Beer Domesticated Man

Nautilus ^ | December 19, 2013 | Gloria Dawson

[Second Amendment First]

“If you had to choose today, which would it be: bread or beer?”

Beer! Then BBQ.

[JRandomFreeper]

Beer. Is there anything it can't do?

/johnny

[T-Bird45]

I guess the corollary to this is the saying about giving a man a fish and he will eat for one day, teach a man to fish and he’ll sit in the boat on the lake all day drinking beer.

[newheart]

Beer. It’s not just for breakfast anymore.

[JimRed]

It was even used as currency—in Egypt, the pyramid workers were paid in beer.

It would be interesting to see the documentation behind that factoid.

It IS my perfect recovery drink after a basketball session with those 40-50-60 year old kids; a few pints and a couple of aspirin...I can actually walk he next day!

[Red_Devil 232]

http://topdocumentaryfilms.com/how-beer-saved-the-world/

[JRandomFreeper]

I was just thinking of that documentary. It's great to watch with friends while drinking quality beer.

I particularly like the duck pond water beer scene.

/johnny

[Little Ray]

OLD Theory.
I came up with this idea independently in college when I was taking an anthropology course, but it was already out there then - in the late ‘80s.

[maddog55]

BEER.. because BEER has food value.

[Night Hides Not]

How did man originally discover beer?

[Sherman Logan]

That motivated our ancestors to build permanent structures to store their grains and homes close to their fields—which in turn led to the creation of villages.

Followed shortly by fortifications to prevent others from taking your grain by force.

[Liberty Valance]

[E. Pluribus Unum]

What I want to know is how they figured out how to make beer?

Which came first, beer or the fermentation vat?

[Flag_This]

Didn’t they claim in that documentary that they’ve found beerstone (calcium oxalate), a substance associated with brewing containers, on some of the earliest ceramic vessels discovered?

[KarlInOhio]

And cats were domesticated to keep vermin from eating the grain.

Some have become a little too domesticated.

[JRandomFreeper]

That's not beer, it's Bud Light. Poor kitty.

/johnny

[copaliscrossing]

I know I will be in the minority here but IMNSHO, beer tastes absolutely nasty to me. I have tried so many different kinds with the same results. I guess it takes all kinds of people to make the world go round...lol.

[Svartalfiar]

http://topdocumentaryfilms.com/how-beer-saved-the-world/

[Svartalfiar]

http://www.stonebrew.com/arrogantbastard/

[yefragetuwrabrumuy]

There’s some interesting twists and turns to this.

People have three latitude zones on Earth: equatorial, temperate and polar.

In the equatorial regions, vegetable food grows year around, but also spoils quickly and is plagued by insects. Starchy foods like bananas may have been used to make the first beers, and are still used as such in those regions.

In the temperate regions, there are typically two growing seasons during the year, and insects and spoilage are less of a problem. Because much grain is grown here, along with other crops, like grapes, they are the big source for beers and wines, which work well as a way to store calories for the winter months.

In the polar regions, with only one short growing season a year, beer and mead from honey, also wine, are essential for their long winters.

Importantly, there is a major exception, that really matters to beer. Egypt. Though in an equatorial desert region, Egypt had only one crop a year, after the annual flooding of the Nile river. So like temperate regions, grew a lot of grain, and spent a lot of time and effort, some 3000 years worth, figuring out how to store it, and convert it to beer. Wine as well.

By the time of the Roman Empire, knowledge from all three regions could be consolidated to produce food and drink.