For as long as we, humans, have done anything, there has always been one sort of booze or another. Today beer is the third most popular drink after water and tea. Nearly every civilization has had its take, from maize beer in Peru to Jupiper Ale in Scandinavia. We make some type of ale from sorgum in Africa and from rice in Japan.
Beer is ubiquitous: it has played many roles throughout history, being at once a meal, a potent medicine, a wage and a symbol of power. Remarkably, today’s beer has virtually nothing in common with the beverage of our ancestors, yet its role in our society is deeply rooted. Why is that?
A Time Before Beer
Our ancestors likely discovered fermentation tens of thousands of years ago, through ripe fruits covered by yeast. Widely available in nature, yeast is the microorganism responsible for turning sugar into alcohol. It has been around for hundreds of millions of years. Mankind’s very first binge drinking was likely a banquet of ripe fruits. Or perhaps was it honey? Picture a honeycomb that has fallen into a trunk during a rainstorm. Add enough water to the mix, and your honey has now started to turn into mead. Experts now believe we could have made mead as early as 20,000 years ago.
In any case, our ancestors would probably have gone to great lengths to seek out the intoxicating effects of alcohol, just as we do today in our drug-saturated society (Think of your morning coffee, your smoke break, and your after-hours drinks) In the days of shamans, before what we now call the agricultural revolution, small groups of people organized themselves around some kind of religious guide – or shaman – who communicated with the spirit world. Psychedelics could certainly have helped establish the transmission.
Ale Before Bread?
According to the most classic theory, beer came after bread. Agriculture would have created the basis for large-scale crop yields, thereby creating the necessary surplus, and the necessary infrastructure, for beer. Scholars are debating this more and more.
There are two main theories about the first beer per se (a drink made of fermented cereals) The first theory argues in favor of an accident: cereals placed in a container would have started to sour after being exposed to rain, thus accidentally creating some very crude version of a craft ale. There is one obvious issue here: cereals in themselves can’t turn into alcohol. The grain would have needed to be roasted to liberate the sugar from the starch.
In 1995, a Canadian paleontologist decided to put this theory to the test by literally throwing cereal into a large pot in the open air and observing what happened. The beer was so disgusting that they decided to complete the experiment in three days.
Theory number 2 looks at early beer as a solution for scarcity and conservation. This is the argument brought forward by Jonathan Sauer in the famous 1962 debate “Beer before Bread”. The American botanist opined that the available cereals (mainly emmer and spelled) would not have provided enough nutrients to justify the effort invested in bread. But the grains could have made a pretty decent brew.
If true, this would suggest nutrition was less of an impetus than the collective pursuit of intoxication, either for its own sake or in support of religious activities. Others see the “Beer before Ale” as a non-starter. With several indications of beer making prior the adoption of agriculture, nothing proves for certain that knowing how to make bread would have been necessary. On the other hand, knowing how to prepare the grain through the roasting process would have been necessary. For this reason, many believe that the first type of beer was a type of porridge with roasted cereals. There is good reason to believe that, because some of the most ancient beer records we have point out to something very similar : the ancient brews of Mesopotamia.
Who invented modern beer?
There is no single inventor of beer. Rather, some version of the unhopped beverage shows up across the world at different times. In 2012, Scientists found evidence of cereal-based alcoholic drinks dating back 10,000. The earliest evidence in China comes from shards in Jiahu, showing evidence of rice, honey and Hawthorne fruit, around 6600 B.C.
More recently, archeologists found evidence of carbon oxalate (a marker of beer making) in the Turkish site of Gobleki Tepe, a puzzling discovery, given that the neolithic site showed no evidence of agriculture. Rather, the settlement seems to have been build for religious purposes.
The earliest written records, however, originate from the ancient city states of Sumer in Ancient Mesopotamia. Thanks to their numerous written sources, we can deduce several important pieces of information about the beer consumed at the time.
Two important documents, the Hymn of Ninkasi and the Code of Hammurabi bear witness to the central role played by beer in the kingdoms of Sumer. The first text, dating from around 1800 BC, pays tribute to Ninkasi, chief brewer of the Sumerian gods, and protector of cereals and health. She is said to have been the patron saint of beer and to have shown mortals how to prepare it. The Ninkasi hymn is both a poem and a recipe and is said to be one of the oldest beer recipes in the world.
The Code of Hammurabi, written around 1750 BC, is the earliest known text regulating the sale and consumption of beer. Modern readers will be surprised to find several paragraphs on beer, the value of barley, and the role of women.
Beer, Bread, and Bappir
Bread was one of the main Sumerian dishes (along with lentils). Brewing Sumerian beer mainly involved the use of barley. Barley grains were germinated and dried to produce malt. This malt was then ground and mixed with hot water to create a sweet porridge called “bappir”. After cooking, this porridge was cooled and left to ferment in clay jars. The Sumerians believed in the presence of deities responsible for fermentation, which gave beer a sacred character. The beer was filtered to remove solid residues and poured into containers for consumption.
Sumerian beer played an important social and religious role. It was consumed daily by various members of society, from kings to workers. Beer was served at banquets, religious ceremonies, and other gatherings. As an alcoholic beverage, beer also had preservative properties, making it invaluable in a society where food preservation was crucial. Beer and barley (though likely more often barley than beer) were also used as a salary for workers and officials.
Egypt: Brewing With Style
The ancient civilization of northeast Africa didn’t wait long to make beer a national beverage. Not only was it consumed regularly, it was also used as a means of payment. Beer spread rapidly in ancient Egypt thanks to the massive production of barley and wheat. The drink was called “barley wine” by the Greeks and was part of all great ceremonies.
BThe Egyptian community left the brewing of beer to women. This production was reserved for the goddesses, as beer was a symbol of fecundity, probably due to its vitamins and mineral salts. Kept in cellars, beers were left to mature. The Chinese, who are also credited with an early but distinct invention of the fermented beverage, followed suit and made their beer, which they called “Tsiou”.
When Beer Became King: Europe
In Europe, it was the Gauls who were associated with the invention of beer. Roman tradition, on the other hand, links the invention of beer to the harvest goddess. The elite, from Rome to Northern Europe, usually preferred wine. But wine was more expensive: the vine didn’t grow in northern Europe and long-distance trade was dangerous.
The Gauls made and sold their beer with local spices and herbs, likely to add taste and protect it from souring. The bitter herbs were usually preferred, because they tended to be associated with anti-bacterial effects. What we do know is that they used plants such as henbane to infuse and preserve beer. Henbane’s hallucinogenic properties could occasionally increase the effect of intoxication.
The Greeks, Mesopotamians, and Scandinavians, to name but a few, recognized the plant’s analgesic properties and used it to induce divinatory trances, if not to obtain a state of ecstatic intoxication. But the use of henbane is just one example among many. Both ale and its medieval successor, gruit, are first and foremost fermented cereal drinks flavored with local herbs.
The Church and the Hop
After the fall of the Roman Empire, the Roman Church was the new power in town. And the Church did not take too kindly to beer. Wine was the drink of the Eucharist. As such, it was officially endorsed by God and Christ. Beer was the drink of the other guys, the “Barbarians” and the “pagans”. The great leaders of the churches considered beer an evil beverage capable of destroying mankind.
But there was one problem. Monasteries of northern Europe couldn’t afford to grow sacred vines. Imports are expensive. Daily life demanded something more practical. Add to this the fact that monasteries had a duty of hospitality that included wine and bread.
It took several centuries for the Church to officially turn its back on beer. With the discovery of beer’s nutritional benefits, monasteries became centers of beer production. Under the reign of Charlemagne, monks had the privilege of running breweries thanks to their expertise. Craft and traditional beers were valued.
The monks were responsible for fermenting the beer at the base and sharing it with the poor. These learned monks played a major role in the success of beer in the Middle Ages. They were responsible for several scientific innovations in the field of beer. At the time, water was distrusted (especially in urban areas), so wine and beer were the best ways to stay hydrated. Beer was also the most affordable of them all.
Beer had its institutions: it was taxed according to a complex set of rules by the town, the state, and the Church. In England, quality was checked by the “aleconner”, an official who went around town testing beer to make sure it wasn’t sour, diluted, or poisoned. Needless to say, aleconners had enemies. They could also be bought. Avoiding taxes quickly became a business in its own right. But evading taxes is generally difficult.
It was tough love for the old brewers who simply wanted to sell to their neighbors. For a time, women completely dominated the trade. However, technology and prosperity put an end to this situation at the turn of the 16th century. Indeed, outside the monasteries, brewing was essentially a family activity, a secondary industry. In one part of the city alone, dozens of families sold ale on one day and sold it to their neighbors the next. It was one of the few trades where women could earn a decent living.
But the Black Death would soon put an end to it. With the dearth of manpower, farmers and laborers had the upper hand in negotiations with landlords and nobles. For the first time in a generation, many could afford to eat meat once a week. Beer drinkers had money: some astute entrepreneurs recognized the existence of a new market. Commercial brewing developed rapidly. Women were excluded from trade because they were not recognized as legal entities and could not borrow money in their name.
Brewing became a business. A man’s business. Oddly enough, it was around the same time, towards the 16th century, that the iconography of the witch began to emerge, with her costume of cauldron, broom, and pointed hat. If brewers were not the only ones in the business of blaming women for the evils of their days, they certainly used the opportunity to denigrate their competitors in an era of growing religious fever.
Hops have also been very detrimental to women’s brewing. The addition of this powerful antibacterial involved several extra steps in the brewing process. This involves equipment, staff, and hops, all of which were generally out of reach for women.
The Stable Beer Revolution
Beer was still fragile. Before the adoption of hops, it would turn sour in a matter of days, unless you were exceptionally good at balancing additives like bog myrtle, wild rosemary and other bitter herbs. Hops extended the grace period to several months or even years, even if the alcohol content was sufficiently high. But the beer was still not very stable. No one had yet identified the cause of fermentation. The origin of beer’s mysterious intoxication power was almost a religious question, and brewers had secrets as deep and intimate as the texts of the alchemists.
Then there was the scientific contribution of Louis Pasteur. Pasteur was a chemist with a keen interest in wine and beer. The study of fermentation was his pet project. The advent of manufacturing machinery, such as James Watt’s steam engine, led to a considerable expansion in beer production. Quality control made great strides with the adoption of the hydrometer, used to calculate the alcohol content.
Added this this the railroad and refrigeration, and now beer could embark on much, much longer journeys. The pale Lager beer, in Pils, quickly became the most popular beer on the market, representing over 90% of all beers sold.
In the early 19th century, beer was mainly produced from barley malt and hops and was brewed by small-scale breweries. Over time, beer production became increasingly industrial, with the use of modern brewing techniques and new ingredients such as corn and rice. New filtration and pasteurization techniques were also introduced to improve beer quality and shelf life. In addition, new beer styles appeared, including lager, dark ale, and red ale, as well as new flavored beers. Today, beer is produced worldwide and consumed in many countries.
Pierre-Olivier Bussieres is the author of the podcast Le Temps d’une Bière, producer of Hoppy History, and editor-in-chief of Le Temps d’une Bière media. He holds a graduate degree in political science from Carleton University.
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