after the Sumerian (ancient Iraq) patron saint of beer. Aimed at amateurs, the winning entrant will get a chance to see their beer being brewed by Sara at Brewster’s, and to receive a couple of cases of said brew.

How to enter

Head to the School of Booze website for more on Ninkasi's Nectar competition. You have until the end of January to pitch your pitch, so-to-speak.

So good luck. You could be the next Goddess of Beer.