It is a question with no definite date. Today, lager is the most popular beer drunk around the world. My apologies to those “real ale” drinkers who do not really rate lager that high. It is an industry worth hundreds of millions of dollars and around the same figures for the number of barrels brewed each year worldwide. It is an integral part of many people’s leisure time; whether that is a good or bad thing is up to you.
But whatever your answer, the history of beer in one form or another is a long one. Because evidence of beer making and drinking has been found in many parts of the world, it is very likely it was not invented in one place and exported around the world. Evidence of beer drinking has been found back as far as 9,000 years ago. The evidence appears in some early images. However, the main evidence comes from the chemical analysis of ancient stoneware jars and drinking vessels.
One thing is definite. The beer around at that time was nothing like what we have today. Depending on where in the world, the analysis was made, it appears that different ingredients were used in fermenting their individual type of beer. For example, in parts of China, it seems that honey, rice and different kinds of fruit were included. That sounds okay but in other places, fungi and tubers were part of the mix.
Grain mixed with water and fermented appears to be the basis of the drink. However, it has been found that the mix was not filtered, making the drink thick and sour tasting. And because there were no fridges, the beer would soon go off and so it was drunk soon after fermenting. There is an interesting puzzle from ancient Mesopotamia suggesting that they filtered their beer. There are images showing people drinking beer. But there is a theory that the beer itself was left unfiltered, but the drinkers used filtered straws to drink the brew. We have no conclusive evidence for this.
It is thought that these old brews were not high in alcohol and flat. So, when did the modern art of beer making begin? Around 500 years ago, the Germans and the Czechs started a process of cold-fermenting which produced a lighter, clear lager-type of beer. They were then responsible for taking this new invention of beer to other parts of the world, and, as they say, the rest is history. “Cheers.”
John Pullen 