@Sheril the Smithsonian ran this article too. They issued a retraction.

A significant number of these facts are wrong. Not least that:

Beer is not brewed in a cauldron. Doing so would prevent the formation of alcohol.

Monastic orders were very involved in brewing.

The reformation was not the reason witchcraft trials took off. It was James I (Source my wife's thesis of early modern folklore)

See the retraction:

smithsonianmag.com/history/wom