No one has yet managed to date the origins of beer with any precision, and it is probably an impossible task. Indeed, there are scholars who have theorized that a taste for ale prompted the beginning of agriculture, in which case humans have been brewing for some 10,000 years (Katz and Voigt 1986). Most archaeological evidence, however, suggests that fermentation was being used in one manner or another by around 4000 to 3500 B. C. Some of this evidence - from an ancient Mesopotamian trading outpost called
Godin Tepe in present-day Iran - indicates that barley was being fermented at that location around 3500 B. C. Additional evidence recovered at Hacinebi Tepe (a similar site in southern Turkey) also suggests that ancient Mesopotamians were fermenting barley at a very early date (Smith 1995).
At present, however, the evidence from both sites is sufficiently sparse to preclude any definitive assertion that the ancient Mesopotamians were the first people to make beer. On the other hand, one can speculate: There is no question that fermentation takes place accidentally (as it must have done countless times before humans learned something about controlling the process), and most investigators believe that barley was first cultivated in the Fertile Crescent region of lower Mesopotamia between the Tigris and Euphrates rivers. Grain is heavy to transport relative to the beer made from it, so it is not surprising that there may be evidence of ale in these outposts and not unreasonable to suspect that accidental fermentation did occur at some point in the ancient Mesopotamian region, leading to beer making (Corran 1975:15-16).
In any event, we know that not much later the Sumerians were, in fact, making beer. The clay tablets (unearthed from the ancient city of Uruk in Lower Mesopotamia - now Iraq - and dating from the second half of the fourth millennium) that tell the story of Gil-gamesh, the fifth king of the second Sumerian dynasty, make it clear that ale was in widespread use (Toussaint-Samat 1992), and Reay Tannahill (1988: 48) has written that “a staggering amount of the Sumerian grain yield went into ale; something like 40 percent of the total.”
At approximately the same time, people of the ancient Nubian culture to the south of Egypt were also fermenting a crude, ale-like beverage known as bousa, which is still brewed by. African farmers and peasants to this day (Smith 1995). Indeed, although many scholars maintain that the Mesopotamian culture was the first to brew beer, others argue that it was the ancient people of East Africa who first produced and consumed a fermented product (Dirar 1993: 20).
In much the same fashion as with grain, the fermentation of fruit and fruit juices probably also occurred by accident at around this same time, leading to the earliest forms of wine. What is more difficult to ascertain, however, is how much knowledge ancient people had of the process. It is also difficult to know with any reasonable certainty how extensive their use of fermented barley was and exactly how much their ale might have resembled what the world now recognizes as beer.
The Importance of Ale in Early Societies
From the beginning of its production, ale (even in its crudest forms) would have been an important addition to an otherwise frequently limited diet. Resembling the chemical makeup of bread in several ways, ale was a convenient package of starches, sugars, and other grain by-products that provided nutritional supplementation. Similarly, for people with few means of storing foods for any length of time and who depended on the vagaries of nature for subsistence, ale could be an excellent (and doubtless at times vital) source of calories.
Moreover, ale (and later beer) afforded an escape from the feces-fouled drinking water that plagued peoples for millennia. Although humans, until very recently, had no knowledge of pathogenic infection, water (and milk) was understood to provoke dangerous illnesses, even death, whereas fermented beverages were considered safe. And because of sterilization by boiling and by the action of yeast, this was generally the case.
Ale was also important because the earliest cultures, particularly those of the Sumerians and Egyptians, attached religious significance to its consumption. And throughout the ages, savants frequently maintained that ale had curative properties. But probably the most important reason for drinking ale and other alcoholic beverages was to achieve a desired level of intoxication. Because invectives against drunkenness can be found in both the Bible and the Koran, we know that people, beset by life’s hardships or just seeking relaxation, were reaching that goal a long time ago. Indeed, the ancient Egyptians are credited with celebrating ale consumption by composing some of the world’s earliest-known drinking songs.
Brewing in Antiquity
Although the fermenting of barley probably developed independently in several cultures, knowledge of brewing technology doubtless was spread throughout the Middle East by various nomadic peoples. One aspect of brewing technology common to the Egyptians, Sumerians, and Babylonians alike was the use of baked loaves of malted barley and grain that resembled baked bread. There were several variations of this technique, but basically the loaves of barley and wheat, once baked, were covered with water to form a mash, which was then placed in an earthen vessel for a time. In some cases, fermentation probably occurred spontaneously. In others, it was doubtless generated by the presence of yeast cells in the cracks and linings of the earthen vessels that were used over and over again. But in addition, skillful brewers had most likely learned to keep the remains of a previous mix to use as a starter (Smith 1995:12-13).
The Greeks probably gained most of their understanding of brewing from the Egyptians, although the Babylonians may also have passed along what they knew. The Roman Empire, at its height, had the advantage of being able to borrow brewing techniques eclectically from several cultures. Roman historians, for example, did not credit Rome with spreading
Information on ale making to the Germanic tribes of Europe. Rather, Tacitus recorded that these peoples were already fermenting a beverage from barley or wheat when they came into contact with Rome. Pliny also wrote of the barbarians and their beer, and it seems likely that the tribes of central and northern Europe gained brewing knowledge not from the Romans but from the Babylonians and other Asian civilizations. Or it could have been a situation such as that of the Celts of the British Isles, who are said to have developed a crude process of fermentation independently, but refined their ale-making skills with technology from other cultures (Corran 1975: 23-4).
Brewing In the Islamic World
By the time of the collapse of the Roman empire in the fifth century, the production of alcoholic beverages had been expanded, and beer was only one of many alcoholic beverages produced in the Arabian peninsula - a list which included a honey-based mead and fermented camel’s milk. Their consumption - and especially that of ale - was widespread before the advent of Islam, despite a number of localized religions that had instituted prohibitions against it. Along the caravan and trading routes, houses, taverns, and inns were prosperous businesses that supplied beer and mead to travelers and, in some locations, to townspeople as well (Ghalioungui 1979:13-15).
The spread of the Islamic religion did not, at first, bring restriction of alcoholic beverages; indeed, the Koran, like the Bible, celebrated the drinking of wine. Rather quickly, however, Islamic teaching began to forbid drinking alcohol, although the degree to which the rule was observed varied from place to place (Ghalioungui 1979:15).
Egypt was one area in which alcohol continued to be used, although in the years following the entrance of Islam into Egypt, various rulers periodically enforced the Muslim prohibition. But the consumption of fermented beverages was never entirely eradicated (Ghalioungui 1979: 15), and, among the peasant population, bousa continued to be produced and consumed as it had been for centuries.
Despite such exceptions, however, Islam had an enormous impact on beer brewing in the Middle East and elsewhere in the Muslim world, with the result that it never was the mass-produced, socially accepted beverage that it became in Europe during the Middle Ages. Europeans, especially monks in the monasteries of the Catholic Church, not only kept the knowledge of brewing alive but also began its refinement into a modern science.
Brewing in Europe
Over the course of the Middle Ages, beer brewing flourished in northern Europe (where foods laden with carbohydrates and fats required much liquid to wash them down) and evolved into a distinct industry (Tannahill 1988). As such, by the end of the Middle Ages, beer had become subject to taxation and also to government regulation (especially in Britain and the German states) aimed at standardizing the brewing process.
In the early Middle Ages, however, monasteries and churches were the principal ale makers in Europe. Because the church was at the center of the lives of the people, monasteries and churches commonly provided the settings for festivals, weddings, and other social gatherings that were lubricated with ale. Indeed, such was the control of the church over access to ale that it became a device for ensuring the participation of parishioners in church rituals. Later, as guilds developed, the church influenced - even controlled - many of their activities with the promise of ale.
In addition, monasteries were much more than just monastic retreats. The growing of food was one of the monks’ primary occupations, and as a rule, the land owned by their orders was sufficient enough for the rotation of crops in such a way as to ensure a constant supply of cereals. Much of the cereal produced - including spelt, wheat, oat, and rye, as well as barley - went into ale, the quality as well as quantity of which the monks improved upon, just as they did with their wines and cheeses (Toussaint-Samat 1992). Many monasteries also served as inns that provided room and board for travelers, and some became famous for their ales, their praise carried by church pilgrims, merchants, and others on the move. There is no question that monastery-produced ales, made on a near-industrial scale, brought in a very good income for the various orders.
Later, however, as the Middle Ages progressed, ale production in the towns and countryside began to rival that of the church. And as the craft passed into private hands, it mirrored other early trades with its guilds and specialization. Because of its limited shelf life (prior to the use of hops), ale was usually brewed and distributed on the same site, and consequently, the first brewers outside of the church were generally boardinghouse owners and tavern keepers who provided ale to travelers and guests. Local inns and taverns came to be regarded by townspeople and villagers alike as social gathering places (Corran 1975: 36-7).
Because water is vital to the brewing process, the breweries of taverns and inns had to be located near an abundant water supply. But the type of water was important. If it was hard water with lime, the fermentation process might not work well; if it had iron in it, the beer would always be cloudy.
Women frequently oversaw the breweries while their husbands ran the inns. In fact, women were much involved in the ale business, sometimes owning boardinghouses as well as breweries and holding special licenses to distribute their product.
By the end of the Middle Ages, breweries and drinking establishments of one sort or another had multiplied to the point where they overshadowed the monasteries, both in England and on the Continent. As the church ceased to dominate the brewing industry, states began to take an interest in both taxing and (because of increasing adulteration) regulating it. An example of the former is the 1551 licensing of English and Welsh alehouses for the first time (Trager 1995), although the classic example of regulation had come earlier, in 1516, when William VI, Duke of Bavaria, instituted a Reinheitsgebot - an “Edict of Purity” - which decreed that the only ingredients permitted in beer were water, barley, malt, yeast, and hops. The edict is still in effect, now for all of Germany, but it is said that only Bavaria holds to it for exported beers.
Hops, which converted ale into modern beer, were coming into widespread use at about this time. Hop blossoms are derived from the hop plant (a relative of Cannabis'), and as their use became common, a hop garden was an essential component of a brewery. As noted, the aromatic hop greatly enhanced the taste of ale, as did the addition of other herbs and flavorings. More importantly, however, hops greatly extended the life of ale, which in turn removed the necessity for locating breweries and taverns close to one another. The use of hops was eventually so universal that the brewing of pure ale became nearly extinct, until the modern, twentieth-century “Campaign for Real. Ale” movement in Britain sought to revive what was perceived as a dying art.
The revolution that hops worked in the brewing industry, however, was a long time in coming. Since Neolithic times, hops were believed good for one’s health and sometimes carried the burden of a reputation as an aphrodisiac. It has been suggested that the utilization of hops in beer can be traced back as far as the ancient Egyptians. But we hear nothing of hops in beer in the Roman world. Pliny tells us only that the Romans ate hop shoots much like asparagus. During the early Middle Ages, hops were grown for medicinal purposes in gardens throughout the central European region from the North Sea and the Baltic to western Austria and northern Italy, but people apparently began putting them in ale only around the eighth or ninth century (Toussaint-Samat 1992).
The hop was only one of many herbs added to ales, but brewers sooner or later noticed that this herb improved the appearance of ale, that it acted as a diuretic, and most importantly, that it was a preservative. Nonetheless, the church successfully fought the widespread adoption of hops for centuries - apparently in part because of the aphrodisiac reputation of the plant, but also because the church, with its virtual monopoly on ale, did not welcome change. Moreover, hops were long viewed as an adulterant added to mask the taste of spoiled beer. Yet, somewhat ironically, it was probably the monks, with their considerable knowledge of medicinal herbs, who had added hops to ale in the first place (Toussaint-Samat 1992).
By the beginning of the sixteenth century, hops had become an essential ingredient for beers made on the Continent, and late in the reign of Henry VIII (died 1547), they were introduced to England. At first, the idea of adding hops to ale was a distressing one for the English, who continued to view them as adulterants and passed laws to prohibit their use. In 1554, however, Flemish hop growers emigrated to England to begin their production in Kent for a wary British brewing industry. Afterward, the use of hops was generally accepted, although many clung to their unhopped ales. Not until around 1700 was ale in England regularly hopped and the terms “ale” and “beer” accepted there as more or less identical (McGee 1984;Trager 1995).
The preservative powers of the hop plant contributed to the development of larger breweries producing beer in ever greater quantities - a trend in both England and Europe throughout the sixteenth and into the seventeenth centuries, especially in Flanders, northern and eastern France, and Bavaria, where the climate best suited the growing of hops. Because hops endowed beer with a greatly extended shelf life, brewers could now locate at a distance from the towns and, consequently, close to less-polluted stretches of streams and rivers, whose waters contributed to better-quality beers. Such moves were also necessitated by the regulatory measures of crowded cities, which sought to minimize the fire hazards arising from kilns burning in brewery buildings constructed of wood. Converting brewhouses into stone or brick structures or, alternatively, moving them out of the cities were both expensive options, and as a result, the sixteenth and seventeenth centuries in Europe also saw a trend toward fewer breweries - but much larger ones that, in many cases, were the forerunners of modern breweries still in operation at the end of the twentieth century.
With the mass production of high-quality beers, brewers cast an eye on the export market, and as exporting beer became a widespread endeavor, states enacted laws to regulate trade. One example of this trend comes from sixteenth-century England, where because of concern that the volume exportation of beer in wood casks and barrels would accelerate the dwindling of the island’s supply of timber, brewers were compelled to bring as much wood into the country as they sent away.
World History
