The domestication of wild grains has played a major role in human evolution, facilitating the transition from a hunter-gatherer lifestyle to one based on agriculture. You might think that the grains were used for bread, which today represents a basic staple. But some scientists argue that it wasn't bread that motivated our ancestors to start grain farming. It was beer. Man, they say, chose pints over pastry.
Beer has plenty to recommend it over bread. First, and most obviously, it is pleasant to drink. "Beer had all the same nutrients as bread, and it had one additional advantage," argues Solomon H. Katz, an anthropology professor at the University of Pennsylvania. Namely, it gave early humans the same pleasant buzz it gives us. Patrick E. McGovern, the director of the Biomolecular Archaeology Project for Cuisine, Fermented Beverages, and Health at the University of Pennsylvania, goes even further. Beer, he says, was more nutritious than bread. It contains "more B vitamins and [more of the] essential amino acid lysine," McGovern writes in his book, Uncorking the Past: the Quest for Wine, Beer, and Other Alcoholic Beverages. It was also safer to drink than water, because the fermentation process killed pathogenic microorganisms. "With a four to five percent alcohol content, beer is a potent mind-altering and medicinal substance," McGovern says, adding that ancient brewers acted as medicine men.
We hold these things to be self-evident: The Internet is for Pr0n, and Civilization is for Beer.
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'World's oldest brewery' found in cave in Israel, say researchers
Researchers say they have found the world's oldest brewery, with residue of 13,000-year-old beer, in a prehistoric cave near Haifa in Israel. The discovery was made while they were studying a burial site for semi-nomadic hunter-gatherers.
Brewing beer was thought to go back 5,000 years, but the latest discovery may turn beer history on its head. The findings also suggest beer was not necessarily a surplus of making bread as previously thought. The researchers say they cannot tell which came first, and in October's issue of the Journal of Archaeological Science: Reports, they suggest the beer was brewed for ritual feasts to honour the dead [DOI: 10.1016/j.jasrep.2018.08.008] [DX].
When will Dogfish Head seize the research?
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Archaeologists Unearth 5,000-Year-Old Brewery in China
5,000-Year-Old Chinese Beer Recipe Recreated by Students
Beer Archaeologists Are Reviving Ancient Ales — With Some Strange Results
Patrick McGovern is scientific director of the Biomolecular Archaeology Project at the University of Pennsylvania Museum of Archaeology and Anthropology. The author of Ancient Brews: Rediscovered and Re-Created, he is known as the "Indiana Jones of Ancient Ales."
McGovern took a swing at ancient chicha, too, with the brewery Dogfish Head in Delaware. "We chewed the red Peruvian corn for eight hours. The insides of our mouths were pretty cut up and our jaws were aching and so on, but it worked," he says. The final product involved peppercorns and wild strawberries. Dogfish Head has been making chicha ever since, both serving it to customers at the brewery and shipping it out.
The trouble with re-creating ancient brews is that it's actually an impossible task, even for McGovern, who uses techniques like mass spectrometry and gas chromatography to figure out what an ancient vessel once contained.
"You don't have 100% certainty by any means," says McGovern. "The basic ingredients I think we can be pretty sure of. What we don't know about is likely microorganisms, the bittering agents, or other additives that we might have missed." In a way, we will never truly be able to taste what King Midas was drinking, or the brews of Machu Picchu. Or even something much more recent, like George Washington's favorite porter.
Ancient chicha = chewed corn and quinoa partially fermented in spit.
Boston Dogfish Beer Head Company should patent all the ancient ales.
Related: Beer Domesticated Man
Archaeologists Unearth 5,000-Year-Old Brewery in China
5,000-Year-Old Chinese Beer Recipe Recreated by Students
13,000-Year-Old Beer Residue Found in Prehistoric Cave in Israel
(Score: 4, Informative) by ikanreed on Tuesday December 01 2015, @06:42PM
Grain agriculture is predated by ranching and herding by a fairly wide time-period.
Plant based agriculture did indeed force people to stay in one place, but organized societies started forming around nomadic herders pretty damn early. If we were "domesticated" into broader eusocial behaviors, it would have been during that time period. That's not to say this reasoning is bad. Healthy, safe hydration coupled with high quality nutrition was a huge boon for these early societies that allowed them to dominate their neighbors and become real civilizations, but it's not what "domesticated" us.
(Score: 2) by The Mighty Buzzard on Tuesday December 01 2015, @09:26PM
Plus TFA doesn't mention that having beer at home made it easier for the men folk to put up with squalling brats and nagging women, so going out hunting for days on end was less attractive. I mean there's only so many times you can hear "our sitting log has been in the same place for three weeks, move it over to the other side of the cave. no, maybe the back of the cave. no, i think i liked it better where it was." without wanting a beer or twelve.
My rights don't end where your fear begins.
(Score: 2) by ikanreed on Tuesday December 01 2015, @10:50PM
This joke doesn't really work as a post. Try making a youtube sketch with some really bad overacting and awkward paced editing instead.
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Wednesday December 02 2015, @11:03AM
If you're hungry, you'd pick bread over beer. No doubt there was beer soon after the development of bread but I doubt beer was so important. You'd be eating grains way before drinking beer.
Grains and flour are high energy density "super fuels" that can be easily stored and transported (assuming the invention of suitable containers) and thus allowed larger populations and larger scale wars (an army marches on its stomach). Old style wars were very strong evolutionary pressure - victors often slaughtered everyone except the fertile females.
(Score: 4, Interesting) by FatPhil on Tuesday December 01 2015, @06:58PM
No. It was safer to drink because the water it was made with was brought to the boil, which killed the pathogens. I can assure you that if you're brewing with "wild yeast" from the air/hut/fields/broomstick, which will be a mixture of various yeast varieties, and probably an even wider range of bacteria, then your beer, as it is undergoing primary fermentation will "maketh them to shitten, also to spewen". The fermentation does nothing to protect you from the pathogens. (I've lent the book citing that quote to a friend, so that's not an exact quote, but close enough.)
Great minds discuss ideas; average minds discuss events; small minds discuss people; the smallest discuss themselves
(Score: 3, Interesting) by opinionated_science on Tuesday December 01 2015, @07:21PM
This is mostly true- the boiling removes many if not all of the microbes - pathogens included. The yeast then out competes the rest - that is why there is an EtOH by product we can extract, it is targeted at the membranes of the *other* microrganisms. Believe it or not , not all microbes like the carbohydrates that yeast does. This is part of the reason making decent wine has been a niche industry all these years, getting the right soil includes an environment for the yeast as well as the grapes.
Furthermore , not all microbes are pathogens and our guts hold enormous numbers of them. The problem with pathogens is that they only arise when nothing kills them i.e. humans define pathogens, there is nothing in nature that does...
(Score: 1) by nitehawk214 on Tuesday December 01 2015, @09:58PM
The problem is that the beer will not stay sterilized for long after it is boiled. As soon as it comes down to room temperature it is a breeding ground for all kinds of nasty things. Alcohol helps kill off these nasties and allow the beverage to keep for much longer.
"Don't you ever miss the days when you used to be nostalgic?" -Loiosh
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Tuesday December 01 2015, @11:48PM
You are parsing wrong (or just being pedantic). Bringing water to the boil was part of the process that early man used to ferment beer, was it not?
(Score: 2) by cubancigar11 on Tuesday December 01 2015, @07:04PM
And countries where they don't drink beer are I suppose not samples of 'men'.
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Tuesday December 01 2015, @08:30PM
They drink beer everywhere.
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Tuesday December 01 2015, @09:24PM
And just how is "beer" defined? Ale? Lager? Root? Coors?
Hrmm... I wonder which country's favorite beer is closest to what the originals would have been like? Research time - off to the [bar / pub / Internet]!
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Wednesday December 02 2015, @10:45AM
A drink made of fermented cereals?
(Score: 2) by fritsd on Tuesday December 01 2015, @09:30PM
Noo.. those would be samples of 'countries'.
Unless, you take the beautiful cover drawing of Hobbes' Leviathan [wikipedia.org] literally.. ;-)
Are there any countries where the inhabitants don't drink beer? I don't mean: where the inhabitants are not supposed to drink beer.
(Score: 2) by cubancigar11 on Wednesday December 02 2015, @01:32PM
All the countries where beer was not invented are places where they didn't drink beer. And the timeline which is being discussed here, we can use "don't" instead of "didn't".
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Wednesday December 02 2015, @02:55PM
I doubt there existed countries back then.
(Score: 2) by cubancigar11 on Wednesday December 02 2015, @04:29PM
No, but there existed conclaves of humanity, and unless you want to claim that global communication existed before 'domestication' of men...
There is no way you can turn this around into a fact. Beer has got nothing to do with agriculture.
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Wednesday December 02 2015, @05:30PM
(Score: 2) by cubancigar11 on Wednesday December 02 2015, @06:56PM
How is there interest so important? Now instead of looking at science we are looking scientists. When you stop scrutinizing you stop doing science,
(Score: 2) by fritsd on Wednesday December 02 2015, @04:59PM
Sorry that I was pedantic. Maybe they invented other stuff to ferment. I read the ancient Egyptians invented beer (as medicine) but they hadn't put the preservative hops in it yet. In fact, until the Czechs discovered pils [wikipedia.org], I believe the europeans used "alehoof" [wikipedia.org] to keep their beer antiseptic longer. That tastes completely different, maybe you wouldn't call it beer.
It seems too obvious to not be invented in different places, if you know what I mean. Lots of people would carefully taste food to see if it's spoilt, and would have surely remembered if it tasted *better* than they expected. Do you know if the African beer is descended from European brewing traditions or an independent invention?
I once bought an organic bread that had continued to ferment inside (too wet); it was highly alcoholic, I think the baker re-invented Russian kvass [wikipedia.org]! Tasted horrible BTW.
(Score: 2) by cubancigar11 on Wednesday December 02 2015, @07:02PM
No you should be pedantic, as so was I. People drink rotten milk of palm, but that is not beer and palm grows in sandy areas but people still try to grow something [wikipedia.org] there. Some people mix milk with cannabis but they don't drink beer. By the way, I am talking of ancient civilizations.
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Tuesday December 01 2015, @08:43PM
Beer -> agriculture -> money -> finance -> impoverishment -> needless wars -> planet is fucked.
(Score: 2) by JNCF on Tuesday December 01 2015, @10:11PM
Beer leads to anger. Anger leads to hate. Hate leads to suffering.
(Score: 2, Touché) by Anonymous Coward on Tuesday December 01 2015, @10:29PM
Suffering leads to Beer.
(Score: 3, Funny) by DECbot on Wednesday December 02 2015, @12:13AM
Beer -> anger -> hate -> war -> ruin -> suffering -> beer
But I prefer the condensed version:
Beer -> hangover -> suffering -> beer
cats~$ sudo chown -R us /home/base
(Score: 3, Disagree) by mendax on Tuesday December 01 2015, @09:33PM
Beer? Pleasant to drink?!? I think not. It is a nasty tasting concoction that smells worse, and is only worth drinking when there is something else to eat with it that complicates its nastiness. Now, an ice cold bottle (it must be almost frozen) of Corona with a slice of lime in the glass is an excellent accessory to Mexican food. But when it gets too warm it becomes about as tasty as Mexican horse piss.
It's really quite a simple choice: Life, Death, or Los Angeles.
(Score: 4, Insightful) by The Mighty Buzzard on Tuesday December 01 2015, @09:36PM
There needs to be a -1 Heresy mod.
My rights don't end where your fear begins.
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Tuesday December 01 2015, @10:02PM
If you all stopped gulping up six packs you'd recognize a kinda subtle troll.
(Score: 5, Insightful) by Nerdfest on Tuesday December 01 2015, @11:14PM
I used to be of the same opinion ... then I had a beer course as part of my Sommelier certification. I got to try a very wide range of beers from all over. Some I'm not a fan of (mostly the cheap North American crap) but some I absolutely loved. I'm a fan of the Imperial stouts, or even better, Imperial IPAs with ridiculous hop concentrations. The latter are especially good with really spicy food. You may not like any beer, but try some of the different variations, you might be surprised.
(Score: 2) by mendax on Wednesday December 02 2015, @03:01AM
Well, admittedly, I have not tried the entire range of beers. But I've tried craft beers and not particularly liked them. I've tried various versions of American piss water and disliked them. I've tried German beers and hated them. I tried a South African beer when I was in that part of the world and found it truly disgusting.
The only beers I've found tolerable have been Corona, accompanied by Mexican food, and some sort of Chinese beer accompanied by some excellent Chinese food.
However, I've learned that what really makes beer tolerable to drink is when I drink it in the company of friends. My best beer experience was enjoying two bottles of very cold Corona in a bar in the SFO international terminal with my Aussie buddy who was about to return home, my surrogate little brother. The beer was barely tolerable but his company was a welcome distraction.
It's really quite a simple choice: Life, Death, or Los Angeles.
(Score: 2) by darkfeline on Wednesday December 02 2015, @02:49AM
I think that's just because you've only tried bad beer, a.k.a. pisswater. If you've tried a variety of good beers, I'm sure you'll find one or three that you enjoy.
Join the SDF Public Access UNIX System today!
(Score: 2) by fritsd on Wednesday December 02 2015, @05:25PM
Mendax can I ask you a question, what do you think of the vegetables endive (the green open curly leaves) [wikipedia.org], brussels sprouts, witlof/chicory, (the bleached white closed leaves) [wikipedia.org], chichory (ok nobody eats that anymore in this century; they made crappy bitter surrogate coffee from it in the last)?
I wonder if people who don't like the taste of beer, don't like the taste of bitter vegetables either. Maybe it's a cultural thing of the BeNeLux countries to appreciate "nice bitter" things.
PS here's a *fantastic* salad recipe (in Dutch): http://s-sanders.nl/recepten/?p=4303 [s-sanders.nl] "Andijvie uit de Auvergne". Endive (I mean the raw green leaves) with walnuts and hard cheese and (quite strong) vinaigrette.
(Score: 2) by mendax on Wednesday December 02 2015, @08:45PM
You may ask.
Actually, I love and will eat in abundance brussels sprouts, spinach, broccoli, and cauliflower if cooked. No added butter required. I'll even eat raw baby spinach in a salad. Marvelous stuff. But I am not a fan of bitter things in general.
I think some of my aversion to beer is generally an aversion to alcohol in general. But then I don't like coffee either unless I make it tolerable with much half and half and some sort of sweetener. And even then I rarely drink it because it often gives me the shits. However, if you want to give me very spicy Indian or Pakistani food, the stuff that burns the lips, blackens the tongue, and will blow out the worse case of clogged sinuses I will give you my everlasting gratitude.
It's really quite a simple choice: Life, Death, or Los Angeles.
(Score: 5, Funny) by cellocgw on Tuesday December 01 2015, @11:55PM
Do, the stuff that buys me beer,
Re, the guy who serves the beer,
Me, the guy who drinks the beer,
Fa, where I'll go for beer,
Sol, I think I'll have a beer,
La, la la la lala beer,
Ti, No thanks I'll have a beer!
And that brings us back...
Physicist, cellist, former OTTer (1190) resume: https://app.box.com/witthoftresume
(Score: 2) by cellocgw on Wednesday December 02 2015, @10:06PM
I'm embarrassed to receive a +5 Funny.
I thought it was well-known, but guess not, that this song is performed by Homer Simpson.
Physicist, cellist, former OTTer (1190) resume: https://app.box.com/witthoftresume
(Score: 1, Interesting) by Anonymous Coward on Wednesday December 02 2015, @03:09AM
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Terence_McKenna#.22Stoned_ape.22_theory_of_human_evolution [wikipedia.org]