Paul’s Brewsletter

Beer has a reputation of being the world’s best drink, and beer lovers consider the intoxicating experience as a divine experience. This notion dates back in the ancient times.

The process of beer making was discovered in the ancient times by the Sumerians. The basic ingredients of beer making even then are Hymn of Ninkasi otherwise known as the goddess of brewing, which consists of barley and baked bread. The accidental discovery of beer making happened when baked bread crumbled into water and formed a mash, which was then fermented and an inebriating pulp resulted. This was how the ancient Sumerians discovered beer making.

When the Babylonians became rulers of Mesopotamia after the Sumerian empire collapsed, the Sumerian culture of brewing beer was passed on; and the Babylonians were able to produce twenty different types of beer. This gave the Babylon people the luxury of enjoying the divine drink even more.

Additionally, the King of Babylon at that time recognized his people’s want for this exhilarating and blissful drink, thus he decreed a daily beer ration to his people. During his reign, beers were not being sold but were used to barter trade.

Beer making did not stop in Mesopotamia; other countries also produced fermented beverages just like Chang, the beer in Tibet and Chicha, the corn beer and Kumis, the beer that comes from fermented camel milk. Other countries also produced beer, the beer they prouced does not have much difference from the Mesopotamia brew.

Historically, after the Egyptians, the Greeks and the Romans succeeded beer making and brewing. There was even a time where Romans considered beer as barbarian drink. Even with this notion though, beer drinking was still very much popular.

The beer they brew during that era can never be stored becuase it was too cloudy and with almost no foam.

Popularity of beer making and brewing is a result of the early civilizations belief that beer making is a neat sacrifice for their Gods. Additionally, because of the wonderful feeling they get from drinking beer, they treat beer making as a gift to themselves as well.

Thus, beer making became so popular and workers do not resent doing it for both these purposes.

Moving forward, in this modern time, beer is not that hard to acquire. You can find beer in every corner of the world, from small stores to big entertainment houses.

Additionally, some American beer aficionados even perform beer making in the confines of their own homes. This beer making process done by some Americans are no longer for sacrifice to the Gods but for their personal enjoyment, and for sharing with their friends as well.

Like in the ancient times, beer making ingredients are malted grain, barley, wheat and sometimes rye.

Brewing is also almost the same such as malt would come from germinated grain. This malt will be dried in kiln or roasted, the germination creates enzymes, which will convert starch in the grain into sugar.

The malt will take on dark color and strongly influence the flavor of the beer; this process is dependent on the amount of roasting done on the malt.

Grist will come from crushing the malt, and mixed in heated water and mashed together in a mash tun.

The process of brewing will then take effect, the result will be the beer that will provide enjoyment to you, which you can also share them with your friends.

There may be some equipment necessary in the process of brewing beer, but if you will only do beer making for personal use, what you have on your kitchen may be enough.

Commercial beer making may need the other sophisticated equipments. You will only need these special equipments if you are making beer for commercial purposes.

Various beer making websites will be able to help you brew your own beer. If your friends know that you made the beer specifically for their enjoyment, surely, your friends will consider your beer as the best beer in town.

Continue the saga of beer making and live on the tradition of drinking this exhilarating, wonderful and blissful drink that people consider divine.

Seek help from beer making websites and brew the beer you longed for.

Shannon W. Brown has brought together some of the best “Beer Making” resources online. You can visit his site at: http://www.wemakebeer.com/

Article Source: http://EzineArticles.com/?expert=Shannon_Brown

This entry was posted on Monday, January 15th, 2007 at 12:17 pm and is filed under Beer Articles. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.