The Origins of Beer
The History of Brewing Ales and Beers through the Ages
Brewing ale and beer from ancient history to the modern day. How brewing was discovered and changed through the ages.
The origins of the word beer are much disputed and ambiguous, unlike its slightly older brethren, ale, which can be traced directly to the latin root for bitter. Athough the two words, as far as we know, were used symonomously until the cultivation of hops, the word beer, in a difinition from the Online Etymology Dictionary, comes from the Old English, beor, which was probably borrowed from the Germanic, biber. The Germanic, then, bears a striking resemblance to the Latin, bibere, an infinitive meaning “to drink.”
On the other hand, the Spanish word for beer is cerveza which comes from the Latin, cervesia, and is perhaps related to a similar word, just as old, meaning "thick broth.” So the origins of the word beer remain a bit muddy, but what is clear is that beer and the brewing process was discovered very early on and have fascinated man from the start.
The ancient Egyptians, the Chinese, and even pre-Columbian cultures all cultivated brews in their own right depending on available grains, although historians usually give credit to the Sumerians for inventing the stuff. According to Horst Dornbusch, noted beer author, ancient records tell of milling emmer, a prehistoric Eurasian cereal grain cultivated for use in brewing, baking, and feeding livestock. It is commonly thought that the first beer was discovered after some fermenting breed got wet and was forgotten about for several weeks. The resulting pooled liquid was pale, semi-bitter, only slightly bubbly, and produced “god-like effects” when consumed orally.
Because of this heavenly inducement, the only right thing to do was drink copious amounts of the stuff in god's honor. So cementing the future importance of the supernatural gift, Hammurabi, the famous Babylonian founder and king, established a kingdom-wide set of drinking laws. As many as 20 different types of beer were known to have been brewed in Babylon, and daily rations were enforced depending on social hierarchy (Horst).
Interestingly, brewing was considered exclusively women’s work early on, a tradition which would not change until the late medieval period (Horst). It was considered a daily chore of the most important responsibility, and brewing poor beer was often punishable by drowning. Brewing anything but poor beer must have been a skill indeed as hops were not known to be cultivated until the 800’s in France and even later in England (beer100 online), and the discovery of yeast cultivation didn’t happen until 1857 (online biography on Loius Pasteur) - not to mention the inherent problems involved with offering a guest a cold one in nicely chilled glass.
Beer was consumed at room temperature, spoiled quickly, was often flat, did not ship well, and would not be what most now would consider a divine beverage experience. According to Foster’s online (yeah, yeah…the “Australian for beer” guys), Christian monasteries nevertheless adopted the cause of improving, purifying, and generally cleaning up the whole process of beer making. As a result, three Christian saints, in particular, are named as patrons of brewing: Saint Augustine of Hippo, author of the confessions; Saint Luke the Evangelist; and Saint Nicholas of Myra, better known as Santa Claus.
So the addition of hops in the 16th Century to all of this careful chemistry, indeed, caused quite a stir, so resulting in a profound need to seperate the new beer making process (with hops) from the old (without hops and now called ale). In the swirling controversy of the time the Duke of Bavaria established his own “purity law” for brewing, a law which still exists today (with some minor modern changes) and may be the oldest food regulation still in use. Although other countries adopted similar definitions none were as stringent as the German (go figure).
Eventually all beer adopted hops as a fundamental ingredient, and ale just came to mean a lighter colored beer, such as the one Christopher Columbus, in his voyage of 1502, discovered in Central America. He found the natives there made an excellent beer brewed of maize, which, “resembling English beer,” he liked very much (Foster's online). By the 17th Century beer was just about everywhere, could be shipped and preserved, and was safer to drink in most places than water. Even schools and workplaces reportedly handed out daily rations for all ages (Foster's online).
Today, we are not so free with our brew, but it is no less appreciated. With attention now on local ingredients brewed with care and craft in small batches, the U.S craft beer industry generated 5.7 billion dollars in 2007. That is somewhere in the range of 8 million barrels. And with online beer forums and ingredient/equipment wholesalers a-plenty encouraging the home brewer, beer has again become a household chore – and one men and women worldwide are enjoying doing.
