The First of Many Beer History Posts

The Museum of Man currently has a small exhibit about the history of beer and brewing in human civilization and I visited a few weeks ago.

For the modern beer drinker it’s fascinating learn about fermented grain drinks that are not necessarily made with wheat, barley, or hops. I tend to forget that there was a time before hops dominated beer flavoring. It was in the fairly recent past (18/19th C) that hops gained this eminence. Part of this can be attributed to the natural antiseptic effect of weak acids from hops that extend preservation, but this was also the result of early food and drink regulation laws.

The Reinheitsgebot in the Holy Roman Empire and (present day) German territories was among the earliest beverage purity laws and it restricted the ingredients of lagers to barley, hops, water, and, when it was discovered, yeast.

These regulations remained in place all the way until 1988, though it should be noted that the Reinheitsgebot regulations apply only to lagers, not ales. Some people think of experimental American brews in opposition to Old World lagers, but in fact lagers are relatively new to the fermentation party and revivals of ancient styles like Finnish sahti have sort of brought us full circle.

Some have even aligned the transition to (nearly) hops only brewing with the ascent of Protestant ethics, which favored the sedative effectives of hops to the stimulating and aphrodisiac effects of some herbal mixtures by those indulgent Catholics and saucy, saucy Pagans.

Before the rise of hops other flavoring ingredients like fruit, herbs, and flowers were often used in motley mixes. The best known European example is gruit, a porously defined mixtures of herbs consisting of charmingly named (shout out to Anglo-Saxon Ænglisc yall!!) herbs like horehound, mugwort, and bog-myrtle. There'a a certain rustic charm about the idea of mixing undisclosed adjuncts, mystery quantities, and "all sorts of unpredictable stuff—olive oil, bog myrtle, cheese, meadow­sweet, mugwort, carrot, not to mention hallucinogens like hemp and poppy," but there's also toxicity and botulism.

Still, true to their reputation American craft brewers have unearthed this antiquated practice with a wealth of different fruits, roots, and spices within their reach. Dogfish Head's Sam Calagione went to Egypt in an effort to understand and resurrect the ales of ancient Upper Egypt.

Gruit and gruit-like flavoring may suit the character of the American craft brewing scene simply because it’s liberating in its diversity and at the core of the American craft brew is the distinctive personality of local or regional ingredients. The rugged individualism of American mythology is at the core of the craft beer boom, but so is community and collective identity. I was surprised at how quickly I've become proud of Southern Californian breweries and anchored myself to region by drinking beer.

This post was about herbs in beer but it's taken a turn for the incoherent, so I'll just say I'd love to hear your thoughts on non-hop flavorings in beer and suggestions if you have any.

#history #hops #spices #gruit #reinheitgebot