
Scientists argue that beer motivated our ancestors to start grain farming - JumpCrisscross
http://m.nautil.us/issue/8/home/beer-domesticated-man
======
jtheory
Reminds me of the Johnny Appleseed story -- e.g., a lot of Americans grow up
learning that he traveled far ahead of the settlers in North America planting
apple seeds everywhere, so everyone would have apples -- the interesting twist
is that apples planted from seeds aren't normally edible... but they can be
used to make hard cider.

------
carissaignacia
Medieval monks drank beer with breakfast before their pre-dawn prayers, hence
the robust brewing tradition in monasteries. Essentially, our ancestors ground
whatever grain they could get their hands on, mixed it with some water,
slapped it on a greased, hot rock and called it breakfast.

[https://www.timeline.com/stories/if-you-like-beer-for-
breakf...](https://www.timeline.com/stories/if-you-like-beer-for-breakfast-
you-have-medieval-monks-to-thank)

------
elchief
Site is down at the moment so I can't RTFA, but I remember my brother-in-law
(PhD religious studies, Oxford) telling me this in 1997. So it ain't new news.

------
hyperpallium
We're talking agricultural revolution; about 15,000 years ago.

It's striking that yeast makes both bread and beer (e.g. rising dough smells
like beer), but beer is simpler and easier to make.

Humans at that time would have little genetic alcohol resistence - compared
with the average genetic makeup of today.

Perhaps early cities grew, not because of efficiency, but the municipality
gave out free samples - gateway agriculture.

But I doubt it, as fermented fruit is a far easier source of alcohol. Just let
it rot.

~~~
venomsnake
I guess that the first beer was what we now call a sourdough starter. So
something like pancake (american) batter.

~~~
dogma1138
Probably quite close if you want to recreate it I mix a thick stout like
Guinness with something like semolina or wheat middlings or maybe groat and
boil it, won't taste good but it sure will fill a man. Beer has very low
caloric value a pint has on average 150 kcal or so, so you need something much
more nutritious than that (500-800 kcal per serving) to make it worth your
while, especially when you were living in a time where your daily caloric
expenditure could be easily twice what is today.

------
hsshah
I saw this "documentary" a while back: "How Beer Saved the World"
[http://www.imdb.com/title/tt1832368/](http://www.imdb.com/title/tt1832368/)

I had to spend an hour on wikipedia afterwards to determine if it was a spoof
or serious show! (I still don't know about some parts of it :)

------
HAL9OOO
This is a great book on this subject : [http://www.amazon.com/A-History-
World-6-Glasses/dp/080271552...](http://www.amazon.com/A-History-
World-6-Glasses/dp/0802715524)

It's a pretty fun read, I recommend it.

------
afarrell
This is mentioned in the first Crash Course World History video.

[https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Yocja_N5s1I&list=PLBDA2E52FB...](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Yocja_N5s1I&list=PLBDA2E52FB1EF80C9)

------
empressplay
Keep in mind medieval beer was quite low in alcohol, and brewing it was meant
more to purify questionable water than because everyone wanted to get wasted
all the time (although it's easy to develop that sort of mental picture.)

~~~
random778
[http://leslefts.blogspot.co.za/2013/11/the-great-medieval-
wa...](http://leslefts.blogspot.co.za/2013/11/the-great-medieval-water-
myth.html)

------
zitterbewegung
Beer when it was first created I believe was both clean water and a way to get
essential nutrients. Basically soylent of medevil times.

~~~
random778
A popular myth.

[http://leslefts.blogspot.co.za/2013/11/the-great-medieval-
wa...](http://leslefts.blogspot.co.za/2013/11/the-great-medieval-water-
myth.html)

------
edoloughlin
"Scientists argue that beer motivated our ancestors to start grain farming",
start a brawl and get thrown out of pub.

