I.

INTRODUCTION

History of Beer

“But fortunately it’s also clear that everybody goes down well with beer”

~ Sweeney Todd, Sweeney Todd: The Demon Barber of Fleet Street

Only a handful of drinks and beverages known and drank by society can say that they are

as old as history itself. Beer is one such beverage. Beer is an alcoholic beverage made by

brewing and fermenting cereal grains, usually malted barley, rice, wheat, and corn. The

fermented grains produce alcohol and carbonation throughout the process forming the beer we

all know and drink today. Modern beer has evolved from its recipes though, and, now, include

different flavorings, and, most prevalently, the inclusion of hops as a natural preservative and

stabilizing agent.

This alcoholic beverage has been so pervasive in our culture as humans that certain

civilizations have been built upon it or would not have survived without it. Beer was favoured as

a drink, because of its nutritional value and because it was processed and stored, unlike several

sources of drinking water which were contaminated with animal feces and other wastes. Ancient

Egyptians have been found to make their own recipe for beer and have recorded it which

contained pomegranates, dates, za’atar, and other local herbs and spices. It was used for religious

rituals and even given as a daily ration for the slaves that built their pyramids. In Ancient

Sumeria, a religion was observed around Ninkasi, goddess of beer. From this religion came a

“Hymn to Ninkasi” which was both a song of praise and a way to remember the recipe of their

unique blend of beer. Beer has been an integral part of their societies that rich, poor, young, and

old people partook in it.

 From the Middle Ages onward, we get our modern idea of beer. Northern Europe had an

abundant harvest of barley and made great use of it with varying grain products – one of which

was beer. They have been using malted barley for centuries as fermentable sugar, but it is only

because of German monks that hops were added into the recipe. Hops added the now

characteristic bitterness of beer, and also had the additional effect of being a natural preservative.

Monks and their respective monasteries, most of which were in Bavaria, and Bohemia, were

actually credited with brewing innovations like lagering (cold storing) which improved the

flavour profile of beer. It was also in Bavaria wherein the earliest form of legalized quality

control was enacted. The Reinheitsgebot (1516), or “German beer purity” law, enacted by Duke

Wilhelm IV of Bavaria, restricted the ingredients to be used in brewing beer were water, barley,

and hops. It is thanks to these innovations that other countries have been able to further their

brewing methods and industries.

Other brewing centers also made a name for themselves. The British Isles were one of

them. Thanks to these British and Irish brewers, which have been in the brewing business for

centuries, do we get porters, stouts, and pale ales. Not only that, due to their need to deliver beer

rations to the Royal Navy, British brewers discovered that beer with higher alcohol content and

extra hops helped prolonged its lifespan, thereby reducing the number of products that ended up

stale or sour at their drop off points. It is also from the British Colonizers that beer was

introduced to North America. A brewery was even the first permanent structure that they built.

From then on, people have continued the tradition of brewing which has evolved and made them

signature brewers of their own accord.

 Brewing Industry

By the nineteenth century, the Industrial Revolution had begun to influence all aspects of

production, business, and invention. So much so that, thanks to this push for a larger output of

products, inventions such as refrigeration, pasteurization, quality control, standardization,

transportation, and product research and development had completely changed the way we

produce all of the items we find at our convenience, which is inclusive of beer. During this time

of the Industrial Revolution, brewers were finally able to control with better precision and

finesse the quality of their beers. Such inventions that helped them were the thermometer and the

hydrometer. Once the research on developing a desired beer blossomed, they were then able to

control the environment, the type of yeast to use, and the desired concentrations for solutions that

became the “standardized” product. This enhanced beer, coupled with enhanced transportation

methods, enabled the furthering of the reach of the beer industry to the point of globalization.

Remarkable events have since influenced the consumption of beer and the industry at

large. Within the US, the enactment of the Prohibition (1920-1933), which outlawed the

consumption of beer and alcoholic beverages, several breweries suffered. Some of which lost

their business entirely, whilst others survived by making malt extracts, soda, and ice cream. After

the law had been repealed, the industry looked to be able to grow again, but the arrival of World

War II seemed to worsen their condition. Faced with high demand but low resources, breweries

either had to be willing to pay the expensive amount of raw materials or find alternative routes of

income generation and production just like what happened during Prohibition era. Even with

these stark realities, the breweries used alternative raw materials such as corn and rice in order to
produce their beer, which has resulted in a cultural trademark of producing beer in the US which

is still practiced to this day.