History of Fermented Beverages

• Chimpanzees can stumble upon overripe plums and experience strange effects due to the fermentation process.
• Sugars in overripe fruit attract yeasts, which produce ethanol (alcohol) through fermentation.

Early Fermented Beverages

• The earliest evidence of humans creating alcoholic beverages dates back to 7000 BCE in China.
• Residue in clay pots indicates the use of fermented rice, millet, grapes, and honey.
• Ancient Mesopotamians and Egyptians produced beer from stored cereal grains.
• Beer was a common beverage for all social classes and was included in workers' daily rations.
• Wine was also made but was a rare and expensive delicacy due to the climate.
• In Greece and Rome, wine was readily available due to favorable grape-growing conditions.
• Ancient peoples made alcohol from locally grown crops and plants.
• South Americans made chicha from grains, sometimes adding hallucinogenic herbs.
• In Mexico, pulque, made from cactus sap, was a popular drink.
• East Africans made banana and palm beer.
• In Japan, sake was made from rice.

Societal Views on Alcohol

• As alcohol consumption became widespread, authorities had mixed views.
• Greek physicians considered wine to be good for health, while poets saw it as a creative aid.
• Greek philosophers promoted temperance.
• Early Jewish and Christian writers integrated wine into rituals but viewed excessive intoxication as a sin.
• Islamic cultures in the Middle East, Africa, and Spain eventually banned alcohol due to concerns about praying while drunk.

Distillation

• Ancient fermented beverages had limited alcohol content (around 13%) due to the toxicity of by-products produced by wild yeasts.
• The invention of distillation changed this limitation
• 9th-century Arabic writings describe distillation as boiling fermented liquids to vaporize the alcohol.
• Capturing and cooling the vapor results in a more concentrated liquid alcohol.
• Distilled spirits were initially used for medicinal purposes.
• Spirits became important for trade due to their resistance to spoilage.
• Rum from Caribbean sugar plantations was traded to North America and used by sailors.
• Europeans traded brandy and gin in Africa for enslaved people, land, and goods.
• Spirits became a form of currency in some regions.

Alcohol's Role in Exploration

• During the Age of Exploration, spirits were crucial for long sea voyages.
• Adding brandy to water barrels preserved water and killed harmful microbes.
• By the 1600s, alcohol fueled global trade and exploration.