Beer in Early Europe

Europe's dominant ancient cultures - the Greeks and Romans - primarily drank wines and meads. Nonetheless, the knowledge of how to brew beer from barley radiated from the Middle East and eventually reached the European peoples. Beer was an important staple in the diet of Europeans. As Europe's water supplies become increasingly polluted, so did their water supply. Because drinking water in Europe at that time was a serious health risk, Europeans held a deep mistrust of drinking water and turned to other liquids for refreshment - among them was beer. Europeans quickly learned that beer brewed from otherwise polluted water did not possess the same health hazards as the water alone. Although it would be some time before this causal link was discovered, beer was safer simply because the boiling done during the brewing process easily killed all of the microbes harmful to humans. Beer in early Europe continued to be brewed primarily in the home by women, and brewers continued to brew beer using the ancient "immersed loaf" method.

As Roman control over Europe faded and Europe entered the Dark Ages, Christian monasteries became the primary centers of knowledge and learning in Europe. Advancements in agriculture, science and technology made in the monasteries fostered advancements in brewing as well. Beer was a very important product for Europe's medieval monasteries. The monks brewed beer - which is little more than liquid bread - primarily as a source of sustenance during their religious fasting periods. Furthermore, the beer brewed by the monks was of such a high quality that it became a great source of revenue for the monasteries as well. The strong brewing tradition of Europe's monastic societies is evidenced by today's highly prized Belgian Trappist beers and the hundreds of Belgian "abbey-style" beers commercially available.

It is unknown exactly when brewing beer switched from the "immersed loaf" method to the modern "malt extract" method we use to brew beer today, but there are several theories. Although not a beer-drinking people, a recent archeological dig at a Roman military outpost in Bavaria, Germany suggests that Romans may have actually invented malt extract brewing as an improvement on the immersed loaf brewing techniques of the Germanic tribes. However, it is more widely believed that malt extract brewing originated in a Christian monastery. Monks provided written accounts of the malt extract method of brewing as early as the 6th century. However, if the theories about the Bavarian archeological site are true, the later monastic accounts of malt extract brewing were merely a restatement of a Roman invention. Regardless, the knowledge of malt extract brewing was preserved and perfected in Europe's monasteries through the Dark Ages and survives as the dominant method of brewing beer today.

As Europe exited the Dark Ages and transformed from a rural, feudalistic society into a more urban, mercantile society, the population of Europe moved slowly from the rural homesteads to the growing cities. Beer continued to be brewed on the farm, but the new city-dwellers had neither the time nor the ability to brew beer as it had been brewed traditionally. Therefore, to satisfy the city's thirst for beer, communal breweries and beer merchants began arising in these new urban centers. Although it would be many years, it was these urban-based communal breweries that formed the basis for the large, industrial breweries to come.

Beer today is primarily composed of malted barley, hops, water and yeast with the occasional adjunct or variation. However, beer was brewed with dozens of different ingredients for thousands of years. The early beers, known today as gruit ales, were often flavored with honey and whatever herbs, plants and spices were available locally. In the Middle East, beers were commonly brewed from emmer and barley and flavored with dates or mandrake, a psychotropic plant. In Europe, beers were usually brewed with a combination of grains, including oats and rye, and one or more of the plants that grew locally. Common ingredients in gruit ales include bog myrtle, wild rosemary, heather, yarrow, wormwood and dandelion. Whichever plants the brewer added to his brew were selected specifically because, when used in brewing, they imparted a highly intoxicating or aphrodisiacal characteristic to the beer. It also would not have been uncommon to see a beer spiced with cinnamon, caraway, ginger, coriander, chamomile, juniper twigs, spruce tips or maple or birch sap. Hops were only one of the dozens of possible ingredients a brewer could have added to his beer, and only if hops grew locally.

Hops were not used in European beers until the 9th century and weren't used in England until the 14th century. Hops were widely recognized by brewers for their preservative quality, but there were other effective preservative herbs brewers could use. Their use as a primary ingredient of beer was bitterly resisted by many brewers at the time for many different reasons. One of the primary factors behind the resistance to hopped beer was purely economical. Gruit merchants did not want to lose their monopoly. In fact, during the 15th and 16th centuries, legislation was passed in certain countries prohibiting the use of hops in brewing. For example, King Henry VIII of England outlawed hops to protect his economic stake in the sale of other brewing ingredients such as spices and herbs.

It is suggested that religion played a key role in the rise of hops as a dominant ingredient of beer. The Protestant Movement against the Catholic church began in the 16th century. One of the key reasons the Protestants' rejected the Catholic church was due to the un-Christlike, self-indulgent, occasionally hedonistic lifestyle of the Catholic clergy. The highly inebriating and aphrodisiacal gruit ales were seen as one cause of this malady. Hops, on the other hand, (allegedly) diminish sex drive and cause the drinker to become drowsy. As Protestantism swept through Europe, so did the use of hops in the production of beer. The "Reinheitsgebot" - the Bavarian beer purity law - was enacted in 1516 prohibiting the brewing of beer with any ingredients other than barley, hops, yeast and water. Although no longer enforced, many German brewers still hold to this principal. Religion is not the only suggested cause of the "hop revolution." Experts also agree that merchants of hopped beer also aided the cause to gain an economic advantage against gruit merchants. By the 18th century, the revolution was complete and hops had effectively replaced gruit as the primary herb in beer.