HISTORY OF BEER AND THE CHURCH

Did beer beget bread, or did bread beget beer? They arrived at about the same time but the cultivation of grain stabilized previously nomadic peoples and was essential to the development of civilization. And would one day enrich the Catholic Church in the process. Life was not easy in the 'old days'. Water wasn't always potable, so low-alcohol beers became the drink of choice; the low alcohol content killed any pathogens. It was safer to drink the beer than the water! People worked hard and lived on poor diets. Beer provided calories, B vitamins, and some respite at the end of a hard day of labor.

The two main grains were barley and a kind of wheat known as "emmer". The original first beers made from raw grain were very low in alcohol. A big step ahead came (around 3,000 B.C.) when the brewers in Mesopotamia accidentally learned to turn barley into malt.Raw grain was wetted then left to dry in the sun. The grain would swell in anticipating of sprouting, then it was dried while it still retained its rich sugar and starches. Now the fermented beverages made were much higher in alcohol.

Early brewers knew nothing of yeast; they did know that when they made beer, the deposits from previous brews left in their clay pots would turn the liquid into alcohol. Wild yeasts also contributed. Hops weren't used at this time as the plant was not known. The brewers made "beer bread" by pouring heated water over bread, which was filtered and left to ferment spontaneously.

The Egyptians used all malted grain and produced only dark beers. Brewing in this ancient culture was not a sideline, but a major industry; pharaohs gave their favorite subjects tens of thousands of litres of free beer. The Islamic invasion of the 8th century ended the practices of brewing in Egypt, the Koran forbade the use of alcohol. No wonder they're so crabby.

But word was out. The Phoenicians had taken brewing techniques to other countries, Bohemia, Bavaria, and the land of the Celts. The conquering Romans were still partial to wines but grapes were finicky to cultivate in many parts of Europe. Grains would grow widely, and when Roman troops ran out of wine, they gladly turned to the local beers to quench their thirst.

The skill of brewers came to exceed that of winemakers. Cooperage - making storage casks out of wood - allowed brewers to store their beer in large, air tight containers. In 21 AD Greeks and Romans noted seeing wooden "pithoi" in northern Europe, during a time when they were still putting their wine in clay vessels. "The Celts are fine coopers" it is noted "their casks are as large as houses." In Britain, the Celts made a beer called 'curmi' and also made hard cider and mead from honey.

Brewing was originally in the domain of the woman of the house as was bread-making, which utilized the same ingredients. A good ale wife was held in high esteem. Men often married, not based on a woman's good looks or dowry, but on her ability to brew good ale. Over time, the best ale wives became so celebrated amongst their community that people would go to their houses to drink, and then to buy, their good ale.

Nordic peoples called their beer ol or ealu, from which comes the term "ale". Another Saxon term for beer was woet, which survives today as wort, the sweet malt liquid that is fermented into beer. For centuries, ale meant a fermented barley-water flavored with herbs, spices and other plants--but not hops.Beer, from the German word bier, came much later and was ale used with hops. Utilizing hops in beer was very unpopular with some brewers and countries. Hops have a natural anti-bacterial effect and allow beer to be stored longer and be transported over long distances without spoiling. In the early 1500's Flemish traders brought the hop to England, where some brewers welcomed it, and some condemned it as "causing unhealthy conditions in the body". Eventually brewers realized the benefits to storage and flavor that hops provided and now virtually all commercial beers utilize hops.

In early Europe a small commercial brewing movement started and spread, basically based on inns and taverns where the owners brewed. These brewers soon found a major competitor - the Christian church. The archbishops and clerics being the money mongering beasts they were stepped in to 'cure the excesses' of the Anglo-Saxons and to corner the market in ale. Ale was brewed for the monks and was for a time considered 'liquid bread' - you could fast but not break your fast by drinking ale! Holy men always find a way around the good book. The Benedictines were the largest brewers, but in medieval Germany there were as many as 400 to 500 monastic breweries. And remember these guys were responsible for translating the bible, the reason so much has been misinterpreted, perhaps?

Beer making was big business for the monasteries for centuries. Monastic brewhouses were generally located near moving bodies of water, where grain mills were set up powered by the water. Many old type brewhouses from the 13th and 14th centuries were still intact until destroyed by the bombs of WWII.

In the Middle Ages brewers didn't understand the phenomena of brewing. They mixed the ingredients and somehow it turned into beer. Nobody questioned why or how it happened, they were just thankful that it did. Since they knew so little about the process, there was a great chance that something might go wrong along the way. In Europe during the middle ages, with the influence that the Catholic Church had on life in those days, there could only be two possible explanations for the phenomena of brewing beer, Devine Intervention or Demonic Intervention.

In the Middle ages when people could not explain something it was considered to be the work of the Devil. However people liked beer. Not only was it tasty and intoxicating, it was also much safer to drink than water. Nothing resembling sanitation had been invented yet and most towns and villages had poisonous if not toxic water supplies. People were encouraged to drink beer in lieu of water. St. Arnold actually earned his sainthood because of this. Beer was good. Fermentation was considered a miracle. Beer brought in moola!

Problem was when you don't understand the fermentation process sometimes a batch of beer wouldn't turn out right. The possibility of something going wrong was very high. In the minds of our Mid-Evil progenitors, a bad batch of beer meant the Devil got is dirty hands into the brew kettle and interfered with God's miracle and profits. Hmm, wonder if our word profit comes from prophet.

There were several practices employed to control or avoid the intervention of the devil. The posting of Christian icons in the brew house was a common practice. Even today, in most Belgian brew houses you can find a crucifix or a statue of a Saint. Other symbols used were the six-pointed star or the sign of Solomon. Another common practice was to stick to certain rituals, like reciting ritual phrases at certain specific moments, or to try to do everything exactly the same way.

The most certain way to avoid demonic interference in the brewing process was to have the local priest preside over the brewing. Of course, a priest's time was very valuable in those days. There were lots of demons running around the countryside, towns and villages meddling with the lives of peasants and nobles alike. So the priest had to be paid. Normal compensation for a priest was four pints of beer per blessing. The blessing of the beer was a service known as "The Right of Signage."

Some priests were a bit crooked and began blackmailing breweries, demanding greater payment for their service. To control these excesses, local rulers created laws that defined how much would be paid to priests for their blessing. To keep the clergy happy, they also created rules that required that breweries have this blessing for every batch of beer they produced. This was an early and effective form of taxation. The law created and enforced by the ruler insured that the Church would continue to support that leader's divine right to rule.

Not long after the laws were created requiring payment to the Church, the Church decided that it really wasn't necessary for a priest to be present at the time of brewing. As long as payments were made on time, the church would bless the brewery from afar, so convenient. It was now a tax and not a ritual, a fee and not a rite, a levy and not service. But the money kept pouring in! Greedy bastards.

Monastic brewing thrived until Henry VIII destroyed the monasteries of England in his contempt for the Roman Catholic Church. The beginning of the decline of the monastic breweries was the beginning of the rise of commercial brewers.

When the French Revolution spread through Europe at the end of the 18th century, and Europe finally started to truly revolt against such ancient ways of thinking, this practice of local priests getting paid a compensation for each batch of beer halted. The blessing of the brew kettles was soon replaced by the placing of candles before the statue of a Saint or by the posting of a crucifix in the brew-house.

It is said the Pilgrims landed earlier than scheduled as they needed to brew more beer and so landed at Plymouth Rock instead of further south. In the early Dutch and English colonies beer was very important to the settlers. There were more taverns than churches. Church services were often held in taverns. Records from the early English colonies show that most colonists preferred to go drinking at taverns on Sunday instead of Church. As a result laws had to be enacted to reverse this trend!

In the 19th century, science made such progress that the brewing process and the function of the yeast was fully understood. From then on, the priest had to pay for his beer. Unless, of course he was a monk and was living in a beer-brewing Abbey.