Beer : Health and Nutrition

32 Chapter Two
In those far-off times, beer featured centrally as a foodstuff rather than as an accompaniment.
Hesseltine (1979) indicates that a typical consumption must have been about
a litre per day at 2% alcohol. The straw used for drinking was of clay or reed for the
general population, but gold or silver for the rich and powerful. Some 40% of the grain
in Sumeria was used for beer production. A workman in the temple got 1.75 pints per
day, with senior dignitaries getting ve times that level (Singer et al. 1954–58).
By the early Egyptian period the contemporary brewing practices were rmly in
place (Tannahill 1973). Dough was made from sprouted and dried grains and partially
baked. These loaves were then broken up and soaked in water and allowed to ferment
for about a day. Then the liquid was strained off and the beer was ready for drinking. As
Singer observes, Egyptian brewers were soon making variously spiced and avoured
beer breads, allowing for a diversity of beers. There was a superintendent of breweries
to ensure that purveyors only made available the best and purest products (Fleming
1975).
Of course they had no control over the yeast because they had no notion that it existed,
although they would have discovered that older cracked jars, with more hiding places
for organisms ‘naturally selected’ for the purpose, would have given better results. It
wasn’t until later that Pliny the Elder (AD 23–79) reported that the Gauls and Iberians
were skimming beer for the purpose of re-inoculating the next batch. The brewers were
women, who sold their beer from home. The Code of Hammurabi (1750 BC) condemned
alehouses for their under-strength and over-priced beers and also had a decree regarding
those who diluted the beer (Saggs 1965). Those who overcharged for their beer were
to be drowned.
In Egypt the most common beer was haq (hek) made from the red barley of the Nile
(Tannahill 1973). Compared to some other products that we believe reached alcohol
contents similar to modern wines (i.e. about 12%), haq seems to have been quite ‘mild’.
Bread, beer and onions seemed to form the basic diet of the dynastic Egyptian peasant.
Beer was deemed to be essential for general wellbeing. The Ebers papyrus, a sort of
pharmacists’ standard text, listed the ingredients for diverse medicines, of which more
than 100 of the 700 were made with beer (Fleming 1975).
Brewing travels west
The Egyptians passed on their brewing techniques to the Greeks, though wine was
the preferred drink for that empire and also for the Romans. Greek tradition says that
Dionysus ed from Mesopotamia in disgust owing to its people being addicted to beer
(Tannahill 1973). Beer was the mainstay of more northern cultures and the Germanic
and Celtic races. In the rst century AD the Britons and Hiberni (Irish) were making
kourmi from barley, a crop that had probably been cultivated in England since 3000 BC