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YEAST, NOTHING HAPPENS by Hans Kestler In the early beginning, BEER, or a similar beverage , was first made : “by chance ? ??” And who knows: “ when and where ?” One of the theories, and the most likely one, is: in a piece of flat bread cake, becoming wet and laying around for some time., a kind of fermentation started. The people of these times discovered the different smell and taste of this left-over of bread and maybe very soon, the effect of alcohol on the humane body. That may have happened 10,000 years ago, maybe only in one region of the world: E.G. Mesopotamia or simultaneously in different areas, like: China, on the basis of rice; India and Africa, because of rice or early sorghum, and Persia and Kazakhstan (East of the Volga river.). Soon after that, several tribes switched slowly from “Hunting and Gathering” (Nomadic life-style) to “Agriculture” (Steady Settlement.), which also provided the basis for baking and brewing, (both of which became a womanly profession !). This happened around 4000 AD. About 6000 years ago in Mesopotamia, today’s Iraq, where people of mostly independent towns of the valley of the rivers Euphrates and Tigris engaged in early cultivation of a variety of grasses, which were the ancestors of Barley and Emmer, Triticum Dicoccum, Triticum Spelta (a kind of wheat), and later, rye. The recipes of that time indicate the following to us: a) For baking, the husks of the seeds were removed and the kernels were cleaned, the cleaned emmer was then crushed, mixed with water and formed into flat cakes and baked –“dried” would be a more appropriate word for this procedure ! After that, a certain amount of these cakes, sometimes up to half of them, were kept for beermaking. b) When brewing beer, the cakes were broken into pieces, mixed with water and set side in stone jugs for fermentation. We have exact knowledge of this from earthen tabloids, which resemble the bookkeeping of the Sumerians. They are very detailed about what and how much grain was used, which beers were brewed. How much did each Sumerian receive daily ? “2 to 5 mugs.” How much was paid to the priests for a funeral? “In bread, 420 flat cakes and in beer, 7 mugs.” These tabloids, called the “Monument Blezi,” were saved and can be seen in the Louvre in Paris, France. There is still one big question to be answered. How was this fermentation achieved ? The answer is because these flat cakes are dried at higher ambient temperatures: below 45 degree C. (+/ - = 113 degree F), then baked - drying on hot stones ! Enough yeast and bacteria could survive in the interior of the cakes to start an alcoholic fermentation.. Obviously lactic and/or acidic fermentation also may have occurred through ariel contamination. The beverages therefore differed quite a bit in smell and taste from each other. From this original area of beer development, these beverages were introduced to other tribes and countries: Egypt, Persia, Greece, the Roman Empire and the rest of the Occident. P.S. As we are in the time of the belief of Extra-Terrestrial activity in our environment, it can be argued that beings from outer Earth introduced Beer ! Aaah ! Forget it ! Just kidding ! --------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------- Hans Kestler is retired, formerly the brewmaster of Huber Brewing Co. He may be reached at 1124 Heritage Court, Edgarton, WI 53534. (608) 884-2368. |
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