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A series on the history of beer premiering during Lent. Considering how each series is chosen, I'm confident it's just a coincidence, but the comedic timing's impeccable.

The Catholic Church has several patron saints of beer, including my favorite saint story: Arnulf Of Metz was a bishop in France with a devoted following in his home parish. When he died, those parishoners made a pilgrimage to retrieve hia body, but ran out of water on the way and asked for his intervention. Legend holds that their water containers then filled with beer that lasted them the rest of the journey.

The "Pots that make the beer good" made me laugh out loud, i love it when we translate ancient things and they are literal descriptors. It makes ancient peoples far more relatable. As always a great video.

As a Bavarian i am a living example of a civilisation build by, with and for Beer

My father has always been more of a beer drinker than me. But years ago I found a beer company that fit my history loving side and his search for a good beer. Dogfish Head Brewery had an "Ancient Ales" line, where they worked with archeologists to try to re-create ancient brews from what has been found in those ancient pots that make the beer good. Solid stuff.

Once upon a Netflix there was a documentary called ‘how beer saved the world.’ Hard to find anymore but now the beer-goddess provides us with this.

I think the 1% alcohol point is important contextually. You’d have to drink a lot fast to get sloppy, which I think is important to note when the common narrative was “everyone before coffee came to Europe was at least pretty tipsy all the time”

As someone who built a civilization with beer i can confirm that everything inside of this video is factually true.

As a professional brewer, I have been looking forward to this series since you first mentioned you were doing a series on beer. I can't believe its finally here.

As someone who just recently landed a job at Anheuser -Busch, the timing of this series is rather timely for me

"Beer! The cause of, and solution to, all of life's problems!" -Homer Homer Simpson

30 years ago my favourite Anthropology Prof spent two entire classes explaining his theory of how brewing beer was the actual drive for domesticating grains and therefore civilation.

Fun fact! In the radiant city of Lyon, France (look, I live here) there is a brand of craft beer and brasserie named Ninkasi, from the name of the goddess. After we heard about that from one of the waiter, we took the habit to start each meal there with a toast to Ninkasi.

"We need a spirit of victory, a spirit that will carry us to our rightful place under the sun, a spirit which can recognize that we, as inheritors of a proud civilization, are entitled to our rightful place on this planet. If that indomitable spirit were to arise, nothing can hold us from achieving our rightful destiny." -C. V. Raman

As a alcoholic in training, i must say this new series has me hooked

Bible scholar here. Wine was wine, the possible translation issue is with another word, previously commonly translated as "strong drink".

Seeing Cthulhu with some beer makes me smile. Absolutely looking forward to more videos in this series.

"Is there enough to say about beer to fill an episode?" To which I respond with a quote from "The Epic of Gilgamesh": "Here is bread, the staff of life and beer, the staff of civilization."

Today I learned the origin of the name Ninkasi. Which is also the name of a fantastic craft brewery in Eugene, OR. I guess they knew their history!

It really is remarkable how much the story of "beer" is the story of civilization. I actually read a very interesting book called The History of the World in Six Glasses, which goes over the history of six drinks that defined human history. Beer, wine, distilled spirits, coffee, tea, and soda. It is a very fascinating perspective to take on history.

Just realized that the local brewery in my home town is named after the goddess of fermentation. This is officially a rabbit hole

I just love David's art for these more "abstract" series

Brazilians who watched the Empire of Brazil series, after discovering that the following series was about beer: “We can stay a little longer…” No joke: Brazil is the third greatest beer market in the world, after USA and China.

It’s nice to see EH’s classic art back for a big series again!

Fun fact: Humans living in early agricultural societies were shorter and weaker than their hunter gatherer cousins. They worked longer and had less time for recreation. The only upside to agriculture in the early days was booze.

I know that I am going to love this series. One mistake though, the alcohol in beer does not kill the bacteria. This is a wives tale. In order to make beer, you have to cook the wort. It is the heat from the cooking, that kills the bacteria. Thanks for the vid

For extra reading check out Garrett Oliver's "The Brewmaster's Table." The first chapter is a great look at how we discovered fermentation (in fact our first fermented beverage was likely the simplest, therefore mead but not in the viking style) Also, his analysis of styles by time period and region has yet to be outdone and he gives ideas for pairing that would make a sommelier blush. The history of humanity goes hand in hand with the zymurgic arts and I'm thrilled to see this!

"beer the drink that built civilization"those six words explain so much

watching the history of beer while drinking beer is quality

Ancient Egyptians paid their workers in beer and bread, every person would get the same amaunt. You could see that in Assassin's Creed Origin's.

Heck, you could make a series on just the ingredients of beer. For example, the rise of hops over gruit was probably the first example of mass production destroying cottage industries. Before the widespread cultivation of hops, beers were flavored with gruit - mixtures of sweet and bitter herbs taken from local forests. Monasteries in particular would have forest lands set aside so that they would have access to these herbs for their brewing needs. The interesting thing is with gruit, there's literally infinite combinations of flavor profiles, and each and every local brew truly was unique - that whole fantasy trope of adventurers getting into arguments about whose town has the best beer actually was a thing in medieval times. So why did hops win in the end? Part of the reason is taxes - gruits were effectively patented and owned by monasteries, and as towns grew larger and more taverns appeared the monasteries would continue to charge church taxes for anyone using their gruit recipes. The gruit taxes did not apply to hops, so over time because hops were cheaper brewers came to use them more and more. Hops are also easier to grow at scale - instead of relying on finding herbs out in a forest, you can simply grow the hops on trellises in your garden. The final nail in the coffin was the fact that hops are a preservative - and just as we over-salt our foods today to extend their shelf life, late medieval brewers switched to hops so that they could store their beer for longer before it turned. In the end, increasing profits for brewers and the bottom line won out over gruit recipes that were centuries old, and today we can only speculate what portions of herbs went into a typical gruit. What we do know is that while the switch was happening, it seems almost universal that beer enjoyers preferred the flavors of gruit beers over hopped beers, and they bemoaned the dying art of making a good gruit. We may have given up a superior flavor of beer all for a bit longer shelf life and a slightly higher profit for brewers.

"Beer is the cause and solution to all of life's problems."-Homer Simpson.

I too have read Robert Evans’ “A Brief History of Vice”

Aphrodite: I am the goddess of love. Hera: I am the goddess of matrimony. Athena: I am the goddess of wisdom. Ninkasi: I am the goddess of beer. Phrat boys: You had me at beer.

Series like this are really cool. I hope in the future we can see more series focused on the history of goods and crops like this.

I am glad to have found this channel again. Some 2 years I think now. It is great to watch these series once again and to see how much has changed. I was there for the first early ones like the Sengoku Jedai, Sun Yat-sen, and the Punic War. Man has time flown.

Chocolate: I bring happines and... Coffe: I brought the enlightment Beer: amateurs

Can't WAIT for the rest of this series!!

I love your guys, I think we all really needed that kind of content right now.

I love you guys. The topics, the way to present it. It's always amazing. And now, you even talk about the most important topic of all: Beer, the foundation of civilizations ;)

Beer, and alcoholic beverages in general, have been some of the most influential liquids, or substances for that matter, in human history, right next to water.

I'm seriously looking forward to the rest of this series! Thanks Extra History! 😊

“Here's to alcohol, the cause of, and solution to, all life's problems.” -Homer Simpson

Fun fact the oldest still existing companies in Europe are all breweries.

I love how excited you are in this episode

This is why I love your channel with your guys honesty and know when to get serious and when to have a laugh

Actually, the current consensus is that beer precided bread when grule was accidentally allowed to ferment.

Ah two of my favorite things, Beer and History.

I work at a Brewery and Liquor store in Alberta. This could easily be the biggest topic you covered.

"To Alcohol! The cause of... and solution to... all of life's problems" Homer Simpson

Great video to see being a homebrewer after a succesfull brewday!

Kratos: Finally, a story worth hearing (But seriously you guys just stumbled on a can of worms here cause of the deep history of beer, but I'm glad to see this episode since I'm a home brewer)

I've waited for this for so long! Nice!

I love the people who makes these series because this makes up most of what I am going to talk about when Im with my friends

SO EXCITED FOR THIS SERIES

What a refreshing topic, cheers!

First coffee now alcohol. Two of my favorite things! I actually once read an archaeology article that hypothesized that neolithic people in Scotland developed their agriculture for the primary purpose of producing greater amounts of alcohol. Yes, prehistoric Scots may have taken up agriculture so they could get drunk. Alcohol was also partially responsible for the conversion of the Baltics to the Byzantine Greek orthodox christianity. Supposedly Vladimir the Great chose Greek Orthodoxy over Islam because Islam prohibited alcohol, stating that "Drink is the joy of all Rus".

Beer gives me childhood Christmas nostalgia no matter how old I get 🥰

I'm so excited for this series

This was awesome!

Fascinating stuff 👍

Cracked open a cold one for this...it's going to be a good series

As a Sumerologist, it is wonderful to see such a succinct and accurate summary of the history of ancient Sumer and Mesopotamia. Bravo!!!

Most recent archeological evidence I have seen actually suggests that beer came before bread.

Thank you for the video.

Cool subject & I LOVE the sound of the campaign world :D

I like it when they explain the history of many mundane things.

Yes. The water of life. I've been waiting for this.

This was the history lesson I needed when I was in school.

This will be an interesting one

Ooo looking forward to the series! Should really add that the 'beer' they were drinking to replace water in towns and cities did not have the alcohol level that we have today, it was much more watered down.

hope you make an episode on koji too, it's just as fascinating as yeast

Awesome, I am so looking forward to the part of the beer story that creates what we now believe to be the stereotype of witch.

lmao the no maidens part at the sponsorship part got me laughing

Finally the history of my favorite drink!

This was what I was waiting for

Finally one of my favorite channels speaking my language.

I remember my professor telling us in a lecture that the biggest difference between the primates related to us and humans is the ability to digest fermented foods and alcohol, and that this mutation of one gene is the reason that civilization exists.

I can’t wait to learn more!

Love your series wish I could donate

i loved this

"The pots that make the beer good" sounds like something I'd come up with while plastered.......wait a minute

*gets sloshed* *goes on youtube* *sees the episode about history of beer* Well, that checks out 😂👌 also, Ctulhu sipping beer is the official highlight of my month

I love beer, it's in my top 2. Now we need a series on the other one. WINE!

guys love your work wondering if you guys would ever consider making a video of the Taino people in the Caribbean of their history and spiritual practice food for thought

Oddly enough, I'm enjoying a beer as I watch this. Cheers!

I wonder if the whole "drinking beer was safer than the water" was true for urban centers and downstream and it just expanded outwards to where the water was relatively clean.

Really liked the wooden sattelite at 5:11

Etymologically, the word civilization relates to the Latin term civitas, or 'city', which is why it sometimes refers to urban state-level societies, setting aside the nomadic people who lack a permanent settlement and those who live in settlements that are not considered urban or do not have a state-level organization. Sometimes it can be used as a label for human societies which have attained a specific degree of complexity.

the conditions of a society were gradually improving. As part of these changes, it was believed, societies experienced different stages: savagery, barbarism and, finally, civilization. Civilization, Palaeolithic and Mesolithic hunter-gatherer communities were considered part of the savagery stage, Neolithic and Bronze Age farmers as part of the barbarism stage, and finally Bronze Age urban communities (particularly those in the Near East)

First coffee now beer?! Extra History out here hitting all the essentials now!

Wow didn't know that there was so much history of beer

Glad to see a series on this. Just as a note, Wort on the context of brewing is pronounced Wert, not wart like the plants

I'm ready for beer trivia!

Watching this while enjoying a cold one. Prost!

Beer and Extra History doing a lesson on beer!? I’m so flattered, you’re spoiling me.

Ok those yeast characters are ADORABLE!

Who knew beer had such an influence in human history?? I never did. And now I'm thankful for EC for making this series. Thank you EC!!!

It is so international and historical that not only people of the Old World nor the Fertile Crecent had access to it, but people og the American continente did also. It was and is still made with corn or cassava and it is used for cooking, for drinking in social gatherings and for religious/ chamanic rituals. There is a chronicle written down by Garcilaso that states that at the Feast of the Sun (Inti Raymi, which is much like a New Year Party), the Inca toasted with the Sun god and he poured his cup into an aqueduct which drained from Sacsayhuaman fortress to the Temple of the Sun. Heck! you even have a similar anecdote in your Inca Empire series, in which a similar meeting was done between two mummies.