Was Jane Austen a Secret Beer Brewer?

Genteel members of the landed gentry. Ladies in Regency gowns with boy problems. Excessive BBC costume dramas. A truth universally acknowledged that a single man in possession of darkly handsome looks and a borderline personality disorder must be in want of Keira Knightley. Or something.

Many things spring to mind when thinking about Jane Austen. Beer isn't one of them.

But it seems we may have got Jane all wrong. A previously unpublished letter from the 19th century novelist hints that she may have tried her hand at brewing.

As The Drinks Business reported this week, the letter was published on a Jane Austen messaging board. Written by Austen to her sister Cassandra, it suggests that the Pride and Prejudice author may have been brewing casks of spruce beer, and drink made with spruce trees bud and needles.

Austen writes: "'But all this,' as my dear Mrs. Piozzi says, 'is flight and fancy, and nonsense, for my master has his great casks to mind and I have my little children.' It is you, however, in this instance, that have the little children, and I that have the great cask, for we are brewing spruce beer again."

Translation from 1800s speak: Cassy is dealing with her kids, while Jane deals with brewing up some bevvies. Again.

Of course, as The Drinks Business points out, making your own beer wasn't all that uncommon in Austen's day, especially for women. In fact, brewing was considered a woman's job, with female "brewsters" operating in Austen's home county of Hampshire for 4,000 years.

Besides, all that writing must be very thirsty work.