The most basic definition of beer is any alcoholic beverage that gets most of its fermentable sugar from a grain. Beverages of this sort have been made since prehistory, and some archaeologists now think man may have started farming to make beer not bread. This isn't surprising giving that when unfiltered beer is more nutritious than bread.

When most of us think of beer, however, they have something more specific in mind. When most of us think of beer we think of lager, or perhaps ale. While these beers have many differences there building blocks are the same. They are both primarily, if not entirely, made of malted barley, hops, water, and yeast.

In some places it was even law that beer could only be made of these materials. For example Bavaria passed a law in 1516 saying only these ingredients could be used. The law is called the Rheinheitsgebot and some think it is the oldest food purity law in the world.

Water is the first ingredient and is to beer. It typically makes up about 95% of the weight of a beer. It is needed to give the other ingredients a solvent to dissolve in and well as give yeast one of the components it needs to live. In many places beer was actually drank in place of water since in those days many water supplies were unsafe and beer is boiled during production. Local waters supplies have definitely influenced beer styles as some water is better for making some beers. This has led some brewers to try to recreate water supplies to make certain styles like the famous water Burton on the Trent for making English style pale ales.

In next ingredient is yeast. Brewers Yeast is a unicellular fungus. Its relatives live in the air that we all breath and can lead to spontaneous fermentation if we leave a sugar source out for it suspended in a liquid. The yeast used in breweries though, has been selected generation after generation for years to give the characteristics the brewer is looking for.

Next the yeast needs a source of sugar to feed them. For it to be beer the source has to be mostly derived from grain. All over the world people have made a fermented beverage out of whatever grain was available to them. Rice in the Far East, corn in the Americas, and Sorghum in Africa are just a few examples of the local ingredients people used to make beer. The odyssey of modern beer started in the near and middle east with the onset of agriculture in that part of the world.

It was probably wheat that was first made into beer.

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