The History of Beer
Beer is the oldest drink in the world (after water, of course) and its birth is attributed to the Sumerians around 3000-2800 BC, when this nomadic people settled permanently in Mesopotamia and started the first cereal crops.
Some of the earliest references to beer are found in a 3900-year-old Sumerian poem in Mesopotamia (Ancient Iraq). This poem praises Ninkasi, the patron goddess of beer and contains the oldest written recipe found for making beer. This recipe describes the production of beer from barley through bread.
The Sumerians grew, harvested, milled and then boiled the grains. These boiled porridges of ground cereal grains with water, which were carelessly forgotten about and left to freely ferment in the air, created the first beers.
However, it is possible that earlier Mesopotamian peoples were familiar with beer and that beer may have been first brewed in 9500 BC, when the cultivation of cereals began. Reference to beer is also made in the Epic of Gilgamesh.
Other reports of beer brewing date back to ancient Egypt and Mesopotamia, around 4000 BC.
The Babylonians, who succeeded the Sumerians, also seem to have produced beer from various grains.
In the Code of Hammurabi, the right to drink beer was enshrined and we even know that it was proportional to social status.
The Egyptians must have known more than four types of beer and many claim that it was their staple drink.
In earlier times, beer in the East was brewed in almost the same way as it is brewed today, namely from barley and, more rarely, from other grains. The addition of hops, important for improving taste and for the preservation of beer, dates back to around 1000 BC.
The Ancient Greeks seem to have come into contact with beer thanks to the Egyptians, and according to Pliny, they used hops when brewing it.
Beer was more welcome among the peoples that lived more to the North, such as the Scythians and Armenians, as well as the Iberians.
The Celts and the ancient Germanic tribes all knew about beer since the 1st century BC, although they were probably unaware of hops. They replaced hops as a flavour enhancer with blends of various herbs. The use of hops began in Germany, during the Middle Ages. In particular, the first reference to the cultivation of hops dates back to 768 AD in the monastery of Freising in Bavaria.
Until the Middle Ages, beer was exclusively produced at home and remained the work of women, or sometimes in small facilities for on-site consumption (taverns, inns, etc.). However, at the end of the 1st millennium AD, monasteries began to produce beer as well. The reason monks became involved with beer was because they wanted a tasty, nutritious drink to accompany their meals. Also, beer was allowed during fasting and thus, its production reached a new peak. Consequently, after a while the monks produced more beer than they needed and, eventually, started trading it.
Over the years, beer gradually ceased to be produced at home and it became a tradable commodity, turning into an important source of income for the lords.
With beer being a tradable commodity, more stringent legislation has been imposed in order to guarantee and safeguard the quality of the beer being produced.
In 1516, the Bavarian Duke William IV issued the “Purity Law” (Reinheitsgebot in German), perhaps the oldest food regulation that is still in force today. According to this law, no other raw material than barley, hops and pure water may be used in the German brewing industry. The above law did not mention yeast at all, as it was not yet known.
Over the years, the brewing process has been greatly improved. The discovery of artificial refrigeration and pasteurisation in the mid-19th century played a decisive role in this improvement.
These techniques made the production of any kind of beer possible, regardless of the time of year. Brewing beer was perfected at the end of the 19th century, following the experiments of E.C. Hansen around yeasts.
That same century also began the trading of bottled beer.
The beer industry is booming, consisting of some large multinational companies but also thousands of small producers, from bars to local breweries. Developments in the production of raw materials, malting, brewing, cooling, transport, marketing and trade have led to the formation of a multinational market that offers consumers hundreds of choices among different types of local, domestic and imported beers.
In 2022, beer production in the European Union reached 358,230 thousand hectolitres, produced in 9,681 active breweries. In addition, according to 2022 data, the sector provides over 117,885 direct jobs.
