The Babylonians were brewing beer as long ago as 4300 BC - their
recipes are preserved on clay tablets.
Around 1600 BC the Egyptians were using beer as a medicine - what
a
prescription to get!
Julius Caesar toasted his troops in beer after crossing the
Rubicon and
starting a civil war.
In 23 BC the Chinese brewed beer called “kiu”.
By 1000 AD hops were being used in brewing.
In the middle ages brewing was largely done by women, known as
brewsters. There is an argument that the period should be renamed the
‘too good to be true' ages.
In 1420 the Germans started making lager - and shortly after that
the British began drinking it in vast quantities.
In 1490 Columbus found that Native American were already making
beer
(presumably to sell to the British).
Elizabeth I drank beer for breakfast.
The first beer in a can was brewed in 1935, and was later left
in a shop doorway.
