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08/07/2008
So I am reading this book, the aforementioned title of
this blog, and it is extremely interesting. It was
produced by Arnold Palmer (not the golfer) and written
for the 25th Anniversary of the Wahl-Henius Institute
back in 1911. The book as the title states,
scientifically and historically looks back in history
to discover when and how beer was developed and who
first recorded brewing. It traverses through centuries
uo to and including modern day, which in this case is
almost 100years ago,1911. The book is written in a
very emphatic manner and really tells the story
thoroughly but the author does not claim a stake that
which acknowledges a time or civilation because there
were no written documents to be exact.
One thing I learned and maybe knew but never really
thought about it. The book explains that beer was not
introduced to any civilation, this I knew. In fact it
was common for every civilation to have made beer in
some sort of fashion because cereals were cultivated.
What really got my attention is that up until around
the 11th century (1000 ad) Hops were not used commonly
as bittering agents. Gruit, commonly a mix of
elderberries, juniper berries and rosemary, was used
for the flavoring and bittering of the malt beverage.
In fact Hops were strictly not used due to laws that
prohibited their inclusion to beer. The reason for
this is because gruit was taxable by law and hops were
not and mostly those educated in botony and supported
by the high priests grew such plants as elderberry,
juniper plants, and rosemary. (The only reason I
mention these spices is because these were the most
common. There were of course others that were used to
in many different cultures.)
The first recording of the use of hops was somewhere
around 987 ad, during the reign of Charles the Great
(Charlemagne). However, this is not what intrigues me.
What intrigues me is the fact that with the
introduction of hops came a brewing revolution. This
development sparked the trade of beer because hops
grwoing in different regions produced different flavors
and although prevelant, the plants do not grow in every
region of the world....
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