3 ms·
We're talking agricultural revolution; about 15,000 years ago. It's striking that yeast makes both bread and beer (e.g. rising dough smells like beer), but bee
by hyperpallium 11y ago
We're talking agricultural revolution; about 15,000 years ago.
It's striking that yeast makes both bread and beer (e.g. rising dough smells like beer), but beer is simpler and easier to make.
Humans at that time would have little genetic alcohol resistence - compared with the average genetic makeup of today.
Perhaps early cities grew, not because of efficiency, but the municipality gave out free samples - gateway agriculture.
But I doubt it, as fermented fruit is a far easier source of alcohol. Just let it rot.
- dogma1138 11y agoOld beer was pretty much liquid bread very thick to the point of making Guinness seem like water and very nutritious. The amount of alcohol was most likely quite low 2-3% and you could easily decrease it by heating the beer. Fermentation was most likely an unexpected or even undesirable outcome of saccharification since we can't digest starch that well. Because saccharification of starch requires an enzyme which is usually gained from malting the grain you can't really avoid fermentation especially in the pretty unsterile conditions of the Stone Age.
- venomsnake 11y agoI guess that the first beer was what we now call a sourdough starter. So something like pancake (american) batter.
- dogma1138 11y agoProbably quite close if you want to recreate it I mix a thick stout like Guinness with something like semolina or wheat middlings or maybe groat and boil it, won't taste good but it sure will fill a man. Beer has very low caloric value a pint has on average 150 kcal or so, so you need something much more nutritious than that (500-800 kcal per serving) to make it worth your while, especially when you were living in a time where your daily caloric expenditure could be easily twice what is today.