The History Of Beer

Summary

This video explores the rich history of beer, tracing its origins back 10,000 years to prehistoric feasts and rituals. It suggests beer may have played a pivotal role in the development of civilization, with its production leading to agriculture and societal structures. The script delves into beer's cultural significance across ancient civilizations, its role in religious practices, and its evolution through the industrial revolution to modern brewing techniques. Highlighting the beverage's enduring legacy, the video connects the ancient past with present-day celebrations and the revival of craft brewing.

Takeaways

• 🍻 Beer has a history of over 10,000 years, with evidence of its consumption dating back to prehistoric times.
• 🌾 The process of making beer involves fermenting grains with water, a process that could have influenced the shift from hunter-gatherer societies to agricultural ones.
• 📜 Ancient civilizations like the Sumerians and Egyptians had a rich beer culture, with different types of beer for various social classes and occasions, including the afterlife.
• 🛠 The Industrial Revolution transformed brewing, leading to mass production and changes in beer types, with porters and stouts giving way to lighter, bitter beers.
• 🍺 The Reinheitsgebot, a German purity law from 1516, still influences beer production in Germany, limiting ingredients to barley, hops, and water.
• 🎉 Festivities and celebrations, such as Oktoberfest, are deeply intertwined with beer culture, showcasing its social significance.
• 🌍 Beer's influence is global, with various regions developing unique brewing techniques and beer types, like China's Tsingtao and the Andean's Chicha.
• 🚫 The Prohibition era in the United States nearly decimated the beer industry, leading to a period of corporate dominance post-World War II.
• 🏭 The rise of multinational corporations in brewing led to mass-marketed beers, but in recent years, a resurgence of small breweries has brought diversity back to the beer market.
• 📈 Today, beer is the most consumed beverage after water and tea, with an average annual production of 190 billion liters since 2010.
• 🌐 The script also promotes CuriosityStream and Nebula, highlighting a partnership that offers educational content and a platform for creators to share ad-free, uncensored videos.

Q & A

What is the history of beer and its significance in ancient civilizations?

Beer has a history of over 10,000 years and has been consumed by various ancient civilizations such as the Levant and Turkey for feasts and rituals. It was considered a symbol of civilized people and was associated with gods and religious experiences. Beer might have even played a role in the development of civilization by encouraging hunter-gatherers to settle down and farm grains.

How did beer influence the transition from hunter-gatherer societies to agricultural ones?

The script suggests that the desire to have a steady supply of grains for brewing beer could have motivated hunter-gatherer groups to settle in one place and start farming. This led to the development of communities, infrastructure, and eventually, the formation of governments and militaries.

What role did beer play in the Epic of Gilgamesh and what does it symbolize?

In the Epic of Gilgamesh, beer and bread symbolize the transition of the wildman Enkidu into a civilized Sumerian citizen. The act of eating bread and drinking beer is depicted as a rite of passage, possibly reflecting the historical shift of people from a nomadic to a settled lifestyle.

How was beer brewed and consumed in ancient Egypt and Mesopotamia?

Ancient Egyptians and Mesopotamians brewed various types of beer for different social classes and purposes, including for the afterlife. They consumed beer through straws that pierced through a yeast cake, which also served as a filter for the drink.

What is the significance of the Goddess Hathor in Egyptian mythology and how is she related to beer?

Hathor is an Egyptian goddess associated with beer. She is known for a myth where she was tricked into drinking red dyed beer, thinking it was blood, which led to her calming down and stopping a rampage against humanity. This story connects beer with the salvation of humanity and Hathor's subsequent association with beer led to the TEKH festival, celebrating drunkenness.

How did the Industrial Revolution impact the brewing industry and the types of beer produced?

The Industrial Revolution led to the mechanization and mass production of beer. It also influenced the types of beer produced, with the emergence of lighter and bitter Pale Ales becoming popular due to changes in taste and the influence of imperialism.

What was the Reinheitsgebot and how does it continue to influence beer production today?

The Reinheitsgebot, enacted in 1516, was a German purity law that dictated that only barley, hops, and water could be used in the production of beer. This law still influences how beer is produced in Germany today, maintaining a focus on traditional ingredients and methods.

How did the Prohibition in the United States affect the brewing industry and its subsequent recovery?

Prohibition from 1920 to 1933 outlawed alcoholic beverages in the US, leading to the closure of many small breweries. After Prohibition ended, the industry was dominated by large corporations. However, in recent years, small breweries have made a comeback, producing unique beers and offering a diverse range of flavors.

What is the significance of the Märzenbier and how is it connected to Oktoberfest?

Märzenbier, or March Beer, is a type of beer that was traditionally brewed in March and fermented in cool caves until September. It became associated with Oktoberfest, a celebration that started in honor of a royal wedding and now attracts millions of visitors who consume large quantities of Märzenbier.

How did beer play a role in the Andean civilization and the production of Chicha?

In the Andean civilization, Chicha, a maize beer, was used in various celebrations and religious ceremonies. The Inca Empire used beer as a form of taxation and reward for citizens' service to the state, leading to a significant investment in maize production and distribution infrastructure.

What is the connection between the video platform Nebula and CuriosityStream as mentioned in the script?

Nebula is a video platform created by educational content creators, including Cogito, and it has partnered with CuriosityStream, a service offering world-class documentaries. The partnership offers a deal where subscribers to CuriosityStream also get access to Nebula, providing an ad-free and uncensored platform for educational content.

Outlines

00:00

🍻 The Ancient Origins of Beer and Its Role in Civilization

This paragraph delves into the rich history of beer, tracing its origins back to 13,000 years ago with the people of the Levant and Turkey. It discusses how beer was made from fermenting wild grains before the advent of farming. The script suggests that beer, rather than bread, might have been the catalyst for humans to transition from a nomadic hunter-gatherer lifestyle to a settled farming one. The paragraph highlights the significance of beer in ancient Sumerian and Egyptian cultures, where it was a symbol of civilization and played a role in religious rituals and daily life. It also mentions the Epic of Gilgamesh and the tomb of King Scorpion I, emphasizing the cultural and historical importance of beer.

05:01

🌾 Beer and Mythology: The Divine Elixir of the Ancients

The second paragraph explores the mystical and religious connections of beer in ancient civilizations. It explains that the transformation of grains into beer seemed magical to early farmers and was associated with various deities. The script describes Egyptian myths involving the god Osiris and the goddess Hathor, who played central roles in beer-related myths and festivals. The paragraph also discusses the Sumerian goddess of beer, Ninkasi, and the practice of communal drinking from a shared jug. It touches on the nutritional value of ancient beer and its significance in the diets of ancient people, as well as its role in the economies and social structures of Mesopotamia and Egypt.

10:03

🌍 The Global Impact of Beer: From Ancient Brews to Modern Celebrations

This paragraph broadens the perspective to the global influence of beer throughout history. It mentions the discovery of brewing in China, the role of beer in diplomacy and social bonding in Scandinavia, and the unique use of beer in Sudanese Nubian antibiotic production. The script also covers the impact of beer on the fall of the Shang dynasty in China, the importance of beer in the daily rations of American soldiers during the Revolutionary War, and the growth of St. Patrick's Day celebrations in the United States. The paragraph highlights the industrialization of beer production and the influence of companies like Guinness on the global beer market.

15:04

📜 The Evolution of Beer: From Gruit to Hops and the Reinheitsgebot

The fourth paragraph focuses on the evolution of beer brewing techniques and ingredients. It explains the use of gruit, a mix of herbs and spices, and how it was replaced by hops in regions like Bavaria and Bohemia due to their preservative qualities and lack of taxation. The script discusses the significance of the Reinheitsgebot, the German purity law of 1516, which dictated that beer could only be made with barley, hops, and water. It also touches on the seasonal brewing laws in Bavaria and the creation of Märzenbier, setting the stage for the famous Oktoberfest celebrations.

20:04

🎉 Modern Beer Culture: From Prohibition to the Resurgence of Craft Breweries

This paragraph examines the impact of the 20th century on beer culture, starting with the Prohibition era in the United States and the subsequent rise of large corporations in the beer industry. It discusses the role of marketing and the homogenization of beer flavors due to mass production. The script then highlights the resurgence of small breweries and the diversification of beer flavors in recent years. It also touches on the international aspects of beer, including the establishment of Tsingtao Brewery in China and the global reach of companies like Anheuser-Busch.

25:05

🏆 The Triumph of Beer: A Global Phenomenon Spanning Millennia

The final paragraph wraps up the script by emphasizing the enduring significance of beer in human culture. It notes the current status of beer as the most consumed beverage after water and tea, and reflects on the social and ceremonial roles that beer continues to play around the world. The script also promotes the Nebula platform and CuriosityStream, offering viewers access to exclusive educational content and a discount on subscriptions, thus connecting the historical narrative of beer to modern media consumption.

Keywords

💡Beer

Beer is an alcoholic beverage produced by the fermentation of grains, typically barley, wheat, or rice, with water. It is a central theme in the video, illustrating the historical significance and cultural impact of beer throughout human civilization. The script mentions beer's role from prehistory to modern times, including its production methods, cultural symbolism, and social functions.

💡Civilization

Civilization refers to an advanced state of human society, characterized by complex cultural, political, and technological development. In the context of the video, it is suggested that the desire for beer might have been a catalyst for the development of early civilizations, as the need to produce grain for brewing could have encouraged the transition from hunter-gatherer societies to settled farming communities.

💡Fermentation

Fermentation is a biochemical process in which sugars are converted into alcohol or acids by the action of microorganisms, such as yeast. The video explains that fermentation is the key process in beer production, where wild yeasts convert the sugars in grains into alcohol, creating the beverage that has been a part of human history for thousands of years.

💡Yeast

Yeast is a type of single-celled fungi that is instrumental in the fermentation process. The video describes yeast as 'tiny single-celled fungi that are everywhere' and highlights its role in turning sugars in grains into alcohol, which is fundamental to the creation of beer.

💡Hunter-Gatherers

Hunter-gatherers are pre-agricultural societies that rely on hunting, fishing, and foraging for their sustenance. The script suggests that hunter-gatherer groups may have been motivated to settle down and farm due to the desire to produce a consistent supply of grain for brewing beer, thus influencing the development of civilization.

💡Brewing

Brewing is the process of making beer by mixing grains with water and allowing the mixture to ferment. The video discusses various aspects of brewing, from the ancient methods used by Mesopotamians and Egyptians to the industrial-scale production of modern times, emphasizing the evolution and importance of this process in human history.

💡Oktoberfest

Oktoberfest is a worldwide famous beer festival held annually in Munich, Germany. The video mentions Oktoberfest as an example of how beer is deeply ingrained in culture and tradition, with its origins dating back to a public party in honor of a royal wedding and its current status as a major international event.

💡Reinheitsgebot

Reinheitsgebot, also known as the German Purity Law, is a series of regulations limiting the ingredients in beer to barley, hops, and water. The video explains that this law, established in 1516, still influences the production of beer in Germany today, reflecting the historical importance of beer quality and purity.

💡Industrial Revolution

The Industrial Revolution refers to the period of rapid industrialization that began in the late 18th century. In the context of the video, it discusses how the Industrial Revolution transformed the brewing process, leading to mass production, new technologies such as pasteurization and refrigeration, and the rise of large-scale beer corporations.

💡Craft Beer

Craft beer refers to beer produced in small quantities, often by independent breweries, and known for its unique flavors and brewing techniques. The video highlights the resurgence of small breweries and craft beer in recent years, offering consumers a wide variety of flavors and experiences, and connecting to the ancient tradition of beer making.

💡Prohibition

Prohibition is the period during which the sale, manufacture, and transportation of alcohol were banned in the United States, from 1920 to 1933. The video mentions Prohibition as a significant event that impacted the beer industry, leading to the closure of many small breweries and the dominance of large corporations after its repeal.

Highlights

Beer has a rich history dating back 10,000 years, predating human settlement and farming.

Early humans may have transitioned from hunter-gatherers to farmers due to the desire to cultivate grains for beer production.

Beer played a significant role in ancient civilizations, influencing social structures and religious practices.

The Epic of Gilgamesh from ancient Sumerian civilization symbolizes the transition to a civilized life through beer and bread.

Ancient Egyptians believed beer was a divine gift and associated it with their gods, including Osiris and Hathor.

The story of Hathor and the red dyed beer illustrates how beer may have 'saved' humanity in Egyptian mythology.

In Sumeria, the Goddess Ninkasi was revered as the deity of beer, highlighting the role of women in ancient brewing.

Ancient beer was nutritious, providing vitamins, minerals, and fiber that complemented the diets of early farmers.

The Code of Hammurabi included regulations on the price of beer, indicating its economic importance in ancient Mesopotamia.

The production of beer in ancient Egypt was massive, with one brewery producing 40,000 pints at a time for workers' wages.

Sudanese Nubians used beer fermentation to produce the antibiotic tetracycline, predating modern antibiotics by thousands of years.

Guinness, founded by Arthur Guinness, revolutionized brewing during the industrial revolution and became an international brand.

The Prohibition era in the United States (1920-1933) had a profound impact on the beer industry, leading to the rise of large corporations post-World War II.

The modern craft beer movement has seen a resurgence of small breweries, offering a diverse range of flavors and brewing techniques.

Beer is now the most consumed beverage on Earth after water and tea, with an average annual production of 190 billion liters since 2010.

Nebula, a video platform created by educational content creators, offers ad-free and uncensored content, including exclusive videos and extended cuts.

CuriosityStream, partnering with Nebula, provides access to world-class documentaries and educational content, with a special offer for Cogito viewers.

Transcripts

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Cheers! *Glasses clink*

There's nothing quite like a refreshing  pint of beer, but did you know there is  

10,000 years of history in this glass? Beer  has been poured since prehistory. Slurped  

by Hunter- Gatherers & Pyramid Builders,  Pharaohs, Vikings, the Inca and the Irish.  

Chugged from jugs, horns, skulls, steins,  and even through golden straws used to  

pierce through a warm crusty yeast cake.  Yeap crusty yeast cake, we’ll get to that.

So what is the history of beer,  

how did it save humanity, and can a hangover be  a religious experience? Well, Let’s Find Out.

Our story begins a long-long time ago.  At least as far as 13,000 years ago,  

people in the Levant and Turkey were  making beer for feasts and rituals  

by fermenting wild grains. This is before  humans settled down and started farming!

Beer is essentially liquid bread. To make  either: you mix grain like barley, wheat,  

or rice with water and leave it to ferment. Grains  ferment because of yeast, tiny single-celled fungi  

that are everywhere. These little buddies turn  sugars in the grains into alcohol. If you leave  

out some mushed up grains, wild yeasts will  find them and start fermenting. Wild yeasts  

have a very particular set of skills, they will  find you and they will ferment you. Make a dough  

from the fermented mush and bake it and you’ll  get bread, a more soupy version becomes beer.

Academics used to think humans settled down and  started farming to secure a steady supply of  

grain to make bread. But...and it’s a big  butt, hunter-gatherers had a better diet,  

shorter workdays, and healthier lives than  early farmers. Why would humans swap their chill  

hunter-gatherer lives to become hard-working  mostly bread eating farmers? If bread was a  

convincing reason to start doing Civilisation  then ducks would have beaten us to it.

Maybe...and it’s a big maybe, 10,000 years  ago hunter-gatherer groups routinely came  

together to party and drink beer they made  from wild grain. Then they realised they could  

secure a steady supply of grain to make beer  if they stayed in one place and farmed grains.  

Beer and festivals might have convinced  hunter-gatherers to settle down in cramped  

towns and work long gruelling days on farms  under the rule of Kings, Pharaohs, and Priests.

These first farmers in Mesopotamia now had  to seed, plough, and maintain the land.  

Communities came together to build infrastructure  like irrigation canals for their crops. Once  

the grain grew, they had to learn how to store,  process, and distribute it. Which led to writing  

and governments and militaries to protect those  grains...and maybe steal other peoples grains  

and force the remaining hunter-gatherers to  become farmers too. And boom now you've got  

Civilisation. Learning how to manage  a grain surplus is essentially what  

Civilisation is. So maybe our craving for  beer created civilization as we know it.

Beer and Bread quickly became  the symbols of civilised people.

The ancient Sumerians wrote the Epic of Gilgamesh  around the 3rd millennium BCE. In it we learn the  

story of Enkidu, a wildman, who lives outside  of civilisation. The city-living king Gilgamesh  

decides to civilise Enkidu and so sends Shamhat, a  temple prostitute to tame him. After spending some  

days together Shamhat tells Enkidu to "eat the  bread, Enkidu, it is the way one lives / Drink  

the beer, as is the custom of the land". He  ate the food and "he drank the beer—seven  

jugs!...and turned into a human". It was beer  and bread that turned Enkidu from a wildman into  

a proud Sumerian citizen, possibly a metaphor  for what happened to the Sumerians themselves.

The Mesoptamians and Egyptians brewed dark  beer, light beer, beer for the rich and poor  

and for the living and the dead, and many  others we still can't translate. In Egypt,  

tombs were filled with a special kind of  "beer that would not turn sour"— so the  

dead could enjoy it even in the afterlife.  We see this in the tomb of King Scorpion I  

who lived in the 3200s BCE. This Scorpion  King was buried with over 2,000 vessels  

of beer. Ordinary dead Egyptians only had a  few small jars of beer to enjoy after death.

We didn’t discover what yeast was until the 1800s  and so for the first farmers the transformation  

of grains into beer must have seemed magical  and connected to the Gods. Beer shows up across  

Egyptian mythology. The God Osiris brought brewing  to humans. Another myth tells us that, one day,  

Ra was furious because he thought humanity was  plotting against him. He sends his daughter, the  

Goddess Hathor to punish people by killing them  and drinking their blood. And she does an amazing  

job at murdering everyone! Just look at her go! Ra  realised that there would soon be no people left  

to worship him. So he tricked his daughter into  drinking red dyed beer. Thinking it was blood,  

Hathor chugged the beer and passed out. She woke  up with a peaceful heart and stopped her rampage.

So technically humanity was saved by beer!

Hathor became tightly associated with beer.  

The Egyptians dedicated a holiday to her: the  TEKH festival, the festival of drunkenness.

During the celebrations people would drink as much  as possible while dancing and singing until they  

fell asleep. Then in the morning, priests would  sneak into the party hall with a massive statue  

of Hathor and then wake up the partiers with loud  drums. This sudden "sobering up" in the Goddess’  

presence was supposed to produce a spiritual  connection and probably one hell of a hangover.

In Sumeria Ninkasi was the Goddess of Beer and  women were the primary beer brewers. Sumerian  

beer was a thick frothy drink, drunk  by several people out of the same jug.  

Both the Mesopotamian cuneiform character  and the Egyptian hieroglyph for beer  

are little beer jugs which is kind of adorable.

They drank these beers immediately  after brewing when it was fresh.  

Each person had their own straw made  from a reed or gold if you were rich.  

They used the straws to poke through the thick  crusty yeast cake that formed on the top of the  

warm fermenting beer. The straws also helped  filter out any bits that were floating in the  

beer. Here you can see an Egyptian drinking beer  using the world's first crazy straw. Also here  

is a 3200 year old Egyptian painting of a Hippo  making beer because everyone needs to see this.

Warm chunky beer might not sound nice to us  but they were very nutritious. Ancient beer  

was a good source of vitamins B6 and B12,  minerals, antioxidants, and even fibre.  

This made up for the lack of meat and  vitamins in farming peoples' diets.

In Egypt Pharaohs and nobles drank  elaborate spiced and sweetened beers,  

and workers would get a  simpler version. In Sumeria,  

women working in temples were paid 2 litres  of beer daily...children got 1 litre.  

The Code of Hammurabi, of eye for an eye  fame, had laws regulating the price of  

beer. And the workers who built the pyramids of  Giza were paid in beer! Not just beer obviously  

but it was a part of their wages. To pay  all those workers Egypt needed to produce  

a lot of beer. One large brewery we've discovered  produced 40,000 pints of beer at a time.

Just South of the Egyptians, Sudanese Nubians  used fermenting beer to create antibiotics.  

During the fermentation process they produced  the antibiotic tetracycline and used it to  

treat bacterial infections 2000 years before  Alexander Flemming discovered penicillin.

Over in China the earliest finds  of beer making are from 7,000 BCE,  

and it was probably fermented  from rice, berries and honey.

During the Shang dynasty, the palace had official  brewers and taverns popped up in large cities.

Di Xin, the last emperor of the  Shang dynasty might have liked beer  

a bit too much. One of his parties  had a lake of beer and meat forest,  

and he "made men and women chase each other  about quite naked, and had drinking bouts  

the whole night long.". The people eventually  turned on him and the royal palace with Di Xin  

inside it was burned. The Shang dynasty quickly  collapsed and many blamed it on the drinking.

Up in Scandinavia beer and mead, a drink made  with fermented honey, played an important part  

in diplomacy, marriages, and funerals. Communal  drinking from a single cup was also a thing. They  

even had triple cups to make things easier. This  helped people build strong bonds with each other.

Some Norse warriors, known as berserkers  which means bear-shirt, were said to enter  

a sort of trance to increase strength during  battle. Scholars think they did this by mixing  

psychoactive plants into their beer or  mead. Which pumped them up for battle  

but also caused hallucinations, delirium,  seizures, coma, and sometimes...death.

Some researchers believe that  the Berserker hallucinogenic  

might have been henbane. This plant was found  all across European archaeological sites,  

like Skara Brae, a Neolithic site and  ancient brewery from around 3,000 BCE. 

The Celts also seemed to have used  henbane in their beer. Unfortunately,  

most of what we know about the Celtic beer  comes from Roman sources, who hated beer.

But the wine-loving Romans have more  to do with beer than you might think.

The words Beer came to us from the word  "bier", from old Germanic languages  

which might come from an older Germanic  word “beura”. But others scholars believe  

"bier" got to German via the Latin word  biber, which means a drink or a beverage.

Today most counties use a word that sounds  like beer. But Spanish speakers decided  

to be awkward and use cerveza which came  from the language of beer-hating Romans,  

Latin and probably comes from the Roman goddess  of growth Ceres, which is where the word cereal  

comes from. Or from a Celtic word for beer  that morphed into cervisia then cerveza.

In Early English Ale was the common word for beer  and is still the word for beer in Scandinavia  

as Øl and the Baltics as Alus, beer only  took over as a word in English later.

With the fall of the Roman empire in the 5th  century CE, the invasion of the germanic tribes,  

and the rise of the Catholic Church, beer  gained a new role in everyday European life.  

One catholic bishop, noted while visiting the  Rhine river region, that the people drank "like  

mad [men] and that one has to thank the  Lord to survive their drinking bouts".

The Church was hopeless about getting  them to quit their "mad" drinking,  

so it embraced it instead. They matched the  pagan festivities to Christian holidays,  

pairing traditions like the Germanic  Yule with Christmas, or the bonfire  

solstice rituals with Saint John's Day and  monks became some of the best beer brewers.

Christian Monks also travelled a lot.  It is thanks to the Flemish monk,  

William of Rubruck that we know that  the Mongols drank beer in style.

In 1253 William entered Karakorum, the capital  city of the Mongol empire at that time.  

He was dazzled by the Khan's fountain.  It was a magnificent silver tree,  

with silver serpents coiling around it. On its  base there were 4 lions also made of silver,  

each of them spewing mare milk. From the  branches of the tree 4 pipes poured grape wine,  

fermented mare milk, rice beer and honey  mead into basins for drinkers to enjoy.

In Medieval Europe women were the primary  brewers and in England they were called  

Alewives. As cities grew Alewives began making  a profit from selling beer. Seeing this,  

men quickly decided to take over brewing.  Unlike their wives, men could take out loans  

and set up guilds to protect their business  and regulate the market in their favour.

Between the 13th and 15th centuries alewives  were depicted with gross physical features  

and some were even charged with witchcraft and  alewives were pushed out of the beer business  

and men took over.

Up until the 13th century, beer was  brewed with GRUIT, not that Groot!  

A combination of herbs and spices that added  flavour and helped preserve the beer longer.  

So you didn't have to drink it as soon  as it was fermented like back in Sumeria.  

Taxing gruit became an effective way  to regulate and tax beer production.

But Bavarians and Bohemians found an alternative  to gruit: hops. Hops are these terrifying looking  

plants. They added bitterness and extra flavours  to beer, but more importantly hops were cheap,  

untaxed and they’re antimicrobial effects  preserved beer much longer than Gruit could.

The longer the beer lasts, the further  it can travel. Some cities became  

major beer exporters. By the 1400s,  the city of Hamburg had 15-20  

thousand people but was producing an average  of 30 million litres of hopped beer per year.

Laws were soon passed to regulate beer production.  The most famous one being the 1516 REINHEITSGEBOT,  

or German purity law, saying the only ingredients  allowed for making beer were barley, hops and  

water. Today 500 years later the Reinheitsgebot  still influences how beer in Germany is produced.

In 1553 Bavaria passed a law  forbidding brewing during Summer,  

saying the weather would spoil the beer. Brewing  started in March, and they would leave it to  

ferment in very cool caves until September,  and so Märzenbier or March Beer was born.

In 1810, there was a huge public party in  honour of the wedding of prince Ludwig of  

Bavaria and princess Therese. They had parades,  horse races, and lots of beer. The wedding  

was in Munich in October, pairing perfectly  with the opening of the Märzenbier barrels.

It was such a success that they decided  to repeat the celebrations every October  

and it became known as Oktoberfest. Today  Oktoberfest runs from mid-September to  

October and every year the Munich  Oktoberfest attracts more than 6  

million visitors, consuming more than 7 million  litres of beer, a lot of it being Märzenbier.

On the other side of the ocean at  least since the 4th century BCE  

Andean societies were brewing their  own maize beers that today we call  

CHICHA. Andean women chewed the maize to start  the fermentation process and then brewed the beer.

Chicha was used to celebrate  harvests, the new year,  

weddings, and funerals. They  offered Chicha to the Sun,  

and poured it over the ground during festivals  because the gods always got the first sip.

The Inca civilisation uniquely functioned without  currency or markets. The citizens paid taxes by  

giving their labour to the state and they got  all of their basic necessities from state-owned  

warehouses. The empire hosted massive feasts with  thousands of litres of Chica, to repay people  

for their service to the state. The Inca feasting  economy created an insatiable demand for beer. In  

the Quechua language, the city of Cuzco, the Inca  capital city, was called AKHA MAMA, meaning chicha  

mother. The Inca Empire invested in expanding  maize production by opening up new areas to farm,  

creating colonies in fertile regions, and  improving technology. Maize production skyrocketed  

under the Inca and their system of roads was so  well developed that they could easily distribute  

and store grain across their mountainous country,  one of the largest empires on Earth at the time.  

When the Spanish conquered the region they tried  to ban Chicha production but Andean women managed  

to keep it alive and thanks to them today you  can sip this ancient drink across South America.

In 18th century colonial America during  the Revolutionary War against Britain,  

American soldiers' daily rations included  about 1 liter of beer. And in 1780,  

general George Washington granted his troops  their one winter holiday. The 17th of March,  

to celebrate St Patrick's feast, a considerable  percentage of the army at the time was Irish.

With the mass migration of poor Irish people to  America in the 19th century, Saint Patrick's day  

celebrations grew and grew. Today more than half  of the US population celebrates it. The city of  

Chicago even dyes its river green. In Ireland we  don't dye the rivers green but there are parades,  

dances, drinking, and cultural events like  Seachtain na Gaeilge or Irish Language Week.

Worldwide, more than 13 million pints of Guinness,  

Ireland’s famous stout beer,  are served on St. Patrick's Day.

Arthur Guinness was part of a group of pioneers  that revolutionized brewing during the industrial  

revolution. He decided to open his own  brewery at St. James’ Gate Dublin in 1759.  

Signing a famous 9,000 year lease for  £45 per year. Quite annoying because I  

used to live next door to this brewery  and my rent was much higher than £45!!

Guinness was an international success  and was shipped all over the world.

The first brewery abroad opened in 1963 in  Nigeria, only two years after the country  

became independent. Guinness is so popular there  that some Nigerians think of Guinness as their  

national beer and they are the world’s  second largest consumer of Guinness.

In Ireland up until quite recently  Guinness was associated with good health.  

For many years doctors prescribed  Guinness to postoperative patients,  

blood donors, and pregnant women,  believing it was rich in iron.

While industrial scale brewing made  Arthur Guinnees other factory-owners rich,  

many workers were crushed  by the industrial malt mill,  

drowned in beer vats or asphyxiated  by the CO2 generated by fermentation.

London had a deadly incident in 1814, when a 6.7m  tall (22 foot) wooden vat filled with porter beer  

burst. The half a million liters beer "tsunami"  flooded a neighbourhood and killed 8 people.

But the Industrial revolution didn't just affect  the brewing process, it changed the palate too.  

During the Industrial Revolution the deep, rich,  heavy porters and stouts of the working class  

were all the rage but then BOOM...IMPERIALISM. Tea  and coffee took over Europe as they poured in from  

overseas colonies and the emerging Middle Classes  developed a taste for bitter drinks. Light and  

bitter Pale beers rose in popularity. AND THEN  IMPERIALISM STRIKES AGAIN! On the other side  

of the planet, the British Indian army waited  impatiently in the Indian heat for their beer.

Dark beers kept arriving stale and skunky. After  six months of rocking at the bottom of a ship,  

what did they expect? Then some companies tried  sending some paler beer packed with hops, which,  

as we have seen, is a powerful  preservative. The beer was,  

not very creatively🙄, named  Indian Pale Ale, or IPA for short.

Let's go up to 19th century China and see what's  going on..BOOM IMPERIALISM STRIKETH YET AGAIN!

In 1897, Imperial German naval troops  went to the other side of the planet  

to seize the Chinese fort at Tsingtao,. The  Germans built a small village near the fort,  

and by 1903 the city was attracting investors.  Among them were the founders of Germania Brewery,  

which later became Tsingtao Brewery. In  the beginning, Tsingtao Beer was brewed in  

accordance with the German Reinheitsgebot (Purity  Law), but after the company was privatized in the  

1990s Tsingtao added rice to the beer. Nowadays,  Tsingtao is the second largest brewery in China,  

with more than 17% of the domestic market,  and 4.4% of the global beer production.

Germany also changed the beer  history of another country.

In the 19th century, Germans went to America  by the hundreds of thousands. By the end of  

the century there were an estimated  2.8 million Germans living in the US.

Adolphus Busch was one of them. He partnered  with Eberhard Anheuser, to establish what would  

become the biggest beer company in the world:  Anheuser-Busch. Busch made many improvements  

in beer production including pasteurization  and refrigeration. After a trip to Bohemia,  

the modern Czech Republic, he developed Budweiser,  the biggest beer brand in the world. Which kind of  

annoyed the Czechs who had a beer already called  Budweiser for about 800 years. The dispute between  

Budweiser and...Budweiser is why the American  Budweiser is called just BUD in Europe. Today  

Anheuser-Busch sales exceed 52 billion dollars  a year, nearly 30% of the world market.

By the end of the 19th century drunkenness was  becoming a social problem in the United States  

and the Americans reacted harshly. From 1920  until 1933, alcoholic beverages were outlawed  

across the US. Companies that had made fortunes  in the decades before were suddenly struggling  

to survive, selling anything from malt  extract and "tonics" to ice-creams.

When Prohibition ended and the market picked  up again after the end of World War II,  

almost all small breweries had died out.

Beer brewing was now in the hands of gigantic  corporations. Beer corporations became masters  

of the new science of marketing and soon TV  sets were filled with beer advertisements and  

refrigerators were stocked with cold beer that was  cheap, bottled, mass-produced, and mass-marketed.

In the last 20 years small breweries  have made a comeback. Brewing their own  

unique beers. Beer drinkers can  now enjoy beer of all flavours,  

you can even drink a beer called GILGAMASH  based on the earliest beers brewed in Sumeria.

Since 2010 an average 190 billion liters of beer  have been produced every year. It is the most  

consumed beverage on Earth after water and tea.  And each time a pint is raised to welcome friends,  

to wish good health, to toast a new  marriage, or to remember lost loved ones,  

it is an act that has been repeated by humans  every day for the last 10,000 years. Today maybe  

we don’t believe beer connects us with the  gods, but there is still some magic in it.

Although if you want to use beer to feel connected  

to the gods again you can head to Guatemala  and share a cigarette or a beer with Maximon  

a Maya Folk saint. Evan from the channel Rare  Earth did just that in this video over on Nebula.

Nebula is a video platform that Cogito  and a bunch of our friends created  

and now we’ve partnered with CuriosityStream.

Nebula is a place where you can watch some of  the best educational content ad free, uncensored,  

and earlier than on Youtube. This video was up  on Nebula before it was on Youtube. Videos there  

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exclusive Nebula content and lots of videos you’ve  seen on Youtube have extended cuts up on Nebula.

This channel has exclusive content on Nebula  and by supporting Nebula you’ll be providing  

a budget for creators to put together Nebula  Originals that would never make it on Youtube.

Take for example RealLifeLore’s exclusive  Nebula Original on Modern Conflicts  

or the exclusive behind the scenes  documentary on how Philosophy Tube is made.

There are many more Nebula Original videos  and podcasts, all funded by and created for  

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the best place to find world class documentaries  online. We’ve created a deal where if you follow  

the link in the description you'll get access  not only to Curiositystream but Nebula too.  

For free! And it's not a trial or anything like  that. As long as you're a Curiositystream member  

you'll get Nebula. I saw these cute monkeys  getting drunk on fermented fruit in the History  

Of Food series on Curioistystream, if you liked  this video then that series is perfect for you.

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I hope you enjoyed this video. Let  me know what you thought about it in  

the comments below? What people  would you like us to cover next.

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Thanks a lot for watching and Cheers!.