by Denise Calaman

Created on: June 11, 2008   Last Updated: January 21, 2009

The History of Beer

Many people don't realize that beer is actually one of the oldest alcoholic beverages created by man; only wine is older. Scientists believe that beer was discovered by accident between 6,000-9,000 years ago in ancient Mesopotamia after the process of fermentation was discovered. Beer was so revered that it was brewed regularly and offered to the ancient Gods. Beer has been consumed in every single society around the world since its discovery and continues to be one of the most popular beverages around the world. So just how did it get from ancient Mesopotamia to modern refrigerators?

In ancient civilization, beer was a part of Hebrew, Babylonian, Chinese, Japanese and Egyptian cultures. Early cultures would drink beer through straws to avoid choking on hulls and other grains left in the beer. The first brewers of beer were women since they were responsible for cooking and entertaining. Beer maids as they were called, would use a variety of natural herbs and foods available to them to give their beer a unique flavor. Every batch of beer was brewed and had its own unique flavor, depending on what was available to put in the brew.

Today many people enjoy drinking an occasional beer. However, during the middle ages, beer was consumed in large quantities, along with other alcoholic beverages due to lack of clean drinking water. Water was boiled during the brewing process therefore beer was considered safer to drink than water or other non alcoholic beverages. Men, women and children all drank beer. The average man or woman would consume up to five pints per day.

Christopher Columbus is credited with bringing the first beer to the Americas and it is recorded that the pilgrims settled in Plymouth, instead of further south as planned, because they were out of beer.

Today, beer and ale are interchangeable but before the 1800's beer was known as ale. Ale consisted of water, yeast and barley. In the 1800's hops was added to ale giving it a bitterer flavor. This concoction became known as beer.

With the birth of the railroad and the discovery of pasteurization, the modern era of brewing began in the late 1800's and early 1900's. Automatic bottling and commercial refrigeration made it easy for German immigrants to market their homemade brews to a larger population.

In the late 1800's there were over 2,300 breweries in the United States. However, at the end of prohibition in the mid 1930's only 160 breweries stayed solvent. Today, there are five major breweries in the US and together they produce and sell over three billion cases of beer per year.

Until recently, beer had a stigma attached to it as being a blue collar drink but in recent years, beer has enjoyed a surge in popularity and has become popular with more than just blue collar workers. US Beer sales tend to increase in the summer with the fourth of July holiday increasing beer sales more than any other US holiday.

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