The Beginning of European Beer

The Beginning of European Beer
It is possible that Northern European discovered mashing and brewing independent from Mediterranean culture.

The Roman historian Pliny-the-Elder (23-79 AD) wrote about a grain drink made by the Gauls (lands would later become France and Germany). Pliny wrote,

“The nations of the west also have their own intoxicant, made from grain soaked in water; there are a number of easy of making it in the various provinces of Gaul although the principal is the same.”

This drink he called cerevisia and probably derived its name from the goddess of the harvest, Ceres.

Pliny uses the term “soaked” not “boiled” when describing the drink. He also failed to mention the used of bread, which may mean the Gauls had stumbled onto an early grain mashing technique, unknown to the Romans.

The Gauls are also the first people recorded as having ages their beverages in wooden casks (which they invented). They are also known to have flavored the drinks with herbs and Julius Caesar is reported to prefer cerevisia to wine.

Another Roman historian, Pliny (61-112 AD), was the son of Pliny-the-Elder, Pliny traveled farther than his father to the northern edges of the empire and visited what would later be known as the British Isles.

He wrote about the use of grain in alcoholic beverages in Britain.

Tacitus, another Roman historian, wrote about the ancient Germans and a fermented drinks. This was known as bior when it was made from barley, and known as alo when made from wheat and honey.

It should be noted how similar the word bior is to word beer, and alo is similar to alu and contained honey as an ingredient.

“The liquor commonly drunk is prepared from barley or wheat which being fermented, is than brought to resemble somewhat wine.”

Whether the grain was malted or mashed, the alcoholic content of the drink is unknown. The strength of beverages in Western Europe could be high as Pliny-the-Elder also wrote,

“...and in no part of the world is drunkenness ever out of action, in fact they actually quaff their liquor of this kind (grain based) neat and do not temper their strength by diluting them (with water), as is done with wine.”

So, the ancient Germans had a fermented grain beverage on the forts century AD, the Gauls had a drink which contained herbs and was aged in wooden casks, and the Babylonians had a grain drink twenty-four centuries earlier.

Thus the use of grain in brewing was widespread.
The Beginning of European Beer