How did man figure out how to make booze and figure out how to market the stuff on such a huge scale and get folks addicted....century after century??
Fermentation probably happened by accident the first time.
Beer has all the ingredients of bread but doesn’t spoil.
I read just recently that the Egyptians paid their works in meat and beer.
Beer (or beer like drinks) have been around for thousands of years. It is good, or it can be good if done right.
To cripple the Indians Indian tribe files $500 million suit against big brewers
But seriously, I've always believed the discovery of alcohol was an accidental one of via the ingestion of fermented fruits and grains by some famished hairy guy many moons ago. Probably repeated occurences before it sunk in, or the association made. Then, inference; trial and error. The draw of its effects were self-evident, and the mass marketing simply and application of a fundamental business precept.
Beer and wine allow one to live.
Water, contaminated water kills.
Fermentation is a natural phenomenon.
We used to work & live with a hunter-gatherer tribe in Africa.
They did NOT:
Use the Wheel
Use the Plow
Weave
Make Bread
Have a Written Language
Make Rope
However, they were very intelligent, spoke two or three or more languages
AND
They made BEER..... lots of it, when they had a reasonable harvest of millet.