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Times In History Beer Changed the World
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Jul 16, 2025
There are so many ways beer changed history, you have to wonders what kind of world we would live in if the vital, hoppy nectar had never been invented. From the earliest civilizations to the modern day, beer has had a major impact on the trajectory of history. Read on for a deeper understanding of how and why the carbonated delight changed the world.
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When we think of the forces that shape history
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we tend to think of things like war, famine, natural disasters, and disease
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And while few people would include a tall, frosty beer on the list, the truth is beer's influence on history
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is arguably as pronounced as any of those other factors. There are so many ways beer changed history
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you have to wonder what kind of world we would live in if the vital hoppy nectar had never been invented
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So today, we're going to take a look at times beer has changed history. Saddle up to your screen with a tall, frosty beverage. This video is a hoppy one
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Homer Simpson once opined that alcohol was the cause of, and solution to, all of life's problems
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But even he would probably be surprised to learn that beer is, at least arguably
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the catalyst of civilization itself. You see, it was originally theorized that migratory humans
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settled to harvest grain from which bread was made. But in 2013, a paper that appeared
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in the Journal of Archaeological Method and Theory suggested that harvesting barley for beer
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predated harvesting wheat for bread by more than 3,000 years. The paper cited archaeological evidence
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from the Mediterranean and was corroborated by evidence found in Mexico. This means that critical developments
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in human civilization, from the plow to irrigation to the wheel, were driven by a love of beer
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This argument heavily suggests that beer is the reason civilization began. So maybe instead of the breadbasket of civilization
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we should all start referring to the beer keg of civilization. Without beer, we wouldn't have the only one of the seven wonders of the ancient world that still stands today
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You see, as it turns out, the Egyptians used beer as medicine and currency for those who built the pyramids
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Writing in Smithsonian Magazine, Dr. Patrick McGovern explained that beer was of utmost importance
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It was a source of nutrition, refreshment, and reward for all the hard work
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It was beer for pay. That's right. The laborers who built the pyramids performed their work in exchange for beer
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According to Dr. McGovern, you would have had a rebellion on your hands if they'd run out
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The pyramids might not have been built if there hadn't been enough beer
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Irukajina was a Mesopotamian king who ruled over the city-states of Lagash and Nghirsu
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in the 24th century BCE. His predecessor as ruler was wildly corrupt, so in an attempt to combat the problem, Irukajina
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made some rules to combat corruption. That set of rules, now known as the Code of Irukajina, is often cited as the first legal
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code in history One of the most interesting aspects of the code is that it prescribed beer as a central unit of payment and penance for civilization So for example one of the things the code specifies
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regarding burial costs is that, for a corpse being brought to the grave, his beer shall be three jugs
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and his bread 80 loaves. Similarly, 60 loaves of bread, one mud vessel of beer, and three band of
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barley are for the person who is to perform as the Sangbor priest, king, or god. And so, in the very
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first instance of written law and order in civilization, beer was currency. Sometimes
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the old ways are the best ways. In the Middle Ages, water sources were full of disease
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and drinking contaminated water was sure to bring on parasites like Giardia, if not something worse
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As the brewing process for beer involved boiling water, then fermentation, the final product was
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free of bacteria. That is probably why, in the 16th century, annual beer consumption in Britain
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was 530 pints for every man, woman, and child, or three times the amount consumed in the 21st
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century. Having access to beer was about way more than getting drunk. It was literally a matter of
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life and death. Medieval Europe was not a particularly fun, fragrant, or healthy place
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On the contrary, it was dirty, smelly, and full of disease. Childbirth, especially labor pain, was brutal and typically exacerbated by the squalid
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conditions and ignorance in which many women lived. To help things along, midwives would typically administer beer instead of water to their patients
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Again, this was because many, if not most, water sources were contaminated
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These midwives had their own brew, known as groaning ale, which was given to pregnant
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women when contractions began. Sometimes, the baby was even washed in a 7- or 8-month-old ale immediately after birth
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While some consider taking a bath in beer today as an excess
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back then, the process saved countless lives. The Wrocław Beer War was a Cold War waged in the Polish city of Wrocław
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now Wrocław, beginning in 1380. The war started because both the city council and the church
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sought profit from beer sales. The standoff between the mayor and the bishop became so intense
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that when King Václav IV visited the city in 1381, he found the bishop had shut down all religious services
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To express his unhappiness at the state of affairs, the king had his troops sack every religious site in the city
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Intervention from the pope himself was eventually required to get Václav back under control
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In the wake of the Beer War the city council worried about future threats to its dominion created a restrictive oligarchy This led in 1418 to open revolt during which six members of the council including
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the mayor, were executed by an angry mob. The emperor returned the favor by lopping the craniums off of the 30 revolt leaders
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and boiling, tarring, and impaling their heads on spikes on the city walls
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Very subtle. The Pilgrims were initially headed to Virginia to start their lives in the New World
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That plan fell apart, however, because the Mayflower was running low on beer
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The journey across the Atlantic had taken longer than expected, and Captain Jones
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commander of the Mayflower, needed to get ships ashore as quickly as possible to have
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enough beer to make the return voyage to England. It's tempting to imagine the Mayflower didn't want to set sail without beer because it was
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a ship full of party animals. But in truth, beer was simply the main beverage for long sea voyages since it kept well, whereas
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water easily became brackish. So it was because of beer that the Pilgrims landed at Plymouth Rock instead of pushing
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further down the coast. At Plymouth Rock, they fortunately happened upon Squanto, a Native American who had been
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to England and back, and therefore spoke English. Squanto helped the Pilgrims work the land and live alongside the natives
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If the Pilgrims had traveled just a little bit further, they may have never met Squanto
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who helped them through their first winter. So we could also say that beer saved Thanksgiving
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Early colonists in America were good at a lot of things, but brewing wasn't one of them
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Native Americans had been brewing beer since before the colonists arrived, but their recipes didn't use barley
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So at first, colonists relied on shipments of beer from England to get their brew
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Fed up with waiting for ships to cross the oceans, in 1609, colonists placed a full-page advertisement in a London newspaper
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looking for experienced brewers to come to the New World and share their skills
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It was the first help wanted ad in the New World. A number of brewers took up the offer, and thus began America's first non-native breweries
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In a world before conference calls and the internet, big decisions were made on a personal level
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The Sons of Liberty, who planned the Boston Tea Party, did so at the Green Dragon Tavern in Boston's North End
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Taverns were a common community gathering place in the 18th century, and they served myriad roles
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in the lead up to the American Revolution. The Green Dragon, for example, was the principal meeting
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place of the Sons of Liberty. By many accounts, the Boston of back then
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wasn't really all that different than the Boston of today. So you know the Sons were doing more than talking
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at the Green Dragon. While a beer flood sounds like something frat brothers do to initiate pledges it not
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It's actually something terrifying and deadly. The London beer flood occurred on October 17, 1814, in the London parish of St. Giles
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It all started when a massive beer vat at the Mew & Company brewery ruptured
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causing a domino effect, resulting in 388,000 gallons of beer spewing into the streets
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The power of the surge collapsed two houses and crumbled the wall of a nearby pub
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It also flooded a nearby house hosting a wake. Tragically, eight people died in the incident, almost all of them women and children
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When Louis Pasteur discovered bacteria, he was conducting his experiments on beer
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Pasteur was actually trying to understand why beer sometimes spoiled. When he came to the conclusion that bacteria was the culprit, a light bulb went off
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Pasteur quickly theorized that if bacteria could make beer sick, it could make humans ill too
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Prohibition in America led to some pretty nasty incidents in the 1920s
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During the period, crime and the illegal distribution of alcohol completely took over Chicago
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At the time, Al Capone was the most notorious and successful gangster in the city, earning
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a reported $60 million a year from the sale of illegal alcohol at one point
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Despite Capone's success, however, he was far from being the only game in town
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There were plenty of others trying to get in on the lucrative illegal beer market
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In fact, at the time, the Irish-American gangster Frank McCurlain had a reputation for being
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every bit as nasty as Capone. And according to some, he was even more central
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to the slayings of the beer wars. The Illinois Crime Survey even called him
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the most brutal gunman who ever pulled a trigger in Chicago. Luckily for Chicago, prohibition was repealed
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with the passage of the 21st Amendment on January 16, 1919. Without beer, Milwaukee is just another Midwestern city
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With beer, Milwaukee became one of the most dominant and important cities in America in
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the late 1800s, and stayed so through the 1950s. It was even the setting for the beloved nostalgia-soaked sitcom, Happy Days
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Ironically, one of the greatest reasons for the success of Milwaukee's breweries was the
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Great Chicago Fire of 1871. The fire decimated the Chicago brewing industry and provided Milwaukee with a huge market
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just a few hours down the road. Using already strong railroad links to move beer out of Chicago and around the country
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cemented Milwaukee as a leading economic player in America. Beer had so much influence on Milwaukee, they even called their Major League Baseball team
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the Brewers
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