“Fluid Foundations: The Aura of Intoxication and the History of Beer & Wine”

Age Old Spirits

According to an old expression, beer is “proof that God loves us and wants us to be happy.” The person who coined that expression was probably drunk when they did so. That’s simply what intoxication will do to you. Sometimes it’s the bailiwick of the “almighty creator.” Other times…the bailiwick of the “great worm.” Intoxication is a truly unique state of experience. It can be joyous and rich or disgusting and chaotic (just observe any belligerent drunk).

Whatever it is, though, it lacks a certain formality that’s familiar to us in our everyday lives. Boundaries are blurred or broken. Life is raw and passionate and qualitative- for better or for worse. But somewhere along the line, actual, concrete ingredients make this state of mind possible. There are many variations of substances- whisky, vodka, liquor, rum. Today, though, let’s stick to the two most ancient ones—beer and wine. We’ll start with beer.

Ancient Brew

Beer has been with humanity since time immemorial. People have been producing beer ever since they discovered that cereals with sugar could undergo fermentation due to wild yeasts in the air. Chemical tests on ancient pottery jars have revealed that the first biologically engineered processes of fermentation may have occurred around 3500 B.C.E. near present-day Iran. Archaeologists discovered the first chemically confirmed barley beer near Godin Tepe in the central Zagros Mountains. Their evidence consisted of 4000-5000 B.C.E.-era jug fragments coated with beer-stone (a by-product of the brewing process).^1.

Ancient Chinese villagers, as well as people in Egypt and Mesopotamia, may have brewed beer as far back as 7000 B.C.E.^2. In February 2021, archaeologists discovered a 5,000-year-old beer factory in Abydos, Egypt (dating back to the reign of King Narmer of the Early Dynastic Period).^10.  

Xenophon wrote about ancient Armenian beer production in his 5^th century B.C.E. work, Anabasis, Mesopotamian clay tablets referenced beer-production, and allusions to beer-like drinks (“suras”) have been found in the famous Indian classics, The Vedas and The Ramayana .^11. The 2500 B.C.E.-era Ebla tablet (Syria)- discovered in 1974- includes inscriptions about beer-making.^12. In 2100 B.C.E., the latter empire’s draconian, Babylonian king- Hammurabi- strictly regulated laws governing beer-making and tavern-keeping.^13.

Mesopotamian Meads

Other archeological evidence of beer-related fermentation includes 13,000-year-old residues with the consistency of gruel. The semi-nomadic Natufians would’ve brewed this beer- found at the Raqefet Cave in the Carmel Mountains near Haifa, Israel- for ritualistic feasts.^3,4.  One of the first written records to mention beer and brewing was a 3,900-year-old Sumerian poem honoring Ninkasi (the patron goddess of brewing), which also provided the oldest surviving beer recipe.^6. The document describes its production from barley via bread.^6.

In the ancient city of Uruk (c. 5000 B.C.E.), employers paid their workers with beer, and the “wild man” Enkidu receives a beer to drink in The Epic of Gilgamesh.^8,9.

Egyptian pharaohs incorporated beer into their daily diets. The Greek writer Sophocles (450 B.C.E.) discussed the concept of “moderate drinking,” as his citizens frequently imbibed krithinos oinos (“barleywine”). Greek historian Polybius wrote in his work The Histories that Phaeacians commonly stored their barleywine in silver/golden kraters.^14.

Beer in the Medieval World

Eight-century Frankish king Charlemagne (ruler of the Holy Roman Empire) considered beer an important part of living. It became important enough that, during the Middle Ages, brewers’ guilds often adopted patron saints (including Arnulf of Metz and Arnulf of Oudenburg).^15.

Contrary to popular belief, Middle Age people didn’t drink beer more often than water. People of all social classes in the northern and eastern parts of Europe did drink it often, and it was especially popular among those in the lower classes. Water was still cheaper than beer, though, and, with plenty of fresh rivers, wells, and springs nearby, water was more readily available! Still…the Europeans loved a good beer!

People knew about flavoring beer with hops as early as the 9^th century C.E. They only gradually adopted the practice, though, as establishing proper ingredient proportions was very difficult. Hopped beer was a popular product in the 13^th century medieval town of Bohemia, and German towns pioneered a new scale of operation for standardizing its barrel sizes. Consumption skyrocketed, and brewing became a very concentrated, capital-intensive industry. In Hamburg, per capita consumption increased from an average of 300 liters per year (15^th century) to 700 liters per year (17^th century).^15.  

The use of hops spread to the Netherlands and then to England. The Brewers Company of London assumed a more puritanical attitude towards their ingredients: “no hops, herbs, or other like thing be put into any ale or liquore whereof ale shall be made—but only liquor (water), malt, and yeast.”

The Brewing Process

How did our ancestors brew beer? According to Thomas Sinclair (author of Beer, Bread, and the Seeds of Change: Agriculture’s Imprint on World History), the discovery of beer was likely accidental.^5. Prior to it, people likely soaked grains in water and made porridge/gruel (grain was chewy and hard to digest alone).^5. Ancient peoples would heat the gruel and leave it throughout the days until it was gone.^5. The gruel would sanitize the water, and the temperature that people exposed it to would denature its disease microbes.^5.

Fermentation then occurred, changing the taste and effect, and yeasts that settled on the mixtures rapidly consumed their oxygen contents.^5. Low oxygen caused the yeast to digest sugars via anaerobic respiration.^5. This process released ethanol and carbon dioxide by-products, which, in turn, gave us the beloved product that humanity has enjoyed to this day!⁵

One critical distinction between different classifications of beer- ales are fermented with top-fermenting yeast at warm temperatures (60-70 degrees Fahrenheit), while lagers are fermented with bottom-fermenting yeast at cold temperatures (35-50 degrees Fahrenheit).^16.

The Modern Brewery

In the modern setting, brewers will first dump whole grains into a gristmill to crack and open the kernels.^17. The cracked grains are then transported to the mash tun, where they are mixed with hot water (roughly 155 degrees Fahrenheit).^17. After cycling through the mash tun, the liquid (“wort”) is drained and transferred to the brew kettle, where it is brought to a boil for around 90 minutes.^17. The brewers will add hops at different intervals to extract aroma, flavor, and bitterness (all depending on the recipe).^17.

The wort is transferred through a heat exchanger, which rapidly cools it and pumps it into a fermentation vessel.^17. A fermentation vessel is either shaped horizontally for lagers or vertically for ales.^17. For dry-hopped beer, brewers will, at this point, add hops directly into the fermentation vessel.^17. Fermentation takes anywhere from a few days (some ales) to several weeks (many lagers).^17. Some types of brews (such as imperial stouts) can take over a year or more to ferment.^17. After its fermentation, brewers filter/run some beers through a centrifuge.^17. By the time they’re ready to be packaged in kegs, cans, or bottles, the manufacturers will add in a healthy dose of additional CO2 for fizz.^17.

Brewery List

If you’re ever interested in seeing the brewing process in real time, there are various places you can visit. Mikkeller in Copenhagen, Denmark, Broar PINTA in Wieprz, Poland, De Struise Brouwers in Oostvleteren, West Flanders, Belgium, Siren Craft Brew in Finchampstead, Berkshire, England, Buxton Brewery in Buxton, Derbyshire, England, Cantillon in Brussels, Belgium, Garage Project in Wellington, New Zealand, The Guinness Factory in Dublin, Ireland, and countless sites across the United States are all considered some of the world’s top breweries.

History of Wine

Now we visit the wonderful, aromatic world of wine. Italy…France…Napa Valley…all the beautiful, rolling country sides that viticulturalists have dotted with thriving vineyards. When did wine become a part of our world?

Your first thought may be the famous story from the Christian Bible (John 2:1-11) …the one in which Jesus Christ attends a wedding feast at Cana (Galilee). His mother is worried about the number of libations, and so he transforms six stone jugs of water into wine. Certainly, one of the most meme-worthy miracles ever performed!

Wine, of course, far predates the Bible. Several regions—including Georgia (c.6000 B.C.E.), Iran (Persia) (c. 5000 B.C.E.), Armenia (c.4100 B.C.E.), and Sicily (c.4000 B.C.E.)—claim the top spot for oldest wine.^{18,19,20,21,22,23.} 

A 2003 report by archaeologists indicates that ancient Chinese citizens may have mixed grapes in with rice to produce fermented drinks as far back as the seventh millennium B.C.E. Pottery jars found at the Neolithic site of Jiahu, Henan contained traces of tartaric acid and other common organic compounds winemakers often use.

A 2020 discovery revealed a well-preserved, Phoenician wine press that archaeologists had excavated at Tell el-Burak (south of Sidon in Lebanon).^24. The Phoenicians likely spread wine culture westwards from their base of city-states along the Mediterranean coast.^25.  The wines of Byblos reached Egypt during the Old Kingdom and then hit everywhere in the Mediterranean.

Very early remains could be found in the Apadana Palace in Persepolis (515 B.C.E.), and Homer certainly made numerous literary references to wine in his famous 8^th century epic poems (The Iliad and The Odyssey). Wine in ancient Greece and Rome was tied into the mythology of Dionysus, the god of intoxication. In Egypt, archaeologists discovered six of 36 amphoras in the tomb of King Tutankhamun (five designated as originating from the king’s personal estate, and the sixth from the estate of the royal house of Aten).^26.  

In India, Chanakya, 4^th-century B.C.E. chief minister to Emperor Chandragupta Maurya, allegedly made the first explicit reference to grape-based wines. He condemned the use of alcohol while chronicling the emperor’s frequent consumption of it.

The ancient Romans would plant vineyards near garrison towns so they could produce and distribute wine locally. They also found that if they burned sulfur candles inside empty wine vessels, the vessels smelled fresh (no vinegar scent).^27.

The Modern Viticulture Imprint

Wine became a household name in the world of the Christian religion. Apostles, disciples, prophets, and others frequently drank wine, and, during medieval Europe, the Roman Catholic Church required its use for Mass services. One of the most iconic beliefs in Christianity is, of course, that wine represents the “blood of Jesus” (and that wafers represent His body). French monks frequently made wine for years, aging the product in various caves.^27.

Over the centuries, wine became a staple of many European countries—notably, France, Italy, Portugal, and Spain. In the United States, vineyards are prevalent out west in California (Napa Valley), and on the east coast, in Appalachian Virginia. Thomas Jefferson, whose home was in Charlottesville, Virginia, absolutely loved wine (among many other things)! Modern-day South Africa also is very notable for its viticulture.

There are various types of wine. Red wine is made from blue grapes with skins. White wine is made from green grapes or destemmed blue grapes. Rosé (pink wine) is made from blue grapes (the winemakers sort the skins early in the fermentation process). Orange wine is made from white wine grapes where the grape skins are not removed, sparkling wine is made from both green and blue grapes, and Champagne is sparkling wine made from pinot noir, pinot meunier, or chardonnay around Reims. Other varieties include fortified, ice, and dessert wine.

Making the Wine

Viticulturalists need grapes that produce the right annual amount of sugar to yield sufficient alcohol.^28. Grapes are the only fruits that contain wine’s requisite acids, esters, and tannins.^28. The most common challenge in the world of wine production is the harvest itself.^28. Producers must plant the grapes in the exact right type of soil (and with the right amount of sunlight or lack thereof), and they must harvest them at a very precise time.^28. A combination of agricultural science and old-fashioned, “trial and error” tasting has refined the age-old process.^28.

Once harvesters have removed the grapes, culled out the rotten or under-ripe ones, and sorted them, the process of crushing and pressing (a.k.a., the “must”) begins.^28.  Mechanical crushers perform the time-honored tradition nowadays, but, prior to its invention, people would climb into giant wine barrels and stomp on the grapes with their feet.^28.

Crushed fruit will naturally ferment within 6-12 hours with the aid of wild yeasts in the air.^28. In very clean and well-established wineries/vineyards, though, the producers will intervene and inoculate the natural “must,” killing the wild/unpredictable yeasts and introducing one of their own personal choosing.^28. Like with beer or any other spirited beverages, the yeasts will then eat up the sugars and convert them to alcohol. In the case of wine, fermentation can take anywhere from ten days to a month or more.^28. The alcoholic percentage will vary by the type of wine. 10%-alcoholic wine is considered normal in cooler climates, while 15%-alcoholic wine is considered normal in warmer climates.^28.

Once fermentation is completed, the winemakers will begin the process of “clarification,” in which they rack or siphon the wines from one tank or barrel to the next.^28. This leaves the precipitate and solids (“pomace”) at the bottom of the fermenting tank.^28. From here, the winemakers will filter the product (catch only large solids to a sterile filter pad that strips wine of all life) and then fine it (add substances- such as egg whites, clay, or other compounds- to the wine to “clarify” it).^28.

“Fining” helps precipitate dead yeast cells and other solids out of the wine, and its substances adhere to the unwanted solids to force them to the bottom of the tank.^28. The winemakers will then rack the wine into another vessel, where the product is ready for bottling and further aging.^28. Finally, using stainless steel or ceramic tanks, large wooden ovals, or “barriques” (small barrels), the winemakers age and/or bottle their product.^28.

Vineyards and Wineries

Cabernet Sauvignon…Pinot Noir…Chardonnay…Merlot…I couldn’t tell which one is the best. Oenophiles of course can. They can swirl their glasses, take a brief whiff and a taste, and give you an immediate recommendation. Of course, if you ever really do want to go where the best wines are, the following (very incomplete) list should help you out: Catena Zapata (Mendoza, Argentina), Bodegas de los Heredos del Marqués de Riscal (Rioja, Spain), VIK (Cachapoal Valley, Chile), Creation (Walker Bay, South Africa), Château Sith Haut Lafitte (Bordeaux France), Montes (Colchagua Valley, Chile), Rippon (Central Otago, New Zealand), Quinta do Crasto (Douro Valley, Portugal), d’Arenberg (South Australia, Australia), Ceretto (Piedmont, Italy), and Champagne Billecart-Salmon (Champagne, France).

Liquid Confusion

Beer and wine…wine and beer. Even in the absence of any other alcohol, these two beverages alone have brought about untold joy and misery throughout human history!

I imagine the setting—a quaint and sumptuous Christmas party…a rocking college-era kegger with hundreds of boozed out students…a pulsating nightclub…a low-lit Irish pub…a beautiful wedding reception held in the rolling countryside. And then I imagine myself sipping away in every one of those scenarios!

Whatever else alcohol- such as beer and wine- is…you got to concede…it is as protean and as eclectic as psychoactive substances go. The noise dies down, the atmosphere grows fuzzier, and people become far more approachable…and yet the setting can vary in a thousand different ways. The settings of indulgence are as manifold as the settings of production.

And yet…something remains the same! That “something” is, of course, the intoxicating experience…an experience itself that can “blossom” or “decay” in a variety of ways. The way we walk…the way we talk…the way we think about and remember things…the way we fight, apologize, seduce, laugh, or cry. In an earlier poem of mine (“Liquid Courage”) I wrote of the impulse intoxication fills us with- “to dance, to make love, and to be free.”

Does it honor that impulse, though? No. Intoxication is- at best- a fair-weathered friend…and an even fairer-weathered lover…shallow, opportunistic, and incredibly promiscuous. It is ultimately evasive and untrustworthy…and yet our entire globe clings to it helplessly. Why do we always give it the attention it craves?

But the good news…we can of course have our cake and eat it too…with a glass of wine or a pint of ale on the side. Drinking “in moderation.” The intermingling of the slightest buzz with the clarity, mirth, and vitality of a stable atmosphere (a sumptuous dinner, a wedding reception, a celebratory day at the pub) is sometimes the best type of intoxication. The only type more optimal than that is, of course, that delightful “natural high.”

SOURCES

[1] “Barley Beer”. University of Pennsylvania Museum of Archaeology and Anthropology. Retrieved 21 June 2011.

[2] McGovern, P. E.; Zhang, J. Z.; Tang, J. G.; et al. (2004). “Fermented beverages of pre- and proto-historic China”. Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences. 101 (51): 17593–17598.

[3] “‘World’s oldest brewery’ found in cave in Israel, say researchers”. British Broadcasting Corporation. 15 September 2018. Retrieved 15 September 2018.

[4] “13,000-year-old brewery discovered in Israel, the oldest in the world”. The Times of Israel. 12 September 2018. Retrieved 16 September 2018.

[5] Sinclair, Thomas (2010). BREAD, Beer & the Seeds of Change: Agriculture’s Imprint on World History. pp. 25–26. ISBN 978-1-84593-705-8.

[6] The Literature of Ancient Sumer. Translated by Black, Jeremy; Cunningham, Graham; Robson, Eleanor; Zólyomi, Gábor. Oxford University Press. 2004. ISBN 978-0-19-929633-0. Retrieved 21 March 2010.

[7] Hornsey, Ian S. (2003). A History of Beer and Brewing. The Royal Society of Chemistry. p. 89. ISBN 978-0-85404-630-0. Retrieved 21 March 2010.

[8] George, Alison (22 June 2016). “The world’s oldest paycheck was cashed in beer”. New Scientist.

[9] Hampson, Tim (2008). The Beer Book. London: Dorling Kindersley. p. 7. ISBN 978-1-4053-3301-6.

[10] “Egypt unearths ‘world’s oldest’ mass-production brewery”. Al Jazeera. 14 February 2021.

[11] Abraham Eraly (2002). Gem in the Lotus. Penguin Books Limited. p. 165.

[12] Dumper, Michael; Stanley, Bruce E., eds. (2007). Cities of the Middle East and North Africa: a historical encyclopedia. ABC-CLIO. p. 141. ISBN 978-1-57607-919-5. Retrieved 7 March 2012.

[13] Hornsey, I. (2004). A History of Beer and Brewing (1st ed.). Washington D.C.: Royal Society of Chemistry. ISBN 0-85404-630-5.

[14] Polybius, The Histories, 34.9.15, on Perseus

[15] Nip, Renée (2002). “Life and afterlife”. In Mulder-Bakker, Anneke B. (ed.). The Invention of Saintliness. Routledge. p. 61. ISBN 978-1-134-49865-9. OCLC 49824727. Retrieved 8 January 2014.

[16] https://www.tapvillesocial.com/cheers-n-eats/2018/5/8/what-is-the-difference-between-ales-and-lagers#:~:text=The%20basic%20difference%20between%20these,%CB%9A%E2%80%9350%CB%9AF).

[17] https://www.wineenthusiast.com/culture/spirits/how-beer-is-made/

[18] Doce, Elisa Guerra (2004). “The Origins of Inebriation: Archaeological Evidence of the Consumption of Fermented Beverages and Drugs in Prehistoric Eurasia”. Journal of Archaeological Method and Theory. 22 (3): 751–782.

[19] “Georgia made ‘world’s oldest wine'”. BBC News. 13 November 2017. Archived from the original on 14 November 2017. Retrieved 21 July 2018.

[20] Ellsworth, Amy (18 July 2012). “7,000 Year-old Wine Jar”. University of Pennsylvania Museum of Archaeology and Anthropology. Archived from the original on 26 August 2012. Retrieved 15 April 2015.

[21] Berkowitz, Mark (1996). “World’s Earliest Wine”. Archaeology. Archaeological Institute of America. 49 (5). Archived from the original on 5 June 2011. Retrieved 17 November 2005.

[22] “National Geographic: Earliest Known Winery Found in Armenian Cave”. 12 January 2011. Archived from the original on 3 June 2017. Retrieved 28 March 2011.

[23] Tondo, Lorenzo (30 August 2017). “Traces of 6,000-year-old wine discovered in Sicilian cave”. The Guardian. Archived from the original on 14 October 2017. Retrieved 12 September 2017.

[24] Metcalfe, Tom. “2,600-year-old wine ‘factory’ unearthed in Lebanon”. National Geographic. Archived from the original on 17 March 2021. Retrieved 9 October 2023.

[25] McGovern, Patrick E. (2003). Ancient wine: the search for the origins of viniculture. Princeton University Press.

[26] Johnson, Hugh (1989). Vintage: The Story of Wine. Simon and Schuster. p. 32. ISBN 978-0-671-68702-1.

[27] Henderson, Pat (1 February 2009). “Sulfur Dioxide: Science behind this anti-microbial, anti-oxidant, wine additive”. Practical Winery & Vineyard Journal. Archived from the original on 28 September 2013.

[28] Wine Making Process: How to Make Wine | Wine of the Month Club (winemonthclub.com)