Beer in prehistory

The most recent studies place the origin of beer in Israel 13,000 years ago. Researchers from Stanford University found residues from alcohol production, derived from the transformation of grains, in a cave near the city of Haifa. No older remains are known. The truth is that this primitive beer had little to do with today’s concept of the drink. It would have been more like a porridge or cereal soup. What is clear is that its consumption was linked to important events, such as death, since these beer remains were found in what was once a burial site. For these people, beer represented “a mechanism of social regulation in hierarchical societies,” says Wang, co-author of the study.

Such is the importance of beer to these ancient cultures that some theses suggest it was beer, and not bread as we had believed until now, that gave rise to agriculture and settled life. “This discovery indicates that making alcohol was not necessarily the result of surplus agricultural production, but was developed for ritual and spiritual needs, at least to some extent, before agriculture,” explains Li Liu, a professor at Stanford and lead author of the study.

In Spain, the oldest remains of beer production have been found in Barcelona, in the cave of Sant Sadurní. In fact, this discovery represents the oldest malting and beer fermentation residues in Europe. Beer remains were found in a grave good dating back to the Middle Neolithic (5500–4000 BC). Instead of hops, prehistoric humans used local plants such as thyme and mugwort. They were unaware of the existence of yeast, so fermentation either occurred spontaneously by leaving the wort exposed to the air, or because they added honey and/or wild berries that have yeast on their surface.

In both cases, beer in prehistoric societies played a “festive” role in rituals for the dead. Experts do not believe that beer was the result of surplus grain; rather, small groups brewed it deliberately.

Fermun Beers’ initiative to replicate this prehistoric beer and adapt it to modern tastes is worth mentioning. To do so, they use barley malt, blackberries, mugwort, lemon verbena and honey, which gives it a fruity, smooth flavor. They do not use hops. This beer helps fund research by the Colectivo para la Investigación de la Prehistoria y la Arqueología del Garraf (Collective for the Research of Prehistory and Archaeology of Garraf).