by Brian Vandenbroek

Created on: June 12, 2008   Last Updated: July 17, 2010

In the beginning there was barley and it was good. Barley was well suited to life in Mesopotamia and was easy to cultivate. As such, barley became one of early man's first major crops, being harvested for use in breads and cakes. Then one day, something happened. One day after the harvest, a farmer's crop got left out in the rain. Of course, this caused the barley to germinate.

The disappointed farmer wasn't about to let his crop go to waste. Not after all the work he put into harvesting it. After drying the barley and making his breads with it, he found those breads sweeter. The farmer let his grain become malted again. So at some point another happy accident occurs. More malted barley gets wet and is allowed to ferment. The result? The world's first fermented grain alcohol: beer!

As civilizations spread out of Mesopotamia towards Persia, Egypt and Rome, so did beer. As time passed, brewing methods didn't change much. Brewing in those days more or less involved mixing bread with water and allowing it to ferment. It was the ancient Egyptians who really took brewing to a large scale. The breweries of Ramses II for instance produced thousands of barrels per year. Nearly half of Egypt's barley production was reserved for making beer. And everyone from Pharaoh down to the lowliest peasant were allowed their daily ration of beer.

Until about 800 A.D., beer production was refined and barley was malted, allowing for different styles to come about. And those beers were flavored with herbs, spices and berries instead of hops. Even ingredients like heather, juniper berries and pine needles found their way into the mix with surprisingly tasty results. The use of hops was known in the 9th century but was rare since brewers found it hard to get the quantities just right. It took German brewers of the 13th century to get it right leading to beer with greater preservative qualities. By the next century the Dutch had developed a taste for the hopped German beers and started using hops themselves. After Holland, England was next and by 1695 the use of hops had spread throughout Europe.

Up until the 1400s brewing was possible only in the cooler months. Without refrigeration beer brewed in the summer would ferment too hard and fast and would succumb to beer spoiling organisms. Then the Germans discovered that if they stored their beers in mountain caves during the summer they ended up with a better product. Beer was endowed with a cleaner taste and enhanced stability. This technique

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