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Date Created: 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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Keywords: History, Hops, Origin, Brewing, Beer
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