(Source Cited - Ale University, Merchant du Vin)
The art of brewing is as old as civilization. Through hieroglyphics, cuneiform characters and written accounts, historians have
traced the roots of brewing back to ancient African, Egyptian and Sumerian tribes, some 6,000 years ago. Written on clay
tablets of ancient Mesopotamia, the making and drinking of beer are described in detail, sometimes listing a selection of different
types. These early accounts, with pictograms of what is recognizably barley, show bread being baked then crumbled into water
to make a mash, which is then made into a drink that is recorded as having made people feel "exhilarated, wonderful and
blissful!" Sumerian pictograms went even further by publishing what is considered to be the first beer recipe.
As the cultivation of barley spread north and west, brewing went with it. As time passed, the production of beer came under the
watchful eye of the Roman Church. Christian abbeys, as centers of agriculture, knowledge and science, refined the methods of
brewing. Initially monks made beer for the brothers and for visiting pilgrims, and later as a means of financing their communities.
However, there was still very little known about the role of yeast in completing fermentation.
By the fifteenth century, there was a record of hops used in Flemish beer imported into England, and by the sixteenth century
hops had gained widespread use as a preservative in beer, replacing the previously used bark or leaves.
Perhaps the most widely known event in brewing history was the establishment of German standards for brewers. The first of
these regulations was the inspiration for the Reinheitsgebot of 1516 - the most famous beer purity law. This pledge of purity
states that only four ingredients can be used in the production of beer: water, malted barley, malted wheat and hops. Yeast,
though not included in this list, was acceptable, as it was taken for granted to be a key ingredient in the brewing process. The
"Reinheitsgebot" was the assurance to the consumer that German beers would be of the highest quality in the world and
acknowledges the European disdain for adding adjuncts such as corn, rice, other grains and sugars.
The next great development occurred in the mid-nineteenth century, through work done by Louis Pasteur, the first to propose an
explanation of how yeast worked. Shortly thereafter, samples of Bavarian yeast provided the successful identification of a
single-cell and strain of the bottom-fermenting lager yeast.
German brewers had started to make beer by lagering in 1402. Brewing was not possible in the warm months because wild
yeasts prevalent in the warmer weather of summertime would sour the beer. Brewers discovered that brewing in the cold months
and storing the beer in caves in the nearby Alps impacted stability to the beer and enhanced it with a cleaner taste, although they
did not know why. Today, we know that the reason the beer was clearer and cleaner was due to the fermentation process the
beer underwent in the cold, during which the chemicals and bacteria responsible for clouding beer were unable to thrive and
were therefore filtered out of the beer.
In 1880, there were approximately 2,400 breweries operating in the US embracing many of the classic brewing styles. Thirty
years ago, only a few dozen breweries were in operation. The change can be traced back to the era of the Volstead Act of
1919 - this Eighteenth Amendment to the Constitution ushered in Prohibition. During this time, the smaller breweries lay idle as
the larger establishments limped by with the production of cereal malts and near-beers.
Following Prohibition came World War II, with corresponding food shortages and therefore increased substitution of adjuncts
for malt - a lighter beer resulted. With a large part of the male population off fighting the war, the work force in America was
made up largely of women; thus marketing to this population solidified the hold of a lighter-styled beer. After the war, the large
national breweries catered to the tastes of this expanded beer market. A relatively few breweries acquired a huge ever-growing
market share of the domestic beer industry, until the rise of microbreweries and high end imported brands in the 1980s.
Over the past 30 years, the number of breweries in the United States has rapidly grown to over 400, with a focus on small
regional breweries that reproduce classic styles from around the world and a great deal of innovative new styles. Craft beer in
America has become one of the fastest growing sectors of the beverage industry, with no sign of a slow down. Today, there is a
revolution in America as brewing returns to its roots, and a myriad of high-quality beers are being revived and enjoyed!
The art of brewing is as old as civilization. Through hieroglyphics, cuneiform characters and written accounts, historians have
traced the roots of brewing back to ancient African, Egyptian and Sumerian tribes, some 6,000 years ago. Written on clay
tablets of ancient Mesopotamia, the making and drinking of beer are described in detail, sometimes listing a selection of different
types. These early accounts, with pictograms of what is recognizably barley, show bread being baked then crumbled into water
to make a mash, which is then made into a drink that is recorded as having made people feel "exhilarated, wonderful and
blissful!" Sumerian pictograms went even further by publishing what is considered to be the first beer recipe.
As the cultivation of barley spread north and west, brewing went with it. As time passed, the production of beer came under the
watchful eye of the Roman Church. Christian abbeys, as centers of agriculture, knowledge and science, refined the methods of
brewing. Initially monks made beer for the brothers and for visiting pilgrims, and later as a means of financing their communities.
However, there was still very little known about the role of yeast in completing fermentation.
By the fifteenth century, there was a record of hops used in Flemish beer imported into England, and by the sixteenth century
hops had gained widespread use as a preservative in beer, replacing the previously used bark or leaves.
Perhaps the most widely known event in brewing history was the establishment of German standards for brewers. The first of
these regulations was the inspiration for the Reinheitsgebot of 1516 - the most famous beer purity law. This pledge of purity
states that only four ingredients can be used in the production of beer: water, malted barley, malted wheat and hops. Yeast,
though not included in this list, was acceptable, as it was taken for granted to be a key ingredient in the brewing process. The
"Reinheitsgebot" was the assurance to the consumer that German beers would be of the highest quality in the world and
acknowledges the European disdain for adding adjuncts such as corn, rice, other grains and sugars.
The next great development occurred in the mid-nineteenth century, through work done by Louis Pasteur, the first to propose an
explanation of how yeast worked. Shortly thereafter, samples of Bavarian yeast provided the successful identification of a
single-cell and strain of the bottom-fermenting lager yeast.
German brewers had started to make beer by lagering in 1402. Brewing was not possible in the warm months because wild
yeasts prevalent in the warmer weather of summertime would sour the beer. Brewers discovered that brewing in the cold months
and storing the beer in caves in the nearby Alps impacted stability to the beer and enhanced it with a cleaner taste, although they
did not know why. Today, we know that the reason the beer was clearer and cleaner was due to the fermentation process the
beer underwent in the cold, during which the chemicals and bacteria responsible for clouding beer were unable to thrive and
were therefore filtered out of the beer.
In 1880, there were approximately 2,400 breweries operating in the US embracing many of the classic brewing styles. Thirty
years ago, only a few dozen breweries were in operation. The change can be traced back to the era of the Volstead Act of
1919 - this Eighteenth Amendment to the Constitution ushered in Prohibition. During this time, the smaller breweries lay idle as
the larger establishments limped by with the production of cereal malts and near-beers.
Following Prohibition came World War II, with corresponding food shortages and therefore increased substitution of adjuncts
for malt - a lighter beer resulted. With a large part of the male population off fighting the war, the work force in America was
made up largely of women; thus marketing to this population solidified the hold of a lighter-styled beer. After the war, the large
national breweries catered to the tastes of this expanded beer market. A relatively few breweries acquired a huge ever-growing
market share of the domestic beer industry, until the rise of microbreweries and high end imported brands in the 1980s.
Over the past 30 years, the number of breweries in the United States has rapidly grown to over 400, with a focus on small
regional breweries that reproduce classic styles from around the world and a great deal of innovative new styles. Craft beer in
America has become one of the fastest growing sectors of the beverage industry, with no sign of a slow down. Today, there is a
revolution in America as brewing returns to its roots, and a myriad of high-quality beers are being revived and enjoyed!
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