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A n c i e n t P l a n e t
for her wars with Rome (which the beer tax went to help pay for although she claimed the tax was to deter public drunkenness). As beer was often prescribed for medicinal purposes (there were over 100 remedies using beer) the tax was considered unjust.
O n l i n e j o u r n a l
Beer brewing travelled from Egypt to Greece (as we know from the Greek word for beer, ‘zythos’, from the Egyptian ‘zytum’) but did not find the same receptive climate there. The Greeks favoured strong wine over beer, as did the Romans after them, and both cultures considered beer a low class drink of barbarians. The Greek general and writer Xenophon, in Book IV of his Anabasis, says, “There were stores within of wheat and barley and vegetables, and wine made from barley in great big bowls; the grains of barley malt lay floating in the beverage up to the lip of the vessel, and reeds lay in them, some longer, some shorter, without joints; when you were thirsty you must take one of these into your mouth, and suck. The beverage without admixture of water was very strong, and of a delicious flavour to certain palates, but the taste must be acquired” and, clearly, it was not to Xenophon’s taste. The playwright Sophocles, among others, also mentions beer and recommends moderation in its use. The Roman historian Tacitus, writing of the Germans, says, “To drink, the Teutons have a horrible brew fermented from barley or wheat, a brew which has only a very far removed similarity to wine” and the Emperor Julian composed a poem claiming the scent of wine was of nectar while the smell of beer was that of a goat. Even so, the Romans were brewing beer (‘cerevisia’) quite early as evidenced by the tomb of a beer brewer and merchant (a Cerveserius) in ancient Treveris (modern day Trier). Excavations of the Roman military encampment on the Danube, Castra Regina (modern day Regensburg), have unearthed evidence of beer brewing on a significant scale shortly after the community was built in 179 CE by Marcus Aurelius. While beer never became popular with the Romans, it had long been favoured by the indigenous people along the Danube.
Spouted beer strainer from Israel dating to c.800 BCE. Credit: Israel Antquities Authority.
The Germans were brewing beer (which they called ‘ol’, for ‘ale’) as early as 800 BCE (as we know from great quantities of beer jugs, still containing evidence of the beer, in a tomb in the Village of Kasendorf in northern Bavaria, near Kulmbach) and the practice continued into the Christian era. Early on, as it had been in Mesopotamia and Egypt, the craft of the brewer was the provenance of women and the hausfrau brewed her beer in the home to supplement the daily meals. In time, however, the craft was primarily taken over by Christian monks and brewing became an integral part of the monastic life (the Kulmbacher Monchshof Kloster, a monastery founded in 1349 CE in Kulmbach, still produces their famous Schwartzbier, among other brews, today). In 1516 CE, the German Reinheitsgebot (purity law) was instituted which 87