A Brief History of Beer

Brewing up the Past
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As I mentioned in my previous post, I was asked to give a talk at a local, women only craft beer club. Since it is on the history of brewing and some people weren't able to attend, I thought I would post it below, with my talking points typed out.
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Intro

To begin, it is necessary to define beer. Although this may seem trivial, given the many ways humans have caused alcoholic fermentation, it is easier for research purposes to have set definitions. Therefore, beer as I see it is defined as a beverage derived from converting starch to simple sugars followed by fermentation.

With that set, there is now a range of different types of beers besides barley and includes other cultures in the mix (particularly Africa, Asia, and the Americas).

Types of beer: barley, rice, agave, corn, oat, millet

Process: take malted grain - mash - sparge - boil - ferment - drink
-    Hops are only introduced around the 800s, and spread from there
-    Before that it was gruit (a mixture of herbs)

Earliest Evidence

Only when semi sedentary complex hunter/gatherers does evidence for alcohol appear

General Consensus: Late Epipaleolithic or Pre-Pottery Neolithic cultures provided staging ground for which cereal domestication took place

It is theoretically possible that beer was the driving force behind cereal domestication, but highly unlikely

The Necessary Technology: 
Tools for harvesting and processing cereal grains en masse
Long term grain storage
Surplus population as workforce
Reports of storage pits at Ain Mallaha, Wadi Hammeh 27, Rakafet

Technologies as indirect evidence
Watertight containers like ground stone or hollowed wood have been discovered
Animal bones were processed for grease through boiling
Container used for mashing could be used for boiling (if boiling was even necessary)
Mortars resemble brewing pots

• Would be ideal for crushing cereal
• Already were used for the processing of nuts 
• Had to boil nut oil in order to remove toxins

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Mesopotamia

​Sumer is the oldest recorded brewing society, thanks to tax forms
ranged from fourth millennium bc to the fifth century bc

Reports of which show that the government supplied a man with grain for nine years for the purpose of brewing

Attitude towards beer: Epic of Gilgamesh talks about Enkidu, a savage man, becoming civilized through the drinking of beer, which shows beer as a cornerstone of civilizations

In the beginning there were around nine different beer types produced from barley and barley malt, where in the end with Babylon, there were around 70 different types:

Black beer, red beer, barley beer, spelt beer, fine white beer, fine black beer, prima beer, 20 qa beer, 30 qa beer Sweet mixed beer, common mixed beer, mixed beer flavoured with spices, One year old beer

Hymn To ninkasi represents the general process for brewing at this time, although this came along much later

Borne of flowing water, your town by the sacred lake with great walls
You are the one who bakes the bappir in the big oven…puts in order the piles of hulled grain…waters the malt set on the ground…soaks the malt in a jar…the waves rise, the waves fall
You are the one who spreads the cooked mash on large reed mats…coolness overcomes
The filtering vat, which makes a pleasant sound
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Egypt

Earliest evidence for beer in Egypt is around 3500 BC

Much of which is artistic: egyptians displayed the brewing process on the walls of their tombs

Beer was used for payment to workers, and was used in cult and medicinal purposes

Two pre-dynastic sites at Abydos and Hierakonpolis uncovered large vats, which suggest breweries

Examples of Egyptian beers:

Dark Beer, Iron Beer, Garnished Beer, Friend’s Beer, Beer of the Protector, Beer of Truth: Drunk by the 12 gods who guarded the shrine of Osiris, Beer which does not sour, Beer of Eternity, Sweet Beer, Thick Beer

Issues with artistic interpretations: Function of funerary illustrations was not for beer recipes, but to aid the deceased in the afterlife (most information derived is major generalizations). It doesnt tell you which grains were used nor any precise definition of how beer was made

End of brewing culture most likely the result of Greek invasion and conversion to Islam

Alexander the Great introduced wine, which soon became the favorite drink of the upper class.  Beer production and sale was tightly regulated and ultimately beer making became a state monopoly. Greeks (Then Romans) were determined to make wine the drink for civilized people.  This is most likely due to them being surrounded by beer drinkers who obstructed their expansion

For Romans however, they had to accommodate their legions, and we have a grocery list for soldiers along Hadrian’s wall which includes beer
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Europe

Spread of agriculture started in Mesopotamia, and followed two main routes: following the Danube and Rhine river valleys, the other along the Mediterranean coast

• Photoresponsive gene had to evolve and adapt through the northern Europe, thus slowing the progression
• Wheat had an easier time spreading along the Mediterranean coast

General consensus is that with the spread of agriculture so spread brewing technology

Since wheat had an easier time to spread throughout the Mediterranean, then it is no surprise that Spain developed a brewing culture around using wheat

For northern Europe - air drying of soaked cereals would not make malt (which is what Near eastern brewers did), so a different technology had to be developed (evidence for which found in Germany)

Other than that we know little about European brewing, save the mentions of brewing by Romans 

Through the end of Roman rule, monasteries preserved brewing techniques
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How It's Done
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Artistic Interpretations: as mentioned above, archaeologists can derive information from paintings and other imagery on the brewing process

Literary Records: Either tax records or stories

Residue Analysis: Liquid chromatographical analysis of residues found from artefacts. Briefly, chromatography works by separating individual particles within a sample via solid and liquid stages.
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End

I always like to end this lecture with the following quote, mainly because it is so relatable to modern day students. It comes from a 19th Dynasty papyrus in Egypt, from a teacher to his pupil:

I am told that thou forsakest books
and dost abandon thyself to pleasure.
Thou dost wander from tavern to tavern
Every evening the smell of beer, the smell of beer frightens men away from thee
It corrups thy soul,
and thou art like a broken oar
Thou canst guide to neither side
Thou art like a temple without a god
like a house without bread
The people flee from thee
and thou dost strike and wound them
O, that thou wouldst comprehend that beer is an abomination
and that wouldst abjure the pomegranate drink
that thou would not set thy heart on fig wine
and that thou wouldst forget the carob wine