Ok, not strictly history as such but.....the origins of beer!

[Imperial Dave]

http://www.bbc.com/earth/story/20161130-why-the-stone-age-could-be-when-brits-first-brewed-beer

A topic close to my heart and so apologies for posting this one as its not strictly history per se....!

[Tim]

I suspect that Beer was probably as much a part of warfare for the ordinary soldier in our period as tactics were - and probably more interesting.  Of course we are now far more civilised so beer is of less interest...

[Imperial Dave]

I am reminded by this to go away and look at the history of beer and the connection with civilisation (in the UK) a bit more.

For instance there are various references to Welsh beer as opposed to English or generic ale etc

[Patrick Waterson]

The Isle of Rhum (interesting name in this context) 'heather ale' might be worth reviving, maybe even as a Historic England joint project with a certain brewery.

[Erpingham]

I think several Scottish breweries make or have made "heather ale", sometimes branded as Pictish.  That I've tried was OK but nothing special.

On beer in general, it has been a major food source in many civilisations, especially in Europe and Africa.  Militarily, it was an important supply item for medieval armies.  While there has been much modern myth-making about the medieval attitude to drinking water, it is certainly true that there was justifiable concern about unfamiliar water sources and armies preferred a trusted drink like wine or beer to avoid sickness.  The English army was famously forced into a battle-seeking strategy in the Flodden campaign because the beer ran out (although historians dispute whether this was caused by fear of disease or fear of desertion ).

[Duncan Head]

More even ancienter beer - https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/world-middle-east-45534133

[Patrick Waterson]

More even ancienter beer - https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/world-middle-east-45534133

Beer in c.11,000 BC - mankind was obviously getting its priorities straight!

[Nick Harbud]

I suspect that Beer was probably as much a part of warfare for the ordinary soldier in our period as tactics were - and probably more interesting.  Of course we are now far more civilised so beer is of less interest...

Oh, I don't believe much has changed.  My father, who is a former member of the Honourable Artillery Company, is still prone to recite various regimental songs.  Part of one (sung to the tune of Old King Cole) includes the verse

"Beer! Beer! Beer!, Beer!, Beer!" said the privates.
"Very merry men are we.
There's none out there who can compare
To the boys of the HAC!"

His grandchildren normally flee the room at this point.... 

[Imperial Dave]

Dont forget beer was often safer to drink than water

[Erpingham]

Dont forget beer was often safer to drink than water

Depends of course where your water was coming from.  That deep rock-cut well or that springhead in the field were probably fine.  The well next to the cesspit or the river through the town less so.  Incidentally, does anyone have a contemporary quote about the safety of drinking beer as opposed to the healthiness of drinking beer?  Medieval people seem to have thought of ale and beer as part of a healthy diet, for example, and drank a lot of it but did they do so because they feared their water supply?

[Imperial Dave]

Beer involves boiling of the water to extract the sugar from the malt/barley so in effect was safer

[Erpingham]

Beer involves boiling of the water to extract the sugar from the malt/barley so in effect was safer

Yes, you and I know this but did the ancients?

There was also the issue of a lack of hygiene regulations post boiling

For, as yll a patch as that,
The hennes ron in the mashfat ;
For they go to roust
Streyght ouer the ale ioust,
And donge, whan it commes,
In the ale tunnes.

To quote John Skelton's The Tunnyng of Elynour Rummyng

And (apologies to all Cornish members) this poem by Andrew Boorde

Ich am a Cornishman, ale I can brew
It will make one cacke , also to spew
It is thick and smokey and also it is thin
It is like wash as pigs had wrestled therein


I'm sure I've been to his pub.

[Imperial Dave]

Well hot water extracts the sugars better than cold water.......a matter of time and chance until someone discovered this. A thin beer could be indicative of poor extraction

[Erpingham]

Well hot water extracts the sugars better than cold water.......a matter of time and chance until someone discovered this. A thin beer could be indicative of poor extraction

I suspect they worked out the extraction thing - its the anti-bacterial bit then I'm not so sure they grasped.

[Imperial Dave]

Hops my learned friend. Someone somewhere worked out that adding hops helped to preserve the beer even if they didn't know why