Beer is proof that God loves us
and wants us to be happy.
Benjamin Franklin

 

BEER HISTORY From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia and The Beer Institute From the stone age to the present, beer has been an important part of life in virtually every society on earth. It was brewed by the ancient Babylonians and Egyptians and Chinese. It has been used in religious rituals, depicted on coins, honored in epic sagas.  Through all the centuries, in moments of triumph and celebration and fellowship, no drink has contributed more to humankind's enjoyment than beer. In Mesopotamia, the oldest evidence of beer is on a 6000-year old Sumerian tablet which shows people drinking a beverage through reed straws from a communal bowl.  As it turns out, the ancient Mesopotamians were recording a recipe for beer. And not just any recipe, but a formula handed down from the god Enki himself.     This is the oldest written  recipe in the world.  And it's for beer.   Hops are a relatively recent addition to beer, having been introduced only a few hundred years ago. They contribute a bitterness that balances the sweetness of the malt and have a mild antibiotic effect that favours the activity of brewer's yeast over less desirable organisms. Methods of brewing changed very little from that time.    BEER FACT Typically, beers are made from water, malted barley, hops, and fermented by yeast. The addition of other flavourings or sources of sugar is not uncommon. Lagers are probably the most common type of beer consumed. They are of Central European / German origin, taking their name from the German lagern ("to store"). Bottom-fermented, they were traditionally stored at a low temperature for weeks or months, clearing, acquiring mellowness, and becoming charged with carbon dioxide. These days, with improved fermentation control, most lager breweries use only short periods of cold storage.  Although many styles of lager exist, most of the lager produced is light in colour, high in carbonation with a mild hop flavour and an alcohol content of 3–6% by volume. With an extremely strong beer-oriented culture,  Germany is a bit sheltered from the rest of the world beer market by the German brewers adherence to the Bavarian Reinheitsgebot (purity requirement) dating from 1516.  According to this tradition, the only allowed ingredients of beer are "Wasser (water), Hopfen (hops) und Gersten-Malz (barley-malt)". After the invention of cultured yeast it became the fourth legal ingredient.  Because of this tradition,  German beers have an excellent reputation for their quality.    There are 1350 breweries in Germany producing over 5000 brands of beer. One of these breweries, the Benedictine abbey Weihenstephan, established in 725, is reputedly the oldest existing brewery in the world. BEER FACT Because beer is composed mainly of water, the source of the water and its characteristics have an important effect on the character of the beer. Many beer styles were influenced or even determined by the characteristics of the water in the region. Top-fermented beers, particularly popular in the British Isles, include mild, bitter, pale ale, porter, and stout. Top-fermented beers tend to be more flavoursome, including a variety of grain flavours and fermentation flavours; they have also lower carbonation and are fermented and ideally served at a higher temperature than lager. Beer has always been extremely important for Poles. One Polish ruler, encouraged by the Pope to take part in a crusade, refused because, as he wrote to the Pope, the holy land has no beer. Beers, and similar beverages made from raw materials other than barley, include: hundreds of local African drinks made from millet, sorghum, and other available starch crops , Finnish sahti , Russian/Ukrainian kvass , Chinese samshu , Korean suk, Japanese sake, pulque, an indigenous Mexican beer made from the fermented sap of the agave plant  & chicha, a Andean beverage made from germinated maize. We'll explore these soon, so stop back often for updates.  Here's a parting thought about the universal appeal of beer. In August 2004, a wild American black bear was found passed out from drinking too much stolen beer in Baker Lake, Washington. "He didn't like that Busch but consumed ... about 36 cans of Rainier." — Sgt. Bill Heinck of the Fish and Wildlife enforcement of Washington State, U.S.