10000 before Christ, Asia Minor

The history of beer production started perhaps 12 thousand years ago. The cradle of the amber beverage is probably Asia Minor. Beer acquired its primary character thanks to the process of fermentation of the cake which contained barley and wheat flour and which was later submitted to the process of fermentation in the water. Such a murky alcoholic beverage became the ancestor of today’s beer.

5000 before Christ, Mesopotamia

It was then that a real beer revolution begins. It is a totally new chapter in the history of brewing that begins in the moment of using germinated grains for beer production. The main component of the beverage is barley and spelt, which after the process of germinating are slightly baked and next submitted to fermentation.

4000 before Christ, Sumers

The first material evidence proving the production of beer appears. Thanks to clay plates covered with cuneiform script we learn about Sumers’ beer – SIKARU. Ancient brewers were preparing over 20 kinds of this alcoholic beverage. They were considered to be, among others, a remedy to certain illnesses. It was also used as a means of payment by which to pay people who worked on temples’ construction. The Sumers’ beer also had a sacral character. It was offered in sacrifice to gods.

2000 before Christ. Babylonian Empire

In the ever more extended social structure beer became ever more popular. Its taste and look were still different from today’s image. The beverage was murky and dark. Hammurabi himself was taking care of production quality and consumer satisfaction by placing in his famous Code an appropriate legal clause which imposed high fines on dishonest brewers. If the beer turned out to be undrinkable, its producer could even be drawn in his own product.

1700 before Christ, ancient Egypt

Osiris himself became the patron of beer producers and the beverage started to be really successful. Egyptians were drinking several kinds of beer called ZYTHUM. Lower social layers were consuming its light version. Every worker employed by pyramid construction had a right to 5 liters of beer. Dignitaries, clerks and priests preferred dark versions with an enriched aroma and taste obtained thanks to adding honey, ginseng and dates.

Ancient Greece and Rome

Beer was replaced by wine. Although the process of fermentation was known in most provinces of the Empire, beer was not very popular. The beverage was consumed above all by lower social layers and by “barbarians” - conquered and invincible tribes living in Northern Europe (Scandinavia, Gaul – it was here that maintenance and transport of beer in barrels was invented), Germania.

1000 after Christ, medieval Europe

Beer lost its sacral position. In the Christian world its place was overtaken by wine, although the amber beverage was produced above all in monasteries and abbeys of medieval Europe. Its monks who were the first ones to introduce hop into the process of beer production. Slowly regions specializing in local beer production formed. Some of them have survived until nowadays, which proves the strength of local brands in light of trade globalisation.

1516 after Christ, Holy Roman Empire

The Bavaria elect, prince Wilhelm issued a legal act, the so-called Reinheitsgebot or in other words the right to use three components: barley, hop and water. These principles are valid in Germany until nowadays.

1842 after Christ, Czech

Local brewers led to a genuine beer revolution. The traditional way of brewing beer by upper fermentation was rejected although it had been used in Europe at least for a thousand years. For the first time, thanks to the so-called lower fermentation, they obtained a beverage that was golden, clear and saturated with CO2. Another step approaching beer to today’s standards was the year 1920 when beer pasteurisation was used for the first time in order to preserve it.