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Beer

beer (GB)
cerveza (ES)
bière (F)
birra (I)
cerveja (PO)

What came first - beer or wine? Beer was produced in Mesopotamia at least 6,000 to perhaps even 8,000 years ago. This probably makes it the first alcoholic beverage produced by humans, even before wine. Beer and wine were the earliest components of drinking culture. In Egypt around 4,000 BC, half-baked bread was fermented with water to produce a kind of beer. The god of fertility Osiris himself is said to have taught the Egyptians how to grow grapes and make beer. In the Sumerian Gilgamesh Epic, which tells of 2700 BC, the development of the primitive man Enkidu into a "cultivated man" is recounted. He was offered beer, which he had not known until then. He drank seven cups of it and his heart became light. In this state he washed himself and became a human being.

Bier - Biergläser mit Helles Bier, Altbier, Pilsner und Budweiser

Beer in antiquity

The code of the Babylonian king Hammurabi (1728-1686 BC) contains laws about wine and beer. Among other things, brewing regulations and price ceilings for beer are included. In Babylonia, there are said to have already been around 70 types of beer. The beers were spiced with myrtle, saffron and aniseed and preserved (for which, by the way, hops are used today) with ox gall and henbane. In ancient cultures, beer was mostly the everyday drink of the common people. Wine (especially better wine) was reserved for the ruling class and priests due to its more elaborate production.

The Roman historian Tacitus (55-120) writes about the drinking habits of the Germanic tribes along the banks of the Rhine. He reports that they were unfamiliar with viticulture. However, they bought it from the Celts (Gauls) and Romans. Some tribes, however, such as those of the Suebi, had forbidden the purchase of wine. In any case, the predominant and preferred drink of the Germanic tribes was beer. The Romans made fun of it and Emperor Julian (331-363) wrote a famous mocking poem (extract): What art thou - a wine? Where do you come from? I don't know you, by wine I swear. Wine tastes like the drink of the gods, but you taste like a goat's stink. Large-scale beer production began in Europe in the 9th century at the time of Emperor Charlemagne (742-814). As with wine, it was the monasteries of the Roman Catholic Church that cultivated beer brewing. But it was not until later in the Middle Ages that beer became a rival product to wine, mainly because the latter was burdened with high taxes and was much more expensive. In the 18th and 19th centuries, beer brewing finally developed into a major industry.

Only water, hops and malt

Water, hops and malt - nothing else. This is the slogan of a well-known beer brewery. These three basic ingredients are also often mentioned in the breweries' purity laws, the oldest of which date back to the 15th century. This is to express that no additives are added. Surprisingly, yeast is not even mentioned as an ingredient. The simple reason is that in former times people did not know about the effect of yeast as an indispensable part of the brewing process. This is because fermentation took place spontaneously without human intervention by yeast fungi from the air. Malt is mostly made from barley, but also wheat, rice and maize by means of a fermentative process. By adding water and hops, a mixture is prepared for fermentation. The use of hops was first mentioned in the 8th century. This gives the typical bitter, aromatic taste and also has a preservative effect.

Bier - 5 Bierflaschen

Types of beer

Malt contains large amounts of fermentable sugar, which is then fermented by the yeast species Saccharomyces cerevisiae, which is also used in wine. Compared to wine, beer usually has a lower alcohol content of between 3.5 and 6% vol. However, there are also strong beers up to 12% and more. The many types of beer differ in the type of grain, fermentation (top-fermented, bottom-fermented), hops, original wort, colour and possibly additives (e.g. Belgian fruit beer). In traditional wine countries like Germany and Austria, the consumption of beer is still higher than wine. Beer has long since lost its reputation of being a "simple drink"; there are also beer tastings. Incidentally, a rice wine is much more similar to beer than wine in terms of production. Beer is the classic drink in the custom of toasting in student fraternities. A special beer called chicha from the Andean region in South America is made from corn by adding saliva.

Beer during Prohibition

During Prohibition in the USA, which lasted from 1920 to 1933, beer was also affected by the ban according to the regulations defined in the "National Prohibition Act", as all drinks with more than 0.5% alcohol by volume were considered "intoxicating beverages". The large beer producers survived this period by producing so-called near beer, but many thousands of smaller breweries disappeared from the market forever. See also other alcoholic beverages that are also not produced from grapes, such as brandies, calvados, gin, rum, rice wine, whisky and vodka.

Further information

See also beer bottle (bottle shapes, returnable beer bottles for wine bottling), as well as lists of relevant keywords under the keywords alcoholic beverages and alcohol consumption.

Light beer: Flo422, Public domain, Link
Altbier: By Johann H. Addicks, Wikipedia., CC BY-SA 3.0, Link
Pilsner: By Wolfgang Sauber - Own work, CC BY-SA 3.0, Link
Budweiser: Norbert F. J. Tischelmayer
Bottles: By Øyvind Holmstad - Own work, CC BY-SA 3.0, Link

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Andreas Essl
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