Beer has been brewed for thousands of years. The oldest proven records of brewing are around 6000 years old and refer to the Sumerians who lived between two rivers near the ancient town of Babylon. Once the Babylonians became rulers they continued to master the art of brewing and found ways to brew 20 different types of beer.
Beer from Babylon was exported and distributed as far away as Egypt where it became important enough for the scribes to invent an extra hieroglyph for "brewer".
The popularity of the drink soared and was soon being brewed all around the Mediterranean and Europe, except by the Romans who considered it a barbaric drink, preferring instead to drink wine.
However the Romans were responsible for introducing the sale of alcohol to Britain introducing tabernae or wine shops which were built along the side of the road. The natives preferred ale to wine however, and so the alehouse was born.
In the middle ages, the European monks became the masters of the art of brewing, refining the process and introducing hops as both the flavouring and preservative. The consumption of beer in the monasteries reached an astonishing level, historians have reported cases where each monk was allowed to imbibe 5 litres of beer per day!
However as beer was more pleasant and safer to drink than water, many people drank it regularly in the same way we drink water today.
The existence and importance of yeast was not known at this time and the early brewers unwittingly relied on yeast particles in the air, although a refining of the process would make the use of yeast more efficient - it was not until the seventeenth century that yeast cells were first identified using the early microscopes.
In the early 1800's English brewers created special beers, which were designed to withstand long sea voyages to the British colonies in Asia. They became known as India Pale Ale and quite unlike the IPA we know today, these beers were brewed with a high alcohol content so they arrived in good order.
Modern beer types range from pale, sparkling yellow right through to intense dark red-brown with each type having its fan club and loyal following. Although ancient, the custom of beer drinking is by no means in danger of extinction as people worldwide continue to discover the multitude of beer available and micro-breweries springing up to satisfy the needs of a new generation of connoisseurs.
