The History of Beer

t Over 10.000 years ago, the primitive man learned the phenomenon of fermentation and obtained, on a small scale, the first alcoholic beverages.
It has been proven that 5.000 years ago, the Summering and Assyrians, produced, parting from cereals, a fermented drink, using the process of seed malting, just like it is done today.The hieroglyphs and low relieves with more than 4.000 years shows that the Egyptian civilization also knew beer and produced it in different versions, like the Beer of the Notables and the Beer of Tebas.
In the ancient times, the presence of beer in Central Europe may have happened because of the local evolution of the primitive preparation methods or by the knowledge brought from North Africa and Iberian Peninsula to the Gaul and Germany. For many centuries the beer consumed was prepared in a homemade way. During the Middle Ages, the production on a higher scale started to spread in Europe through the abbeys and Christian convents. In the year of 820 of this era there already existed three breweries and a malting factory in the St. Gall abbey, in Switzerland. They were, perhaps, part of the first industrial complex this size. Also during the Middle Ages the beer started to earn new characteristics, with the addition of bitter and aromatic herbs, roots, flowers and sylvester fruits. Around 1070 DC, the abbess - after canonized - Sta. Hildegard presented for the first time the advantages of the use of hop flowers in the preparation of beer. After this period, the addition of hop spread abroad, progressively eliminating the need of other vegetal elements. The hop gave to beer a pleasant aroma and a stimulating caracteristic flavor, giving it the characteristics it presents up until today, and improving its conservation. These production methods remained upto the nineteenth century when new scientific discoveries started to be applied. In 1859, Pasteur identified the agents that cause fermentation, showing that it took place by the action of the yeast in the beer. Based on these studies, little time after, the process started to be used in the production of beer, permitting the maintenance of its quality for longer periods. In 1883 the Danish scientist Emil Christian Hansen isolated the first pure yeast cultures, starting its use in a controlled manner. This procedure gave beer a much larger constancy of flavor and quality.
  All these advancements, allied to the beginning of industrial refrigeration production, launched the bases for the development of the modern beer industry.