Adonis Diaries

Beer: Built the Pyramids, caused the settlement of mankind, and amassed Capital…

232 million of gallons of beer were needed to build the Giza Pyramid. Each worker was compensated with 2 gallons of non-alcoholic  beer for along  day work. Beer was most nutritive and safest liquid to drink by everyone one, including kids.  Water was too polluted to dare drink and the brewing process eliminated many bacteria in the water .

Just figure out the quantity of barley that was necessary to produce and import for the brewing of beer.

For example, if not for beer drinking, far more than 50% of the Europeans in Medieval period would have died before the age of 6.

Beer brewing was discovered about 9,000 years BC, while bread was invented less than 6,000 years ago.

Nations were considered wealthy according to the amount of beer produced.

Beer was used as medicine as well for gum diseases and for bowel problems. The tetracycline (an antibiotic) in beer cured many illnesses.

Alcoholic beer is a modern product and consequently, women and children were banned from drinking beer on the ground of not that healthy for consumption on a large scale.

Beer was the first and most widely traded commodity, and remained so even in our time.

Mariners survived on beer during their long voyage since it didn’t spoil.

People in Europe of the 16th century consumed beer 6 times as much as today and everyone drank beer for fear of drinking water and because it was very affordable.

The monks in monasteries were the main brewers on an economical scale and the monasteries were filthy rich and prosperous. And beer was promised to people attending mass.

In the Arabic Empire, the Christian monasteries in Iraq and Syria were very prosperous because they were the main beer brewers. The caliphs and government officials paid regular visits to monasteries in order to drink at their leisure.

Actually, Wine or Khamra in Arabic and Persian poems referred to beer.

Beer brewing was the first means for amassing capital.

George Washington, Thomas Jefferson, Sam Adams… were brewers of beer on large scale.

Taverns, the first communication hubs, were created to cater for beer drinkers during breaks, before workers return home and during trips to other villages.

Do you believe the Green Dragon Tavern in Boston was the catalyst for the Boston Tea Party insurrection?

The melody of America’s national anthem (the Star Spangled Banner) is a 17th century beer drinking song.

Refrigeration was developed for the beer brewing industry and applied to control the temperature for the Lager kind.

And Carl von Linda invented the first commercial refrigerating machines in 1881.

Michael Owens invented in 1904 the mass automated production of beer glasses. This automation almost wiped out child labor within a decade.

Benjamin Franklin said: “Beer is the proof that God loves us and wants us to be happy”

Note 1: Inspired by an article of Jean Maroun Aziz published in the Lebanese magazine Beryte

Note 2: If the beer industry start producing very affordable non-alcoholic beer at a large scale, maybe mankind will have another chance to survive from these heavily polluted rivers and water sources.