Brewing Across Cultures
A look at the origins of beer and how it is enjoyed around the world.
The role of beer in our world has evolved over thousands of years, changing alongside our reasons for consuming it. From its origins in the grain-rich empires of Ancient Egypt and Mesopotamia, brewing has spread across the world and made possible civilization as we know it. Like other alcohols, it has long been used in religious ceremonies due to its intoxicating nature. Those same physical effects have allowed countless laborers to relax after a long day; in Egypt, for example, workers building pyramids and monuments were given beer and bread for their daily rations. Just as importantly, low-alcohol beer offered a sanitary alternative to often unclean drinking water, a vital lifeline for both common people and sailors.
Beer has been held in the highest esteem and it has been vilified. It is a commodity and a luxury, an industry and a craft. Whatever your personal opinion on beer, it is an example of a creation that has in turn shaped our lives, history, and culture.
People have been brewing beer for at least 5,000 years. Its invention and refinement was no easy feat, nor an accident of food spoilage. Over time, the beers we know today diversified across cultures, leading to many unique flavors and styles. You may have your own idea of what a beer, or at least a good one, should taste like. This article will explore just a few of the ways humans make and enjoy beer, examining their differences and appreciating their similarities.
Peru
In Peru, a commonly made beer is called chicha. Chicha is made from germinated corn and has historically been drank along with meals and at festivals. In the Peruvian community of Moche and other areas of Peru, it was (and still is) common for the women of a household to have in home chicherias, where they sold chicha to their community. Fresh chicha is hardly alcoholic and is consumed with breakfast or brought to work. The fermented form is known as chicha madura and can have an alcohol content of 12-14%.
The practice and ritual of brewing chicha dates back to Incan times. There are other forms of chicha from all over South, Central America, and North America with many variations in taste, ingredients, and brewing methods. The information derived from Moche is representative of only a small portion of chicha brewing and use in Peru, not of all chicha or chicha-brewing cultures.
Further Reading:
Germany
Home of the fabled Oktoberfest, Germany is one of top beer producers in the world, and its influence in the industry can be seen around the globe. In the days of the Roman Empire, the beer consumed by Germanic ‘barbarians’ was viewed with some suspicion by the wine-favoring Romans. But where grapes could not be grown, beer remained a vital part of medieval European life. Its manufacture developed especially through European monasteries and in family homes, spreading quickly along local networks.
In Germany, the importance of beer is best documented through the Reinheitsgebot, a set of purity standards meant to ensure the safety and quality of German beers. The best known of these laws was established in Bavaria in 1516. Today, Germany consumes about 104 liters of beer per year per capita. Related Austria goes through a similar amount at 106 liters per capita.
England
English culture was heavily influenced by Germanic peoples, and so it’s not surprising to find a strong beer culture in Britain as well. Beer and whiskey in Britain are sometimes represented by the folk figure John Barleycorn, the long-suffering hero doomed to be born, harvested, and born again. By the 1800s, English beers were typically listed in three categories and standardized for tax purposes. This led to a massive brewing industry that has, for the most part, defined ideas of beer among the British Empire’s many former colonies. Frederich Christian Accum explores these three categories as part of his Treatise on the Art of Brewing:
Porter
Porter, which is commonly called Beer in London, must be pronounced the most perfect of all malt liquors. The processes employed for brewing this kind of malt liquor, all unite to convert the substance from which it is produced into the most perfect vinous fluid that can be obtained from grain. The origin of porter is thus related by the Editor of the Picture of London:
“Prior to the year 1722 the malt liquors in general use were ale, beer, and two penny, and it was customary for the drinkers of malt liquor to call for a pint or tankard of half-and-half, i. e. half of ale and half of beer; half of ale and half of twopenny; or half of beer and half of twopenny. In course of time it also Became the practice to call for a pint or tankard of three threads, meaning- a third of ale, beer, and twopenny, and thus the publican had the trouble to go to three casks, and turn three cocks for a pint of liquor. To avoid this trouble and waste, a brewer of the name of Harwood, conceived the idea of making a liquor which should partake of the united flavours of ale, beer, and twopenny. He did so, and succeeded, calling it entire, or entire butt beer, meaning that it was drawn entirely from one cask or butt, and, being a hearty nourishing liquor, it was very suitable for porters and other working people. Hence it obtained its name of porter.”
Ale
Ale is beer of a more syrupy consistence than porter; it contains a considerable quantity of undecomposed farinaceous matter, and saccharine mucilage, which impart to it a clammy consistence and sweetish taste. Hence strong new brewed ale becomes muddy by a copious admixture of alcohol, whereas porter suffers no perceptible change from this agent.
Table Beer
Small, or Table Beer, as its name implies, is a weaker liquor than ale, containing a larger quantity of water. Two parts of London table beer may be considered equivalent in strength to one of ale; but, according to the legal distinction, all beer sold above the price of I8s. per barrel is deemed ale, or strong beer, and pays the ale duty, viz. 10s. per barrel; and beer, of the price of 18s. per barrel, or under, exclusive of the duty, namely 2s. per barrel, is considered as table beer within the meaning of the act.”
Further Reading:
India
In the 3rd century, the Greek writer Megasthenes traveled to India and reported finding a beer brewed using rice as the principal grain. This was one among many of the traditional beers of ancient India.
One of the most well known Indian brews is not actually from India at all. India Pale Ale (IPA) or East India Pale Ale is actually an English beer, brewed specifically to last the crossing from Europe to India. During the English occupation of India, European colonialists longed for the beers of their home country, but the beers of that time could not survive shipping long distances due to constant agitation and a relatively short shelf life. Pale Ales differed from the traditional “live beers” of England in that they contained a much higher concentration of hops and alcohol, making them intensely flavorful and able to stay preserved for longer due to their high alcohol content.
Mexico
One of the most interesting beers native to Mexico is pulque. It is described here in Valery Harvard’s Drink Plants of the North American Indians:
”In Mexico, the Maguey (Agave Americana) has been cultivated from time immemorial for the abundant sap, or aguamiel, which collects in the cavity made in the heart of the plant by the removal of the young central leaves and is then fermented into pulque, the national drink of Mexico. Pulque smells much like half turned buttermilk, but is cooling, refreshing, nutritious and stimulating. It contains 3 to 4 per cent. of alcohol and is therefore about as strong as beer. The historian Sahagun says that long before the conquest, the use and abuse of pulque were so general that one of the Aztec kings forbade the sale of it and punished drunkenness with death.
The Mexican liquor, mescal, or vino mescal, manufactured by distillation from the baked, pounded and fermented heads of several species of Agave, was unknown to the Aztecs, who like other American aborigines were ignorant of distillation, an art introduced from Europe. They only knew the first part of the process, how to macerate and boil the baked heads in water and ferment the decoction, so as to obtain a sort of “mescal beer” which, however, does not appear to have been a popular beverage.”
United States of America
American brewing traditions have developed largely from European influences and, like Europe, America has developed strong cultural traditions around beer. American brewing has undergone a few distinct periods of transformation. The first beers brewed in North America were prepared by indigenous, precolonial peoples and were brewed with ingredients local to them such as corn, agave, and cactus. When Europeans began colonizing, they brought their brewing traditions with them and started European style breweries on the continent. In other cases, families brewed their own beers and ciders as part of a local economy.
American beer has changed with American attitudes towards it. The early 20th century saw bitter fights over the role of alcohol in society, waged between the temperance movement and their opposition. The temperance movement won out, for a time, and successfully passed the 18th Amendment to the US Constitution, popularly known as Prohibition. America’s breweries had to make the choice between becoming outlaws or transitioning to non-alcoholic beverages. Many breweries shut down at this time, making it easier for large brewers to swallow up the competition. As Prohibition faded against public backlash, it resulted in less diversity within the market.
In recent years, however, the United States has undergone a craft brewing revolution, and the recovery of its local industries has been significant. In 1994 there were less than 1,000 small, craft breweries in the United States, but now there are more than 6,000.
Further Reading:
Next time you crack open a beer or see it being consumed around you, think about the countless generations of human beings who have shared in this ritual. For better or worse, its inhibition-dampening properties have allowed people to connect with each other. It has opened spiritual paths, destroyed families, and carried us across the seas to futures we could never imagine. Whether or not beer has been a net positive or negative on human society, there is no denying that we would not be where we are today without it.
References
Bostwick, William. The Brewer's Tale: A History of the World According to Beer. W. W. Norton & Company. 2014.
Jeffreys, Henry. “A Brief History of IPA.” The Guardian, Guardian News and Media, 30 Jan. 2015, www.theguardian.com/lifeandstyle/2015/jan/30/brief-history-of-ipa-india-pale-ale-empire-drinks.
Megasthenes. Ancient India As Described by Megasthenês And Arrian. Calcutta: Thacker, Spink, 1877.
“Number of Breweries.” Brewers Association, Brewers Association, www.brewersassociation.org/statistics/number-of-breweries/.
Prakash, Om. Cultural History of India. New Age International. 2005.
Tucker, Abigail. “The Beer Archaeologist.” Smithsonian.com, Smithsonian Institution, 1 Aug. 2011, www.smithsonianmag.com/history/the-beer-archaeologist-17016372/.
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