A Little History of Beer
Beer, “Man’s Best Friend” has been our companion for an estimated 15,000 years and has been rumored to be the catalyst in mankind stopping his nomadic lifestyle and settling. Imagine yourself, your family and friends as nomadic prehistoric humans wandering the landscape as you hunt and gather for your survival. (For me that is pretty easy, a couple beers with my friends and I’m there.) As I speculate the origins of beer I can see the nomadic humans running into fields of grain and harvesting the kernels for food. Have you ever tried to eat grain that has been freshly harvested? I would compare it to chewing on gravel, not that pleasant. Now there are two ways to get around this, you can grind it into a grist or a flour, mix it with water and cook it. To me that sounds unlikely to be the origins of our relation with grain. The other way is to follow nature and germinate the grain just like alfalfa or bean sprout. With germination it is light in labor and the result is quite tasty. Germination is the first and most important step in producing beer. During germination the core becomes starchy and enzymes form on the inner shell. The enzymes will slowly break down the starches into sugar providing “food” for the growing plant until it can start producing it’s own food. The oldest record of brewing beer goes back some 6000 years to Southern Mesopotamia which is now Iran, Iran and parts of Turkey. The brewing of this “divine drink” which was offered to “the Gods” continued in the region for several thousand years and had been adopted by many other cultures.
The Babylonians became the rulers of Mesopotamia and they truly enjoyed their beer. As far as we know to date they brewed 20 different styles, 8 of these where brewed from Emmer, 8 from barley and four of a mixture of different grains. With the production of all of these beers the Babylonians put forth laws to ration this precious drink, this rationing was based on social standing. Civil Servants received 3 liters a day, a high priest or administrator of government received 5 liters a day, while the lowly worker received only 2 liters per day. In these times it was “Woman’s Work” to make beer and typically the woman who served beer where also saloon keepers as well, in short a Babylonian Brewpub. The only way to buy beer was with barley or another grain, it has been rumored that a woman was drowned because she accepted silver over grain for beer. This clay tablet on the right is a 4000 year old receipt for the delivery of beer. In these ancient societies beer was an integral part of life as it is today. The tradition of brewing traveled from Babylonia to Egypt as mention in the “Everything you wanted to know about Beer” section of this website. Beer in Egypt was strictly for the gods! Although the Faros and high priest where also allowed in partaking in the consumption. Beer became a necessary staple for all grain growing civilizations, from the Egyptians it was passed to the Greeks. Plato wrote, “He was a wise man who invented beer.” The Greeks then passed the knowledge to the Romans who called beer “cerevisia”, “Ceres” from the goddess of agriculture and “vis”, in Latin meaning “strength.” Beer was an important drink in early Rome but as time went on the pretentious Romans preferred wine over beer and claimed that beer was only fit for barbarians. Cesar was quoted, “The man who drinks beer smells like a goat.” Speaking of barbarians’ ancient Germany “Deutschland” the oldest proof of beer goes back some 2800 years. These Deutschlanders regarded beer as a sacrifice for the Gods and a good reward after a hard days work. I totally agree with that. Beer quickly became the drink of choice for all of Europe. A Finish poet gave beer 400 verses in a saga called “Kalewala” but he only gave 200 verses to the creation of earth. He obviously thought that beer was twice as important as the planet. Hmmmm, someone has their priorities a little mixed up. Beer had its place in the Middle East from its inception until 1256 when the “Aldobrandino of Siena” described beer as the following: “But from whichever it is made, whether from oats, barley or wheat, it harms the head and the stomach, it causes bad breath and ruins the teeth, it fills the stomach with bad fumes, and as a result anyone who drinks it along with wine becomes drunk quickly; but it does have the property of facilitating urination and makes one's flesh white and smooth.”
In Ancient Europe an innovative brewing style emerged that has stayed alive and virtually unchanged for thousands of years. This style of brewing utilized super heated rock that where lowered into a large wooden mash tun. These super hot rocks would create a caldron effect heating the water, caramelizing carbohydrates, and putting on one hell of a show as the steam and smoke violently rose from the mash tun. As the rocks where added, the temperature would rise in the mash, and saccharification would take place. (Saccharification is the action of the enzymes breaking the starches into sugars. The optimal temperature for saccharification to take place is 150 degree Fahrenheit). The style of beer was known as a “Stein Beer”. In German “stein” means “stone.”
Stein Beer originated in the Alpine regions of Europe where the rocks needed, (“Graywacke” a dark sandstone that resists shattering under the great stresses of super heating and quick cooling), where easily quarried and transported to the breweries. Unfortunately, for the style, by the start of the 20th century, most-of-all the stein breweries had fell to the way of modern brewing techniques.
This wonderfully unique style of beer may have been forgotten in the pages of history if it wasn’t for the Rauchenfels Brewery in Marktoberdorf, Bavaria back in 1982 where they revised the technique and you can by their beer today. (Ask for it at your local beer store and taste the history.)
The “magic” in beer is a result from fermentation. Fermentation changes the flavor and the appearance of beer, if you really didn’t know what was happening to the beer during fermentation you would consider it as an act of God. Although the romantic in me still sees fermentation that way. Beer in ancient times was much different from the beer we know today. Besides the different ingredients, in ancient times different grains, spices and other additives were utilizes while in modern brewing we use malt, grain, water, hops and yeast. This modern way of brewing came about in 1516, when the German Purity Law was introduced. This decree established for the first time that only malt and grain, hops and pure water could be used to brew beer. The use of yeast was not yet known at that time. The success of the fermentation process was left to chance, as the brewers unknowingly relied on yeast in the air. Today this Beer Purity Law is the oldest still valid food law in the world.
Getting your yeast from the air is called “Spontaneous Fermentation” and with most of all spontaneous fermented beers yeast isn’t the only thing you get in your beer. The unfermented wort attracts bacteria mold and a whole slew of microorganisms. The tradition of spontaneous fermentation is still practiced today in Belgium. There are several breweries still practicing this tradition. These beers are very unique and flavorful all with variance in flavor profile but have a dominate sourness produced by bacteria. The spontaneously fermented beer is called “Lambic” and one of the world biggest and best producers of these unique and ancient beers is Lindeman. The addition of fruit is to these beers has created several delicious styles and I encourage you to try and taste the history.
In early northwest Europe they fermented in large wooden vessels and stirred the fresh wort with the “Magic Stick” which mystically turned the wort into beer. We know now by using the same wooden vessel over and over again along with the magic stick the yeast and other microorganisms claimed the vessel and the stick as their home and inoculated the wort each time a fresh batch was introduced. Before the time of the German Purity Law Monasteries began brewing beer for the reason that they live and ate fugally. They used beer as a supplement to their diet and it tasted and felt great. During the fast, the time in which they showed their dedication to God by not eating they where allowed to drink beer, up to 5 liters a day! “I’m too drunk to be hungry… praise be God…..” In time monks received the right to sell beer and many monasteries began opening pubs and providing beer for the locals. Because of the popularity of the monastery beers the breweries grew and the art of brewing became a respected and profitable trade practiced by monasteries and private business men alike. In time brewing centers developed such as Bremen in the 14th century was the major supplier of beer for the Netherlands, the U.K. and the Countries of the North. In Germany, Hamburg boasted over 600 breweries by the fifteen hundreds exporting beer as far as India, and at the time breweries where the most important contributor to local economies. The art form of brewing beer has for the most part hasn’t changed in the past few hundred years. It is true that some technologies and advancements have played a roll in the production and distribution of beer but over all beer is the same now as it was when our great, great, great grandparents drank it. The history of beer is the history of man and around the world new chapters of this history are being written. So the next time you sit down at your local pub or pop one open at home stop and think about where this wonderful drink came from and how it has made mankind who they are today.