While attempting to look up older brewing techniques out of curiosity on my university database, I got several hits that were actually from books aimed at women, all dated between 1730 and 1760, with titles like "the whole duty of women", "the lady's companion", and "the English housewife". Each of these books had a section dedicated to the production of alcohol, but while they discussed recipes in these sections they did not go into much detail about the social aspects of brewing, and it made me wonder about how often alcohol-making was an at-home endeavor rather than done by breweries.
Prior to this I'd just sort of assumed that alcohol was in general mass-produced and then consumed elsewhere, but this made me wonder about how inaccurate that assumption was.
So my question is; Was much of the alcohol consumed in this time period made at home (and if so, how much?), and were women expected to be proficient in brewing techniques/homemaking alcohol as a result? Was making wine a housewife's duty the same way that cooking or laundry would've been, or is the kind of alcohol described in these articles more of a treat for special occasions rather than the kind of thing one might make regularly?
This is an excellent question! I love discussing the role of women in the 18th century. Most of this comes from Sarah H. Meacham's"Every Home a Distillery". While it does mostly focus on the role of women in brewing in the colonial Chesapeake region, it does mention a bit about brewing in England.
*Disclaimer, I am not an expert in this particular area of 18th century material culture, most of my experience and reading relates back to Colonial North America, so if someone can offer a more complete answer, please do.
Now, to your point, short answer: in England, women were initially expected to know how to brew, but were slowly phased out by men and distilleries. While in the North American colonies, they were able to hold on to it until the advent on the 19th century.
Long answer: Before the advent of new technologies in brewing, or hops, most of the brewing was done by women. In fact, in 1656, Englishman John Hammond criticized Virginia women for not producing enough beer, and reducing their husbands to drinking milk and water. As a matter of fact, in the 1700s, brewing was considered a crucial part of any woman's domestic tasks as shown by the illustration in this 1684 manual on The Accomplisht Ladies Delight by Hannah Woolley. It was done since the 3rd century in England, and it varied by social class, with elite women directing brewing activities in their household, with lower class women doing it by themselves. You would see the cider-ing of fruits, beers, ales and even flavoring wines with berries and fruits.
By the 17th century, the average was that everyone in England drank about 999 US pints of beer, ale and spirits (compared to the modern US average of 172 pints today). Now, do not look at this condescendingly as if everyone was a drunkard in England. Most of the alcohol drunk was what we consider "smallbeer" or cider, with an ABV of 1%-2%, just enough to make it safe. In addition, in a society that relied on manual labor, and where every calorie counted, beer and cider provided much needed energy and nutrition for a hard day of work.
In the beginning of the 14th century though, the advent of Guilds started to force women out of the brewing workforce, since one of the requirements to join the Brewer's Guild was a lengthy training, which many women could not afford to take the time to join due to child-rearing, other domestic responsibilities or even just marriage. In the late 15th century, the advent of hopped-beer started to phase out un-hopped ales, since they could be kept for longer, though they required more labor and capital to produce, which forced many women out of brewing in favor of professional brewers, who were mostly men.
In the late 17th century, men took an increasingly more active role in the production of alcohol and spirits, and started to force women entirely out of its production In England. Not only that, the population density and consolidation of the production facilities in England meant that instead of several homes making ciders, beers and ales for domestic consumption, most of the alcohol was produced by large breweries and distilleries for sale. Domestic production couldn't compete with this "industrialization" and advent of "mass production" if you will. Large centralized distilleries had the capital, labor and machinery required to produce large amounts of hopped beer, cider and spirits, in scale that domestic home brewers could not compete. Coupled with the fact that in order to be a professional, you had a very strong licensing process that favored men. Unfortunately, this took a turn for the worse, and a general attitude took hold in the brewing industry arguing that women were unfit for the production of alcohol.
Only in the colonies were women able to hold on to their responsibilities of brewing, mostly due to high-cost of imports and transportation. Until the late 18th century, most colonists were drinking about an average of 15 gallons of cider and 3 1/2 gallons of distilled spirits per year. But by the 19th century, industrialization and the Great Revival once again forced women out of brewing.