Ancient History of Beer

1. Beer recipes have been found on Babylonian clay tablets from over 6000 years ago.
2. The oldest document known to man is an ancient clay tablet depicting the preparation of beer for sacrificial purposes, inscribed in Babylon in 6000 BC.
3. The pursuit of beer changed the course of humanity forever in 5000 BC. Neolithic people abandoned their wandering lives for farming, to grow grain for brewing beer.
4. The oldest recorded beer recipe is about 4,000 years old and was recorded in the form of a poem to a Sumerian beer goddess. Fritz Maytag at Anchor Brewing actually replicated the recipe several years ago and said it tasted more like apple cider than beer.
5. By 3000 BC, the Egyptians were brewing at least six different types of beer.
6. In their efforts to regulate beer quality, the ancient Babylonians, who were among history's earliest brewers, decreed that any commercial beermaker who sold unfit beer would be drowned in his/her own libation.
7. In ancient Babylon, women brewers also assumed the role of temple priestesses. The goddess Siris was the patron of beer.
8. Ancient Egyptians brewed beer in just three days, due to the hot climate. Served as a still fermenting cereal mash, they would drink it through straws from a communal bowl.
9. In Egypt, two containers of beer were the minimum wage for a day's labor.
10. You think you've been in rough beer joints? In ancient Mesopotamia (modern-day Iraq), tavern owners found guilty of overcharging patrons for beer were put to death by drowning.
11. A beer a day...Beer was used to treat over 100 illnesses in Egypt, 1600 BC.
12. You yourself can drink an ale made from a 2,700-year-old beer recipe reverse-engineered from dregs found in a royal tomb in Turkey believed to hold the burial place of the legendary King Midas. It's called Midas Touch Golden Elixir and is made and widely distributed by Dogfish Head Craft Brewery in Milton, DE.
13. In the Middle Ages, monks built their churches and monasteries using mortar mixed with ale.
14. In ancient times, monks who fasted or abstained from solid food subsisted on beer.
15. Ancient Egyptians mixed beer foam with half an onion to ward off death.
16. Beer was often served for breakfast in medieval England.
17. In 1116 BC, Chinese imperial edict stated that heaven required people to drink beer.
18. For the ancient Egyptians, beer was so important that the hieroglyphic symbol for food was a pitcher of beer and a loaf of bread. In fact, pharaohs were buried with tiny model breweries, complete with miniature wooden brewers, to ensure a sufficient beer supply on the arduous journey to the afterworld.