92: Beer

This was a complete accident. Some say it was the mother of inventions or it was Devine intervention! Others have made the argument that it has saved the world. Number 92, Beer, makes my list.

Back in the cave man days, when men and women were out gathering grains and placing them in an earthen vessel, they would leave these containers outside. After a rain and gathered in these vessels, it made a mash or a mead, which they eventually eat or drank. I am sure they were more concerned about not having much grain left but they had a drink. When man finally had more time on his or her hands, they began to experiment with the combinations and timing of the ingredients to make what will become known as the modern beer. Barley, wheat, hops, and yeast were the final grains used yielding a drink that the whole family enjoyed. In the beginning, the beer was not as alcoholic as the beers of today. 

Beer has been given the credit of saving the world from utter collapse, not as drink to celebrate the signing of a treaty. It was used as an economic source, bringing people together for trade, and as solvent to disputes as well. Beer spread from the fertile crescent to was is now eastern and Western Europe. It even spread throughout Asia. Even the colonists brought it with them to the Americas. Only later to be replaced by whiskey and then being banned constitutionally, which we all know how that worked out. 

Beer became a favorite for monks in Western Europe. One reason being that they had the means to grow the ingredients and had the temperatures in cellars to keep it from season to season. They also saw the profit for their efforts as well. In most European countries, breweries, which began in some cloisters, are still in business today (not all cloisters made beer and not all cloisters that did, are still brewing today). There is nothing in this world than to drink a beer which is still brewed in the same manor since 1100 BCE, 1200 BCE, or 1300 BCE. Beer was a favorite for our ancestors because it was cleaner than water and unknown to them, it killed germs. It was a healthy drink of the day. Nearly every household had beer. Even little Johnny drank beer. Beer also has nutritional value as well and was even used to during the Bubonic Plague as a cure, though not successfully. 

Beer has been hated and loved for many centuries and I am sure it will be for centuries to come. I do find it a bit strange and awesome at the same time that beer was brewed by a religious sect that later would condemn the act as sinful. But what's new, huh? 

Today beer is just beer and comes in many forms, tastes, and catchy names. Beer saved the world and yes, in this posters mind, it really did come from the Devine to save the world! 

Beer Links:

How to make beer -http://youtu.be/oobHoJYRezw

 

How Beer saved the world - http://topdocumentaryfilms.com/how-beer-saved-the-world/