Beer may be responsible for civilization.

I am sure that it is. Not only because of the history, accurate or not, but also because of the nature of the people who seem to like it the most. I am talking about y'all. When I decided to start tasting beer I found that I felt idle unless I shared my experience. Hence , the connoisseur/reviewer. Then when I decided to start brewing I started thinking what can do with all my leftover ingredients and how can I get the spent grains to farms or to compost piles or into the oven so that I do not waste anything and can I make bread from this stuff? (I did not look up gruel) I also decided to start growing my own herbs because I don't have room for a garden in which to grow my own hops. If I do that I will have lots of herbs to share as well as beer. Last but not least, it is properly civilized to sit at the table at least once each day with your meal, your companions and a beer.

I think it did.

 

Remind me: anyone see that show Mike Rowe did called How Booze Built America? It was pretty good.. http://www.discovery.com/tv-shows/how-booze-built-america/

 

The historical record doesn't disclose which came first, the beer or the bread.

My own theory is our ancestors were a practical lot who made beer then repurposed the spent grains into baked goods. Whoever first thought of that undoubtedly made a fortune and took early retirement.

 

This is why we can't solve the chicken or the egg question. There are plenty of natural fermentable malts to be found. Honey and milk are other common fermentable malts that could be available to early peoples.

There's also reason to speculate that many prehistoric hunter-gatherer tribal religions may have relied to some degree on "magical" mind-alternating natural substances, like peyote, coca, mushrooms, or alcohol to connect with their god and experience the supernatural. So, if a tribal religion used alcohol, which was likely a primitive beer, then maintaining a supply of alcohol for religious purposes would have been a powerful incentive to figure out cultivation, which leads to permanent settlements and modern civilization. All unprovable theory, of course, but it makes for some good armchair academia.

 

The flip side of that is the ancient Sumerian recipe on the Hymn to Ninkasi that involves putting bread in water to ferment.

 

The original beer to go. The ancients would bake up barley cakes which dried to a preservation state in the hot climate. During stop overs at an oasis cakes were crumbled into water then left for nature to take it's course. Proper prayers were needed as well which I'm sure those thirsty desert dwellers had memorized.

 

I wonder if those ancient peoples screamed at those jars of barley bread and water!?!

https://www.beeradvocate.com/community/threads/the-yeast-scream-gjaerkauk.485532/

Cheers!

 

Nat Geo is on the case.

 

There's a lot more than anecdotal evidence that supports the "magical" nature of a myriad of mind altering substances. Modern practices still seem to follow suit. Somehow I think the "science" of Dreams may remain elusive but is rich territory for trying to understand.

 

I am going to do it. I wonder if you can tell. What property or attribute do you think the beer would get? Elan perhaps.
Gjærkauk

 

Elan is a great one. Terviseks!

 

Given my long standing man-crush on Mike Rowe, I thank you for bringing this to my attention.

 

Honey is mostly simple sugars, therefore fermentable, and it is not a malt.

 

Of course you are right. Although, I really don't think prehistoric hunter-gatherers or early civilizations cared about our definition of malt.