Ninkasi is the Sumerian goddess associated with beer and brewing.
Her name is commonly interpreted as “the lady of the beer.” Ninkasi appears in a Sumerian hymn that gives instructions and imagery connected with brewing, making her one of the clearest divine figures associated with an everyday Mesopotamian craft.
Beer was an important beverage in ancient Mesopotamia. It could be made from fermented grain and was consumed by people of different social levels. Brewing was connected with food production, household labor, ritual, and economic administration.
Ninkasi is sometimes confused with goddesses whose roles involved grain, writing, healing, or marshlands. Those associations belong to other deities. Her distinctive connection is beer, brewing, and the preparation of the drink celebrated in her hymn.