Ep 4 – Christina Wade: Beer historian, spooky girl, and castle person

Welcome back to Cheers with Nat – the podcast dedicated to cheering on women in drinks.

In today’s episode, you’ll hear from beer historian, Dr. Christina Wade.

We start by discussing how she turned her childhood dream of being a “castle person” into a career as a historian, and how the history of beer – and women in beer more specifically – became her focus.

Christina then shares how her award-winning books came to life, the beer history myth she’s determined to bust, and what she’s working on next. We also learn why she believes it’s so important to share her work outside of academia and how she rewired her writing style for a broader audience.

Lastly, you’ll hear about some of the new hobbies that keep her grounded outside of work, given that her hobby eventually became her work.

---

What stuck with me from this conversation:

• On her childhood dream: “My family saved up lots and lots of money to be able to take me to Ireland after that because I just fell in love with medieval history. And I went to Bunratty Castle and, I think I must have been 10, and I looked at my mother and I said ‘I want to be a castle person’, you know I want to study this, this is what I want to do. And I want to do it here.”

• On citing sources as a historian: “It was really important to me to make sure that I had sources that other people could read. I’m not just saying this and you can trust me. You shouldn’t trust me. You shouldn’t trust anybody unless they can provide their sources and you should look at those sources, if you’re so inclined.”

• On how her first book came about: “I really want to read this book, so I’m going to write this book, because I want to read it.”

• On writing for different audiences: “You’re gatekeeping to some degree. You’re choosing what information to include and what not. And your audience is trusting you with that and that’s a lot of power. So you want to make sure that you’re writing something that’s worthy of that, that they can engage with, that’s still having the academic rigour that you would write for an academic audience but then in a way that speaks to them. So I write how I speak, so I write like I’m talking to my friends in the pub over a pint. And if I can’t say it out loud and have people understand it, then it needs to be re-written.”

• On the importance of listening in her work: “… it’s also being able to gauge what your audience wants by not only speaking to your audience, but listening. I think that’s a really important part. So it’s not only writing the media, its also consuming the media. And listening to people’s voices and seeing what are they interested in.” Check out the episode to hear how this influenced the focus of The Devil’s in the Draught Lines!

 

Links & things:

• What we’re drinking

  • A nice little write up on both beers from The Beer Nut

  • Collaborator Liam K’s website, IrishBeerHistory

  • The brewers, Trouble Brewing

• Christina’s work

  • Braciatrix blog

  • The Devil’s in the Draught Lines: 1000 Years of Women in Britain’s Beer History (CAMRA, 2024)

    • Winner of The British Guild of Beer Writers Best Book in 2024

  • Filthy Queens: A History of Beer in Ireland (Nine Bean Rows, 2025)

    • Winner of The British Guild of Beer Writers Best Book in 2025

    • Shortlisted for The André Simon Award 2025, selected from over 140 submissions

  • Beer Ladies Podcast

  • Ladies Craft Beer Society of Ireland

• Recognition for Christina’s work

  • In addition to the awards for her books, mentioned above, Christina was also named Beer Expert of the Year in the 2025 inaugural Women in Beer Awards

• People who inspired Christina’s future work

  • Teresa McCullah

  • Liz Garibay

  • And the rest of the Beer Culture Center team

• Christina’s book reccs – a shout out to fellow Irish beer writers!

  • The Dublin Pub: A Social and Cultural History by Donal Fallon

  • A Compendium of Irish Pints by Ali Dunworth

• What she’s watching

  • His & Hers

  • Stranger Things

 

Recording info:

• January 2026 in Dublin

• Sorry for some of the background noises, we had the window open in my hotel room 😅