More About Beer Than You Cared To Know…

Historians have discovered pictograms establishing the earliest date of brewing at about 6,000 years in the time of the Sumerians. The Sumerians lived in an area between the Tigris and Euphrates rivers including Southern Mesopotamia and the ancient cities of Babylon and Ur.  It is thought the Sumerians discovered the fermentation process by chance, possibly by a piece of bread or grain that became wet and began to ferment. Pictograms show the process of making bread from barley, then crumbling the bread into water to make a mash.

The Babylonians became the rulers of Mesopotamia after the Sumerian empire collapsed during the 2nd millennium bc.  The art of brewing beer was passed on through the generations. It is documented that the Babylonians developed and brewed 20 different types of beer that was exported and distributed as far away as Egypt. The Egyptians continued to brew beer, using unbaked bread dough and adding dates to improve the taste. The importance of beer brewing in ancient Egypt can be seen from the fact that the scribes created an extra hieroglyph for “brewer”.

When the Romans began to produce wine around the year 1000bc, beer was then considered the beverage for the less fortunate. As the cultivation of barley spread north and west, brewing went with it. The oldest proof that beer brewed on German soil, comes from around 800bc. Beer of that era could not be stored, was cloudy and produced almost no foam. As time passed, the production of beer came under the watchful eye of the Roman Church. Christian abbeys, as centers of agriculture, knowledge and science, refined the methods of brewing. By the fifteenth century, there was a record of hops used in Flemish beer imported into England, and by the sixteenth century hops had gained widespread use as a preservative in beer. Perhaps the most widely known event in brewing history was the establishment of German standards for brewers. The first of these regulations was the inspiration for the Reinheitsgebot of 1516 – the most famous beer purity law. This pledge of purity states that only four ingredients can be used in the production of beer: water, malted barley, malted wheat and hops. Yeast, though not included in this list, was acceptable, as it was taken for granted to be a key ingredient in the brewing process.

German brewers had started to make beer by lagering (storing) in 1402. Brewing was not possible in the warm months because wild yeasts prevalent in the warmer weather of summertime would sour the beer. Brewers discovered that brewing in the cold months and storing the beer in caves in the nearby Alps impacted stability to the beer and enhanced it with a cleaner taste, although they did not know why.

In 1880, there were approximately 2,400 breweries operating in the US . Today, there are 375 breweries. The change can be traced back to the era of the Volstead Act of 1919 – this Eighteenth Amendment to the Constitution that created Prohibition. During this time, the smaller breweries folded as the larger breweries turned to the production of cereal malts and near-beers.

Following prohibition came World War II with corresponding food shortages. Brewers began using malt as a substitute for grains developing a lighter beer. As a result of the war, the lighter beer was marketed to women. Following the war, the large national breweries catered to the tastes of this expanded beer market. Today, there is a revolution in America as brewing returns to its roots, and a great variety of high-quality beers are being revived, imported and enjoyed!