David Nicholson's Liquid Bread®

60 May-June 2007 Bottles and Extras David Nicholson’s Liquid Bread® About the well known circa 1890-1915 cobalt-blue export-shape beer bottle, beginning with a short summary of the history of “liquid bread” - beer. Copyright © 2006 by Cecil Munsey With research assistance from archaeologists: Carol Serr, San Diego, Calif. & Bill Lockhart, N.M. Antiquity? from millet, maize and cassava. In thought of and brewed both as a food North America, persimmon was used. product (“liquid bread”) and as a beverage. “With hekt (beer) the Ka (spirit) is kept Corn was the preferred grain among As Roman control over Europe faded and in balance with the liver and blood… most indigenous South American Europe entered the Dark Ages, Christian Hekt is the liquid of happy blood and peoples, though sweet potatoes were monasteries became the primary centers of body. –– Ancient Egyptian physician used in Brazil, and agaves in Mexico. knowledge and learning. Advancements in Rice was predominantly used in Japan; agriculture, science and technology made We don’t know when, where or by whom even sake is sometimes considered a the monasteries places of advancements in the first beer (or “liquid bread” as it is often type of beer. In other parts of Asia, brewing as well. called) was brewed. Although an exact date sorghum was used, while wheat was After the fall of Rome, brewing for the discovery of that first brew is not commonly used to brew beer in China.” continued for some years as a household task known, some historians believe it occurred –David M. Kiefer (Chemistry during the early years of the Dark Ages. 10,000 years or more ago in Mesopotamia Chronicles) Then the traditions of brewing were carried (modern-day Iraq), when a jar containing on and thrived under the Catholic Church bread became soaked with water and the After being malted, the grain was during the latter years of the Dark Ages. resulting “slop” began to ferment. Someone dampened with water and allowed to Beer was a very important product for then most likely had the curiosity to sample germinate. Natural enzymes converted Europe’s medieval monasteries. Nearly the resulting liquid and found it not only some of the starches into fermentable sugars every monastery in medieval Europe tasty but that it imparted a slightly euphoric and the resulting malt was heated to dry it. contained a brewery that served not only the feeling akin to that experienced by drinking Frequently, the dried malt was formed into monks but also pilgrims and the their fruit and honey wines. small, lightly baked loaves. When a batch surrounding villages (perhaps as an Whenever that first beer may have been of fresh beer was to be brewed, these beer inducement for attending mass). The monks sipped, Sumerian cuneiform tablets and breads would be crumbled, mixed with brewed beer – which is little more than Egyptian hieroglyphics dating back more cereals, and soaked in water. This mash “liquid bread” – primarily as a source of than 5,000 years allude to beer’s production. was allowed to ferment. After fermentation, sustenance during their religious fasting And it is known that Egyptian pharaohs a liquid containing between 6 and 12% periods. provided their laborers with “…a daily alcohol was filtered from the mash. (The One large monastery in Switzerland had ration of four loaves of bread and two jugs Sumerians and Egyptians made at least two- three breweries, each adjacent to a bakery. of beer.” dozen different types of beers. Ancient texts Brewing and baking, in fact, were closely reveal the lyrical names given to the beers” related activities in ancient and medieval “I have reached this grave out of my own “joy-bringer,” “heavenly,” and “beautiful- times. The monasteries did much to possession, without taking anything good.”) advance cleanliness as a necessity for away from anyone. Every man who preparing good beer and to generally worked for me was paid. They did it for “I lived from beer of black wheat, and improve the brewing process. beer and bread.” –– Engraving on drank from beer of white wheat.” –– Ancient Egyptian tomb Engraving on Ancient Egyptian tomb Middle Ages When brewing began to take hold in While no one can say for certain who For thousands of years, brewing was Europe during the 11th century, hops was made the first beer, we do know that many originally seen as the domain of women. used in brewing because it improved the ancient civilizations, including the As an example, Egyptian men were strictly flavor of beer. Before hops beer there was Babylonians, Assyrians, Egyptians, prohibited from brewing beer, and the gruit beer and many different herbs were Hebrews, Chinese, Africans, Incas, Teutons female brewer-priestesses enjoyed a very used in the historic brewing of gruit. There and Saxons, had discovered the secret of exalted status in Egyptian society. are three that were most commonly used: brewing. Also, in ancient Egypt beer played an Sweet Gale (Bog Myrtle), Yarrow (Achillea The preparation of beer in ancient times important part in marriages. If a young man millefolium) and Wild or Marsh Rosemary was similar to brewing procedures used offered a lady a sip of beer, they were (ledum palustre) – they made gruit beer taste today. considered engaged to be married. variable and not very pleasant. “First a grain was malted. Different By the 13th century, beer making was an grains were used by different cultures Dark Ages important commercial enterprise and to brew beer. In Africa, beers were made Throughout history beer has been component of trade in Germany, Austria and Bottles and Extras May-June 2007 61 England. Hops were first widely used both of the vat. In the 15th century, German for flavor and as a preservative. Hops made brewers developed a process in which “What event is more awfully important beer a more tasty drink, with a flavor closer fermentation occurred at the bottom of to an English Colony than the erection to that of contemporary beer. It is possible the vat. Beer made by the bottom of its first brewhouse?” –– Rev. Sidney that hops, the dried flowers of a vine-like fermentation method was usually aged to Smith (1771-1844) plant, were added to the brew mix even give it a milder taste and clearer appearance. before the birth of Christ, but the record is It was named “lager” – a derivative of the Pre-Revolutionary America enjoyed one not clear. By the 9th century at least, hops German word largen, which means, “to of the highest beer consumption rates in were probably a common part of the store.” Lager beers soon reigned supreme American history, because beer played no fermenting mixture, although the earliest in continental Europe (and later in North small part in the evolution of America from definite reference dates to 12th century America). But the British remained partial a widely dispersed group of small Germany. By the 13th century, mention to traditional, heavier-flavored top- settlements dependent upon England for of their use is widespread in German fermented brews such as ale, stout, and survival into a network of self-reliant and reports. Use spread south into France and, porter. independent colonies. As the population more slowly, into England during the 15th increased, so did the need for “liquid bread” century. “Englishmen are like their own beer” (beer) as a key source of nutrition and Later in the Middle Ages, relatively Frothy on top, dregs on the bottom, the refreshment – the colonists continued to large, independent breweries began to middle excellent.” –– Voltaire avoid water at all costs. Americans still spring up in bigger towns. (The Bayerische drank great quantities of English beer Staatsbrauerei Weihenstehan, still in Beer in Early Colonial America during colonial times. However, as buying operation today in Freising, Germany, dates When the Pilgrims set forth for America imported beer became increasingly cost- to about 1040.) in 1620, they planned to settle somewhere prohibitive for most Americans, the demand near the Hudson River but because of for locally brewed beer grew stronger. This Renaissance uncertain navigation and autumn storms, meant the need for new breweries, which It is suggested that religion played a key they made their first landfall at Cape Cod. required equipment and raw materials to role in the rise of hops as a dominant Rather than proceeding farther down the produce their beer. America’s burgeoning ingredient of beer beginning in the 16th coast, they decided to remain at nearby brewing industry in turn fostered the growth century along with the Protestant Movement Plymouth Rock, “…our victuals being much of local agriculture and industry and further against the Catholic Church: spent, especially our Beere.” economic growth. “One of the key reasons the Protestants Not long after the Puritans, who came rejected the Catholic Church was next, settled the Massachusetts Bay Colony “In wine there is wisdom. In beer is because of the un-Christlike, self- in 1630, and enacted laws regulating the strength. In water bacteria.”–Anon. indulgent, occasionally hedonistic price to be charged for beer in taverns or lifestyle of the Catholic clergy. The inns and requiring brewers to be licensed After Independence highly inebriating and aphrodisiacal by the court. By the time of the Revolution, brewing gruit ales were seen as one cause of this Brewing arrived early to Britain’s was a thriving business in the American malady. Hops, on the other hand, American colonies. The first settlers colonies, especially in New England and the (allegedly) diminish sex drive and cause in Virginia complained repeatedly about Middle Atlantic colonies. These areas, in the drinker to become drowsy.” – being forced to drink the local water that fact, had a prosperous trade in malt Michael Jackson they considered unsanitary and disease- beverages with the southern colonies.

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