History of beer

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Burial object in the form of a model of a bakery and brewery, Egypt, circa 2009 to 1998 BC

The history of beer goes back a long way in human history: Beer is one of the oldest alcoholic beverages. It is believed to have been known to mankind since people in China and almost simultaneously in the area of ​​the Fertile Crescent began to collect grain about 10,000 years ago and accidentally discovered that cereal porridge , left to stand for a few days, began to ferment .

Early days

The so-called fertile crescent, the region where beer was invented

Josef H. Reichholf developed his own theory on the origin of beer in connection with the early Neolithic , trying to prove that beer production preceded the production of bread from grain, especially barley , for several millennia. Archaeologists also assume that beer contributed significantly to the settling of people.

Numerous archaeological finds prove that in the area of ​​the Fertile Crescent people from around 10,000 BC collected wild ears of grain with sickles made of polished flint, transported them in woven baskets compacted with plaster of paris or bitumen, stored them in underground stores and crushed them with stones. Around 9,000 BC, barley and wheat were cultivated during this period. People probably discovered the malting of grain very early on, as the grain stores were rarely completely watertight. Grain soaked in water begins to germinate, and especially in barley, enzymes develop that break down the starch of the grains into malt sugar. Since the people of the Neolithic Age did not know any script, there are no documents about the meaning of beer.

According to the latest findings, the beer is said to be older than 9,000 years, which is indicated by finds in China . Clay pots filled with traces of a fermented drink made from rice, honey, and fruits were discovered in northern China's Henan Province .

Middle East

The oldest known brewery was around 12-14 thousand years ago in the Rakefet Cave in the area of ​​the Natufien culture.

There are also references to the brewing of beer-like substances in the early Neolithic temple complex of Göbekli Tepe . There are findings and chemical analyzes that are interpreted as residues from malting and brewing processes. Sandstone tubs and stone vessels were found, which are seen functionally as mash containers. Remains of beer in the Middle East from 3500 to 2900 BC BC were discovered in Godin Tepe in what is now western Iran . Written evidence from Mesopotamia in the 3rd millennium BC name over 20 different types of beer. Finds from Hierakonpolis in Upper Egypt are similarly old, dating from the 34th century BC .

Beer is mentioned in writing in a number of different early sources: A clay tablet from Nippur (around 2100 BC) discovered by the American Samuel Noah Kramer mentions beer as part of medical prescriptions.

There are pictures of Sumerians drinking beer from around 3000 BC. The Codex Ḫammurapi (1700 BC) contains the oldest traditional beer dispensing order in the world. Here are some excerpts from the law:

  • The landlady who does not have her beer paid for in barley but in silver , or who pours inferior beer, is drowned.
  • A priestess who visits or even opens a beer house is burned.
  • The landlady, who tolerates political or state-endangering discussions in her restaurant without delivering the guests to the authorities, is killed.
  • Bierpanscher are drowned in their barrels or filled with beer until they suffocate.

The Babylonians already knew 20 types of beer:

  • Eight consisted of emmer with a little barley
  • Eight were made from barley only
  • Four were “mixed beers” in which barley predominated

The more emmer the beers contained, the more expensive they were. Among other things there were:

  • Thin beer: a watery barley beer
  • Black beer: an inexpensive barley beer to which a small amount of emmer is sometimes added
  • Fine black beer: here the mash consisted of 80% roasted emmer grain and 20% germinated emmer grain
  • Fine wheat beer: the basic ingredients were barley and emmer
  • Red beer: consisted of 75% mixture and 25% germinated emmer grain, the mixture was emmer bread and roasted emmer grain
  • Great beer: dark strong beer with equal proportions of emmer grain, emmer bread and emmer malt
  • Lager beer: was primarily intended for export to Egypt and contained emmer and barley
  • Post beer: mash residues from barley and emmer beer were poured together and water was added to them again

Egypt

At that time, beer ( henqet ) was a staple food for all strata of the population in Egypt , including the royal family. The workers who built the pyramids also received two mugs of beer a day, plus three to four loaves of bread. The hieroglyph for food has long been a symbol of bread and beer. Officials , officers and soldiers were paid in bread and beer. Beer was also given to the dead in the grave.

In 2015, the remains of a Bronze Age Egyptian brewery were found during construction work in the area of ​​the city of Tel Aviv , the northernmost find of ancient Egyptian beer production to date.

Commercial brewing remained a state monopoly in Egypt. The largest and best-known brewery was in Pelusium ( Khalij at-Tinah ) at the mouth of today's Suez Canal . Probably only the Ptolemies licensed private brewers, controlled the sale and led for a beverage tax one, ostensibly of drunkenness halt to. The beer was sifted before consumption or drank with the help of a drinking straw .

The Israelites took over the brewing of beer from the Egyptians, they called the drink shechar (שֵכָר). While it was the everyday drink, they used the wine for celebrations.

Central Europe

In Central Europe , beer-like drinks are already in the 3rd millennium BC. Proven. In a beaker of the oldest single grave culture from a sloping hill in Refshøjgård in the parish of Folby ( East Jutland ), a crust that had not been charred was examined using pollen analysis , conventional microscopy and scanning electron microscopy . The starch granules identified indicate beer . Since barley was predominantly cultivated in the early individual grave culture , the drinking vessel is likely to have contained a beer made from barley. The analysis result indicates that no honey or mead was mixed with the beer .

As an everyday drink, beer was far more popular than mead , because of its cheaper raw materials such as grain , whose raw material, honey, was far more difficult to obtain and, as the only available sweetener, was correspondingly valuable. Archaeological finds of splendidly decorated drinking horns , some of which were studded with non-ferrous or precious metal, with remains of beer or mead in them, indicate that drinking from horns was only common on special occasions.

Antiquity

Trossingen grave 58. The Alemannic maple canteen (6th century AD) still contained the remains of a hopped barley beer.

The Celts knew several types of beer, in particular the widespread Korma or Curma, a simple barley beer, and the Cervisia or Cervesia , a wheat beer with honey for the wealthy population. The Roman writer Tacitus names in his work Germania beer as the main drink of the Teutons :

"The drink is a liquid made from barley or wheat, falsified into a certain resemblance to wine [...]."

- Tacitus ' Germania 23

Archaeological finds of vessels with beer leftovers show that breweries were also operated in provincial Roman cities in the north.

In order to improve the taste and shelf life of beer, various additives such as oak bark and herbs such as myrtle , gagel or St. John's herbs have always been added to the beer. Psychotropic herbs such as henbane , thorn apple and porst were also added to increase the effect of alcohol or intoxication .

However, the use of hops could also have started in late antiquity: remains of hops were found in a maple bottle from the 6th century AD that was found in an Alemannic grave in Trossingen .

middle Ages

St. Gallen monastery plan . Reichenau, early 9th century

The first documented mention of beer ( "cervesa") in medieval Central Europe can be found, according to Emil Spiess in St. Gallen Zuzwil community in the village Züberwangen where Roth Soon, St. for the salvation of his soul, the Abbey Gallen his donation on August 6, 754 notarized.

The Franciscan Monastery in Kilkenny began brewing in the 14th century, and the Smithwick Brewery continued after the Reformation .
The Bierbreuwer (brewer), from Jost Amman Ständebuch (1568)

Beer was the most important popular drink in many parts of Europe. All types of grain were used to brew the beer and seasoned with Gruit or Grut ( Grut beer) until the 16th century . Beer that was made with these regionally different herbal mixtures was cloudy, sweet, low in carbon dioxide, did not have a long shelf life and probably had a significantly lower alcohol content than today's beer. Gagel as a beer ingredient was increasingly being replaced by hops . A ban on Gagel beer is documented for the first time in Mölln in the 16th century. Thorn apple seeds and henbane were added as aphrodisiac and intoxicants, respectively.

Hop beer did not finally gain acceptance until the 16th century. In the Middle Ages, it was primarily the Hanseatic cities and a few monastery breweries that drove the development of hop beers. In 1376 no less than 457 breweries produced beer in Hamburg. It was not uncommon for women to head breweries: in Strasbourg in 1358 one of seven breweries was run by women, and in Oxford in 1439 the number of women working in the brewing trade outnumbered the men. Quantities of beer consumption are problematic because they fluctuate strongly regionally and periodically. In Cologne , one of the wealthiest cities of the late Middle Ages, consumption during this period was around 175 to 295 liters per person per year.

In view of the high beer consumption in the Middle Ages and in the early modern period, beer was of great interest to the municipal tax authorities and the state tax authorities that had been in existence since around 1500. Already in the late Middle Ages, production and sales taxes were levied on beer almost everywhere. Brewing and selling the beer was tied to certain privileges . With the strict regulation, the authorities wanted on the one hand to secure the income of those entitled to brew beer and on the other hand to ensure that no foreign beer was drunk for which one did not have to pay taxes. In the 16th century in many parts of the Holy Roman Empire , the beer money to one of the main sources of tax revenue .

Modern times

Probably the first photograph of beer consumption, recorded by Hill & Adamson (Scotland, around 1844).

In the “City Book” of 1434 in the Thuringian town of Weissensee , the “ Statuta thaberna ” (pub law) was discovered, which contains “various laws” on “behavior in pubs” and the brewing of beer . In article 12 of the “Statuta thaberna” it says: “One should not use more malt to brew the beer than a quarter of barley malt is needed for the three brews of thirteen malters ... Neither should resin nor resin be used in the beer no other vermin. You shouldn't give anything other than hops , malt and water ('hophin malcz and water'). That is forbidden at two marks, and that person has to vacate the city for four weeks. "

In 1516 the Bavarian dukes Wilhelm IV and Ludwig X issued a new state order in Ingolstadt . Among other things, the ingredients for beer on barley , hops and water were specified and the prices for beer were regulated. Since the 1920s, the corresponding text passage of these state regulations has also been referred to by the Bavarian brewing industry as the “Bavarian Purity Law ”. A ducal decree of 1551 also allowed coriander and laurel as additional ingredients in Bavarian beers and, on the other hand, expressly forbade the use of henbane and daphne . The Bavarian state ordinance of 1616 also permitted salt, juniper and caraway seeds for beer production. In the German-speaking countries, warm beer soup was a common breakfast for adults and children, especially in rural areas, well into the 19th century, with thin beer being used. It was only then gradually supplanted by the new fashion of drinking coffee in the morning and eating bread with it. Before the introduction of coffee, but also afterwards, beer soup was eaten by all classes, including the nobility. Beer was considered a nutritious and invigorating food. The nonsense beer was popular in Prussia .

By the middle of the 18th century at the latest, regional peculiarities of beer types within the beer nation were perceived nationwide. In 1744, the geographer Johann Gottfried Gregorii alias MELISSANTES published a list of 35 of the then best-known German types of beer and their common names (e.g. Duckstein , Israel, Kastrum, Klapitt, Mumme , Schluntz, Gose or Koite), ingredients in a description of the brewer's profession , Flavors and effects on consumers.

The first cargo on a German railroad was beer kegs. On July 11, 1836, the Ludwigseisenbahn (opened on December 7, 1835) between Nuremberg and Fürth received the order from the Lederer Bräu company to send two barrels of beer to the landlord "Zur Eisenbahn" in Fürth for a fee of 6 Kreuzers .

After fermentation could take place in cellars and cold stores even at low temperatures, the bottom-fermented brewing method soon established itself. The bottom-fermented lager was brewed by Anton Dreher Senior in Vienna as early as 1841, heralding the era of bottom-fermented beers.

The "invention" of the Pilsner brewing method is considered an important point in the history of beer brewing . It emerged from the Bavarian type of brewing , which was already famous at the time , and was based primarily on malt that had only hardened at a low temperature and on slow fermentation through storage in cold caves and deep cellars. Josef Groll thus brewed on October 5, 1842 the first South after Pilsner kind of brewing. This was first served publicly on November 11, 1842 and thus opened the worldwide triumph of this beer specialty, which is sold as the Original Pilsner Urquell .

In the 19th century, especially in Munich, there were repeated unrest and riots (see: Munich beer revolution ) when the beer price was increased slightly. The guests regularly rioted in inns, whereby neither tables nor chairs remained intact. An increased beer price is also seen in part as the background to the so-called "Salvator Battle" of 1888.

A catastrophic beer flood occurred in London in 1814.

The beverage industry developed from the craft of beer brewing , and its products (“dividend manure”) did not always meet with acceptance by beer drinkers. Initially, Carl von Linde developed and built the refrigeration machine mainly for breweries. Furthermore, since the invention of the beer filter by Lorenz Adalbert Enzinger in 1878 , beer has usually been filtered and sometimes pasteurized; this and the modern filling technology made it last much longer.

literature

  • Karl-Ernst Behre : On the history of wort based on fruit finds and written sources. In: Willem van Zeist, Willem A. Casparie (Ed.): Plants and ancient man. Studies in palaeothnobotany. Rotterdam 1984, pp. 115-122.
  • Andreas Deutsch: Brows. In: Albrecht Cordes , Heiner Lück , Dieter Werkmüller , Ruth Schmidt-Wiegand (eds.): Concise dictionary on German legal history . 2nd, completely revised and enlarged edition. Volume I. Schmidt, Berlin 2008, ISBN 978-3-503-07912-4 , Sp. 671-673.
  • Oliver Dietrich, Manfred Heun, Jens Notroff, Klaus Schmidt , Martin Zarnkow: The role of cult and feasting in the emergence of Neolithic communities. New evidence from Göbekli Tepe, south-eastern Turkey. In: Antiquity. 86, 2012, pp. 674–695 ( PDF )
  • A. Naigélé: Beer in medicine. In: Die Brau- und Malzindustrie 21, (Vienna) 1920, No. 4, pp. 31–33.
  • Josef H. Reichholf : Why people settled down. The greatest mystery in our history. 2nd Edition. S. Fischer, Frankfurt am Main 2009, ISBN 978-3-10-062943-2 .
  • WD Speckmann: Beers that made history . Hopfen und Malz Archive, Rattiszell (2005), ISBN 3-00-016727-7 .
  • Tom Standage: Six drinks that moved the world. Patmos, Düsseldorf / Zurich 2006, ISBN 3-538-07234-5 .
  • Karl Sudhoff : On the hygienic and medicinal values ​​of beer, according to the views of the 15th century. In: Sudhoffs Archiv 9, 1916, p. 181 f.

See also

Web links

Individual evidence

  1. ↑ Reichholf, pp. 246-269.
  2. ^ Archeologists Link Rise of Civilization and Beer's Invention. Retrieved May 22, 2019 (American English).
  3. ↑ Standage, p. 19 and p. 20
  4. ↑ Standage, p. 25
  5. ↑ Standage, p. 20
  6. ↑ 9,000-year history of Chinese fermented beverages confirmed (in English) by Patrick McGovern, University of Pennsylvania
  7. ↑ 5000 years of beer tradition: The Chinese Purity Law. In: Spiegel Online . May 24, 2016, accessed August 11, 2018 .
  8. ↑ Researchers claim to have discovered the world's oldest brewery at spiegel.de (accessed October 4, 2018)
  9. ↑ Dietrich et al., The role of cult and feasting in the emergence of Neolithic communities. New evidence from Goebekli Tepe, south-eastern Turkey , Antiquity 86, 2012, p. 687-689. PDF
  10. ↑ Standage, p. 22
  11. ↑ Peter Odrich: excavations in Tel Aviv: Egyptians brewed beer 5000 years ago. In: Ingenieur.de , April 7, 2015.
    Surprise find in Tel Aviv: The ancient Egyptians once brewed beer in Palestine. In: FAZ online , April 5, 2015.
  12. ↑ See e.g. B. Deuteronomy / Deuteronomy 29: 5 .
  13. ↑ Erwin M. Ruprechtsberger : Beer in antiquity - an overview. Linz archaeological research, special issue VIII, Linz 1992
  14. ↑ Lutz Klassen: On the importance of grain in Jutland's individual grave culture. In: Environment-Economy-Settlements in the Third Millennium BC in Central Europe and Scandinavia. Offa books NF 84, Neumünster 2008, pp. 49–65 ( online as PDF ; 6.2 MB).
  15. ↑ Franz Meußdoerffer , Martin Zarnkow: The beer: A story of hops and malt , CH Beck Verlag, 2014, ISBN 3406666671 , p. 35.
  16. ↑ Manfred Rösch: The gardens of the Alemanni . Archaeological finds show a new picture of plant cultivation north of the Alps. In: Newsletter of the State Monument Preservation Baden-Württemberg . tape 3 . Süddeutsche Verlagsgesellschaft, Stuttgart 2006 ( full text ).
  17. ↑ Emil Spiess: The world in the village . Ed .: Bank in Zuzwil. tape I . Zuzwil SG, Switzerland 1979, p. 16 .
  18. ↑ Hansjörg Küster: A short cultural history of spices. CH Beck, Munich 1997, ISBN 3-406-42025-7 , p. 79
  19. ↑ a b Gert von Paczensky and Anna Dünnebier: Cultural history of eating and drinking . btb 1997, ISBN 3-442-72192-X , p. 195
  20. ↑ Franz Irsigler: "Ind make all lant beirs full". On the diffusion of hop beer consumption in the western Hanseatic region , in: Food and Table Culture in the Hanseatic Region, ed. G. Wiegelmann u. RE. Mohrmann (Contributions to Folk Culture in Northwest Germany, Vol. 91), Münster / New York 1996, pp. 377–397.
  21. ↑ Gert von Paczensky and Anna Dünnebier: Cultural history of eating and drinking . btb 1997, ISBN 3-442-72192-X , p. 201
  22. ^ Gunther Hirschfelder : European food culture. A history of nutrition from the Stone Age to the present day. Campus, Frankfurt am Main 2001, ISBN 3-593-36815-3 , p. 137
  23. ↑ Karin Hackel-Stehr: The brewing industry in Bavaria from the 14th to the 16th century, in particular the origin and development of the Purity Law (1516). Inaugural dissertation, TU Berlin 1987, pp. 2450, 2472.
  24. ↑ Wolfgang Schivelbusch: Paradise, taste and reason: A history of luxury items. S. Fischerverlag: Frankfurt am Main 1990, ISBN 978-3-596-24413-3 .
  25. ↑ Genialia apopthegmatum rerumque memorabilium. Clever speeches and memorable things to delight the mind. Published by Ulrich Wetstein, Lübeck 1666, p. 104
  26. ^ Carsten Berndt: Melissantes - A Thuringian Polyhistor and his job descriptions in the 18th century; Life and work of Johann Gottfried Gregorii (1685–1770) as a contribution to the history of geography, cartography, genealogy, psychology, pedagogy and professional studies in Germany; [A Thuringian geographer and universal scholar (1685–1770)] , 3rd edition, Rockstuhl, Bad Langensalza 2015, ISBN 978-3-86777-166-5 , pp. 276–287
  27. ^ Max Döllner: History of the development of the city of Neustadt an der Aisch until 1933. 1950, p. 181.