Beer History

In the beginning…

I t is thought that beer was first discovered by a group of nomads who collected wild grain for food over 10,000 years ago. Anthropologists hypothesize that this grain was rained on and then left to sit. When the nomads returned, the grain had fermented into a dark liquid now known as beer. These nomads were pleased with the taste and repeated the process until beer became a part of their everyday, well-balanced diet. If only we could use the same excuse!

Throughout the centuries thereafter, beer has continued to play an important role in the history of mankind. Some believe beer was the original cause of farming; in order to concoct beer on a consistent basis, it is theorized that the nomads were forced to settle in order to grow the essential ingredients for their beloved beer.

From the old Egyptians and the Chinese to the ancient Babylonians, beer has been proven to be a repeated, prominent piece of everyone’s history. In one ancient tomb, a shiny metal tube was discovered with the remains. This was deemed a golden straw used for drinking beer.

Even the forefathers of the United States of America were beer lovers. In fact, George Washington himself ran his own small brewery on his Mount Vernon plantation in Virginia. And while writing a majority of the Declaration of Independence, Thomas Jefferson sat in Indian Queen Tavern in Philadelphia sipping on his favorite beverage of choice, beer.

Some time later in 1852, George Schneider opened the Bavarian Brewery in St. Louis, Missouri. Little did he know this would someday become the number one global beverage leader that it is today…Anheuser-Busch InBev.

Ingrained in our culture and history, beer is alive and well not only in the U.S., but all over the world. The United States alone consumes over 7 billion gallons a year! We predict the beer industry will be booming for centuries to come.

Sources – Beer Institute, Anheuser-Busch