While enjoying the crispy taste of Coors Light or the caramel flavor of Killian’s Irish Red, have you ever stopped and thought about the word beer and where it came from? What is the history of irresistible fermented bears that you order every other day? Today, I found it and will get you a ride back in time, way back to early civilizations. So, are you ready? Grab the next beer and keep reading to learn where the origins and meaning of beer.
A Closer Look at the Word “Beer”
The term beer draws its name from Latin bibere (by way of German), which means to drink. This is why some publications indicate that the term came from Germany. Indeed, it is applied with variations in German dialects. In German and Dutch, it is bier while the Nordic call it beóir. The word was only brought to the British Isles later by Saxons.
Today, most languages use the word beer after borrowing it from the German and Dutch languages. For example, the French have adopted the word as bière while the Turkish language uses bira. Even as Germany takes the credit for the term, it is important to note they do not get credit for the early development of beers. This is why it is so important to look at the history of beer and understand how the early civilizations played a crucial role in its development. So, what was the beer called before taking the name beer? Who was the first to discover beer, and what did they refer to it?
The History of Beer and Brewing
Beer is among the oldest beverages that people have produced. Here is the main journey of this cherished beverage and the names it took before becoming beer.
Mesopotamia: The Earliest Evidence of Brewing
The earliest evidence of beer is about 6,000 years in Mesopotamia. Artifacts of this era show people drinking beer from the communal bowls using straws of reed. In one of the 3,900-year-old poems, a Sumerian talks about honoring Ninkasi, the goddess of brewing. It also had the earliest recipe that described beer prepared using barley.
Other evidence of early beers was found in China, around 5,000 years. Like Mesopotamia, Beer in ancient China was brewed using Barley, but they also used other types of grains. Most of the beer around this period was produced on a domestic scale.
Early Beers: Cerevisa in Italy and Curmi in England
Any cereal that contains sugars can undergo progressive fermentation to create beer-like drinks. Chemical tests in tools used for preparing and serving beers indicate that early beer production might have been the first type of biological-engineering task.
Beer became central to most civilizations, extending from Mesopotamia through North African Antiquity and Eurasia. This is why James Death’s theory of the Beer of the Bible in 1968 indicates that manna given to Israelites in the wilderness was bread-based.
A closer look at the early beers reveals they were very thick, and some people preferred to use straws to take them. This helped to avoid the solid taste created by fermentation. In Ancient Rome, beer’s popularity declined as more people preferred wine. In Greek, the name for beer was brytos, while Romans referred to it as cerevisia, which was borrowed from Celtic.
Before the British took the name Beer, evidence uncovered during the upgrade of A14 in Cambridgeshire indicates that locals also had their brew. The beer in British was referred to curmi. In the middle ages, the art of brewing beer advanced to a higher level. For example, Christian monks created breweries for providing shelter, drinks, and food to travelling pilgrims.
Medieval Europe Beers
By the middle Ages, beer had become one of the most important drinks. All social classes took beer in the northern and eastern Europe, where grapes were difficult to cultivate or access. Even as wine became the preferred drink, it was largely used by those in the higher economic classes, while the lower ones stuck with beer. However, the argument that beer was more than water in the medieval age is not true. It is a myth.
The use of hops in beer can be traced back to the 9th century, but its adoption was gradual because most people could not correctly determine the right proportions to use. Prior to the 9th century, most people preferred gruit, which is a sort of a mixture of herbs, but it lacked most properties of hops, especially preservative ability. The towns of Bohemia mastered the art using hops, while Germans started the idea of standardized barrel production for export. This type of production expanded fast, reaching Holland around the 14th century and England in the subsequent century.
In England, their beer around that time was referred to as ale, and was prepared using water and malt. Ale was considered a natural drink, and brewers could use barley or oat. However, barley-made ale was considered of higher quality compared to oats.
The Industrial Revolution Beer
Early in the 18th century, the development and efficiency of the steam engine made the industrialization of beer easy and faster. Around this time, one innovation that helped so much was the invention of the thermometer that helped enhance attenuation and efficiency. Before then, most brewers preferred to dry malt on fire. This implies that most of the early malts came with a tinge of smoke acquired during the drying process.
Writers around this period highlight the notion of a distinctive taste that came from wood. Take the example of the London and Country Brewer of 1736, which specified the main types of malts that were common in the city. Brown malts were dried using wood, straws, and fern. The straw-dried malts were considered the best, while the wood was the worst because of the strong taste of smoke. However, it was more common in most parts of Western England.
In 1817, the invention of the drum toaster made it possible to create darker and roasted malts, which helped to contribute to richer flavors. This development arose from the British law of 1816 that forbid brewers from making beer using ingredients other than hops and malts. The use of bottles started around 1912 in the United States before spreading to the rest of the world. The bottle helped to prevent the destruction of beer quality by harmful rays.
The Modern Beer
Most European countries have well-documented traditions of brewing local beer. The brews were particularly vital in England, Austria, France, Germany, and Poland. Throughout the United States and Europe, most breweries established empires of business in the late 18th and 19th centuries. For example, Britain created most of its fortunes with the focus on Ales while America and Scandinavia put their focus on lager. In Japan, the top brewing companies had already started operations by 1900.
In 1953, Morton Coutts created the technique of progressive fermentation, which was considered revolutionary. This process allows users to prepare beer by allowing it to flow through sealed tanks and fermenting under high pressure. Therefore, beer being processed never came into contact with air. Although the process was adopted widely both in the UK and US, its use declined and is now mostly applied in New Zealand.
A Closer Look at Beer in the United States
St. Louis in the United States was a haven for most Germans who were coming to America, especially in the mid-19th century. Around this time, the US experienced an explosion of brewers, with most of them focusing on lagers. Indeed, there were no lagers before 1800.
- The Prohibition Era
In January 1919, the United States enacted the Eighteenth Amendment that prohibited the production, sale, and transportation of any alcoholic beverage. This law brought the entire brewing industry to its knees, with most breweries of the time exiting the market. The prohibition lasted up to 1933, when the Amendment was repealed. First, the Volstead Act that defined the term “intoxicating liquors” was amended. The Amendments indicated that any beer that contained an alcohol content of no more than 3.2% was not intoxicating.
Later in 1933, the 21st Amendment repealed the prohibition but left the regulation to the federal, local, and state authorities. The most notable thing about the regulations is the creation of the three-tier distribution system, implying that supply has to go via wholesales as opposed to directly to the retailers.
- Post-Prohibition Era
Interestingly, some counties failed to ratify the 21st Amendment immediately that put brakes to the resurgence of the beer industry. The extended impacts also meant that the movement of beers was limited. Again coming at a critical time, when the country was reeling from the effects of the Great Depression and the Second World War picking pace, breweries had to become more creative to make their beers appealing.
By the end of World War II, beer production had grown by about 40%, although the number of breweries had remained relatively small. By the 1970s, the brewing industry in the US was dominated by a few breweries, prompting the smaller ones to consider mergers to become relevant and successful in the market.
Today, there are more than 4,000 craft breweries operating in the United States. Some of the top craft breweries in the United States include D.G Yuengling & Son, located in Pennsylvania, the Boston Beer Company of Massachusetts, and Sierra Nevada Brewing Company of Colorado. Although the growth of craft beer is not specific to any specific area, the Pacific Northwest and Mountain West have been more active than other areas.
Top Beer Styles and Common Names in the United States
Now that you know the origin and meaning of the name beer, do you know the styles and names of the top beers?
- Contemporary Craft Types
Starting from the start of craft beer movements of the 70s, there are numerous styles, which range from traditional European types to experimental lagers and ales. In the US, craft beers use newer types of hops, such as Warrior, Sincoe, Citra, and Cascade. Belgian styles have also become common, such as tripel, saison, and Belgian strong ale.
- Malt Liqor and Pale Lager
Although most craft brewing companies with different styles take the largest market share of the US market, pale lager is still considered the best-selling type. It is made by the top brewers, such as MillerCoors and Anheuser-Busch InBev. These top companies are also known for producing other equally liked styles, which are light in calories and flavor. For example, Light beer that was first introduced on a commercial scale in the 1970s is prepared by cutting down the alcohol and carb content. This beer has continued to snatch a bigger market share from the pale lagers.
- Top Beers in the US
Blue Light, with a market of about 13%, is one of the America’s best-selling beers. It is made by Anheuser-Busch InvBev. In 2019, the brand caused a controversy when it started a campaign of no corn syrup that indicated it would immediately rival Coors Light and Miller Light. This also insinuated that the rivals had some sweeteners.
Coors Light from the Molson Coors Brewing Company is another leading beer in the United States with a large market share of about 6.3%. Although most beer reviewers rarely talk about the low-calories, low-carb lager of this lager, a lot of drinkers really enjoy it. The beer has a light and clean flavor that keeps drinkers coming back for more. However, it might not be considered the best option for diet-conscious people.
Other highly popular beers in the US include Miller Lite from Molson Coors Brewing Company, Budweiser from Aheuser-Busch InvBev, and Michelob from the same company. You might also want to check Corona Extra, Heineken, and Miller High Life. Well, no matter your preference, there is something for everyone.
Conclusion
This post has demonstrated that beer was called beer because it is a drink that people loved. Borrowed from the Latin word bibere, Germans were the first to use it, and others picked it from them. However, the Germans were not the first to discover the beer; the credit goes to Mesopotamia. So, now you know!