It is probable that beer-like beverages were created independently among multiple cultures throughout the world. Chemical tests of pottery jars show that beer was fermented at least 7,000 years ago in present-day Iran. It possibly dates back to the early Neolithic period (9500 BC), when cereals were first farmed. Almost any liquid containing carbohydrates (sugars and starches converted to sugars) will undergo natural fermentation with the wild yeasts present in air.
Beer may have been brewed from grains and water before nomads learned to bake bread, or it may have been made from baked bread crumbled into water to create a mash. Anthropologist Alan Eames believes that “beer was the driving force that led nomadic mankind into village life…it was this appetite for beer-making that led to crop cultivation, permanent settlement and agriculture.”
Before the middle Ages, the making of beer was for women, since it was considered a food as well as a celebration drink. It was drunk where it was brewed, or used for trade, barter, tithing or taxing. Not until the 14th and 15th centuries did beer making gradually change from an individual family’s chore to that of guild-artisans. Monasteries and pubs began large, centralized batch-brewing for mass consumption. Beer was recognized as part of hospitality for traveling pilgrims.
Beer as Food
During the middle Ages, people’s food came from their gardens, fields, waterways and surrounding territories. Bread and dishes made from grains were the most important staple foods. Bread did not store as well as did beer.
Beer was often referred to as liquid bread. It transported more simply and was attacked by fewer pests or vermin. The alcohol’s ability to make people feel exhilarated was a minor side effect. Water was often unclean and carried diseases which caused mass deaths. Because beer had to be boiled for an extended time, people who drank beer tended to live longer than those who drank water.
Early beer was drunk through a straw, to avoid the bitter grain hulls left floating in the cloudy and unfiltered beverage. These straws were usually reeds, examples of which have not survived. But royalty used gold and silver straws of l-shaped design, to drink from communal bowls of beer. Beautiful straws have been found in many Egyptian tombs, demonstrating the importance of beer for the enjoyment of the afterlife.
Beer Affected our Customs and Language
Should an Egyptian gentleman offer a lady a sip of his beer, they became betrothed.
The term “Honeymoon” came from the Babylon practice 4,000 years for the father of the bride to supply all the mead (honey beer) that his new son-in-law could drink during the “honey month”, or the lunar-based month following any wedding.
Ingredients in Beer
Early European beers might not be recognizable as beer today. Besides basic starch sources, ale women might add fruits, honey, a variety of leaves and spices and even narcotic herbs and oyster shells to their recipes. Mixtures of herbs, referred to as gruit, were used as flavorings. Barks were used as preservatives.
The malting of grains is the process of forcing them to germinate. This converts their starches into sugars, which can be transformed by yeasts into equal amounts, by weight, of alcohol and carbon dioxide.
Malted grains were dried over wood, charcoal or straw fires until the 1600s. There were not well shielded in the kilning process, and picked up a smoky component to their flavorings. Wood-dried malt gave darker color when brewed, but the flavors absorbed from the smoke frequently created beer drinkable only by the local inhabitants, who had to become familiarized to it.
Hops were not cultivated until the early 800’s in France, used for bittering, preservation and aroma. The earliest record of hops being added to ales, which made the drink “beer”, was by Abbess Hildegard of Bingen in 1067. For the next 500 years, beers and ales were prepared in completely separate facilities.
The popularity of Hopped beer was so mixed that the Brewers Company of London wrote “no hops, herbs, or other like thing be put into any ale, but only [water], malt and yeast.”
Beer Laws
William IV, Duke of Bavaria adopted the Reinheitsgebot or oldest purity law still in effect today, in 1516. Ingredients in beer were restricted to water, barley and hops. The existence of yeast was not discovered until 1857 by Louis Pasteur. Prior to that, knew only that their wort must sit exposed to the air to begin fermentation. Sometimes a good batch would just sour on them from undesirable microorganisms, not punishment of the gods.
The Code of Hammurabi established a daily beer ration dependent on social standing of an individual. Administrators and high priests received 5 liters per day, civil servants 3 liters and normal workers 2 liters. Babylonian workers were paid their daily wage in beer. Our Pilgrims landed at Plymouth Rock in 1620, not because it looked to be a promising locale, but because their beer supplies were running low. Soldiers in the American Revolutionary Army received rations of 1 quart of beer per day.
Today, beer is the 3rd most widely consumed drink in the world, behind only water and tea.
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