Beer Saved the World

I watched a very interesting Discovery program that I feel should be shared with everybody. It's called "How Beer Saved the World" and a real mind blower. How can that be? Impossible but true. The greatest invention of all. Without beer we would still be living in caves. It has changed the course of  history over and over and laid the foundation to what the world is today.

It all started with BEER

9000 years BC, hunter gatherers accidentally discovered beer and started farming barley to make more of this feel good drink that made life much more interesting. This is 3000 years before people started making bread and archaeologists have proven this by residue found in ancient jugs. And so the agricultural revolution came about which led to an explosion of technologies. The wheel, farming equipment, creating borders, maths, irrigation, bookkeeping and more important the first Written Language.

Giza

Beer built the Pyramids. That's right. Egyptologists have discovered that without beer the Egyptian civilisation would not exist. Beer was considered a Gift from the Gods and a vital source of nutrition. It was consumed in life and beyond. Everybody drank this low alcohol 3% beer and it was a staple food and common currency. The daily wage for a pyramid builder was 1 gallon of beer and it took a whopping 213,500 million gallons to built the pyramid of Giza. Fascinating?

Beer beat modern medicine by 3000 years and cured the sick. By studying mummified bones it has been discovered that they contain Tetracycline (Antibiotics) that was only officially discovered in 1948. So how did they consume it if it did not exist. It's been proven by brewing beer with a 3000 old recipe that the beer contained tetracycline which was consumed by everybody and kept them healthy.

In medieval Europe the rivers was lethal and water made people sick. Beer brewing removed the bacteria from the foul water and saved millions of people in the process. Actually it was the boiling in the brewing process that killed the bacteria but they did not know this back then. the In the late 1600 every man, woman and child drank beer and consumed an average of 300 liters per person per year. That is six times the modern day consumption of beer. Beer brewing was critical to the development of the medieval economy and spearheaded modern day capitalism.

Without beer the settlers would never have made it to America. Water went bad on the journeys but beer stayed fresh helping the settlers to make the journey to Plymouth. There the settler refused to drink water based on their experience in Europe and when the beer ran out, they turned to nature and brewed the first acorn beer. Beer established the first communications network by way of the Tavern and in 1773 sparked the American Revolution in the Green Dragon Tavern in Boston. The rest is history.

Beer is proof

that God Loves Us

and wants us

to be Happy

Benjamin Franklin

With the American Independence won, beer was free to take on it's next big challenge, Disease. Beer is the basis of modern medicine. In the 1850's, Louis Pasteur made a remarkable breakthrough in the causes and prevention of diseases. He invented pasteurisation and vaccines and most people belief he was studying milk. He was actually studying beer and why it became spoilt which led to his remarkable inventions.

Beer took on it's next big Challenge, HEAT. Heat meant rotten meat and vegetables and as a result of a new beer arriving with German Immigrants in 1840. Lager needed to be brewed at low temperatures and the brewing industry invested heavily in the research of refrigeration. The first commercial refrigerator was created for beer in 1881 and changed our world forever. Cheers.

Most people belief that the factory was created by Henry Ford, but they are wrong. It was beer who revolutionised the industry and automated the production line at least 10 years before Henry Ford and put America on the road to become an economic power. The first automated machine produced beer bottles and complete eradicated child labour as a result.

And there you have it. Beer gave us some of our greatest inventions. What would a rugby game or braai be without a cold one, but is seems beer has not reached it's final frontier. The 4Pines Brewery in Australia is working on a Space Beer and that comes with some serious challenges. With the age of space tourism dawning on us how would you enjoy your holiday without a cold beer? Beer to the rescue again. CHEERS !!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

If you want to watch the full program and learn even more check it out on You Tube or download from EZTV

I will finish off with Twenty Things Worth Knowing about Beer