Brief History of Alcohol
People have had a love affair with alcohol for a long time. Clay tables with cuneiform writing dating back to 2000 BC tell stories of beer and wine being used for sacramental purposes as well as pleasure.
The most readily available local material – dates, almonds, grapes, palms, pineapples, corn, rye, barley, roses, pears and apples – were fermented to produce these early drinks.
Fruit juices became wines, grains turned into beers and fermented honey into mead. Later, both fruits and grains became distilled spirits, liquor and liqueurs.
Finally, herbs were often added and this enticing liquid was used as medicine.
During the Middle Ages, European monks perfected these herbal libations, keeping their recipes a secrete for centuries.
In most parts of the world, early fermented beverages were more nutritional and safer than drinking the local waters. Liquor survived long sea journey in barrels.
The first immigrants to America carried this mistrust of water with them.
Drinking alcohol was commonplace and the familiar English pub was transformed into the American tavern.
Not only did taverns serve as a way station for travelers, but local meeting places as well, including holding religious services.
The honey atmosphere of the tavern was the source of all of the local news and gossip.
In fact, taverns were required by law in most of the Colonies.
Land grants and tax exemptions were granted to tavern owners, and the local tavern owner usually received the only newspaper in Colonial towns.
Taverns were as bars are today, centers of cultural and intellectual discoveries.
Many famous Americans owned drinking establishments: Ethan Allen, John Adams, William Penn, Andrew Jackson, even Lincoln has a license for a tavern.
At any time during our history bars and saloons have played a part.
In the 1950s, people gathered at bars to watch a new invention called television.
In the 1970s, they came to see large screen TVs, and in the 1980s, TV programs from around the world, obtained direct from satellites.
Today, taverns and local neighborhood bars have continued in popularity for individuals in all walks of life.
As our society has become more complex and diversified so has the concept of the local tavern and neighborhood pub. Although they continued to be places for people to exchange ideas, larger drinking establishments offering a variety of atmospheres and clientele have evolved.
Bars also provide us with the entertainment for listening or dancing.
To attract and keep a certain clientele, some bar owners offer total entertainment centers featuring the latest technological advances in audio and visual sensations. Obviously, this type of bar, costs millions of dollars a year to operate.
Alcohol has been a part of man’s diet for several thousand years. The earliest written records date back to almost 2000 BC. Today’s bars are sophisticated entertainment centers offering hundreds of choices of alcoholic beverages, afar cry from the fermented grapes stored in goats’ stomachs and unfired clay vessels of yesteryear.
Brief History of Alcohol