Which country invented beer, and how long is its history?

Beer is one of the most popular drinks in the world today, and its origin is legendary. In the Neolithic Age, an forgetful baker inadvertently left the dough used to make bread in the sun for a long time, and the dough gradually became liquid and began to ferment, thus discovering the earliest beer brewing method. There are different opinions about the origin of beer. Literature records that the origin of beer can be traced back to 9000 years ago. Assyrians in Central Asia (present-day Syria) presented tribute wine to the goddess Niharo, which was made of barley. It is also said that Sumerians who lived in the two river basins about 4000 years ago knew how to brew beer. At that time, the consumption of beer was very large, and half of the food collected by Sumerians was used to malt and then brew beer. At about the same time, it is said that Sumerians near Iran not only brewed beer, but also carved the formula on clay tablets and presented it to the goddess of farming. Up to now, this cultural relic that records the method of winemaking is still preserved in Paris. The Louvre in Paris stands a dark green stone pillar more than two meters high, engraved with the famous code of hammurabi 3,700 years ago. In this world's earliest written code, King Hammurabi of Babylon (the sixth king of the first dynasty of Babylon, who ruled Babylon from 1792 BC to 1750 BC) made laws and regulations on beer brewing and drinking. In addition, in Berlin, Syrians and Egyptians drink beer through small tubes.

This can be clearly seen in the limestone murals exhibited in the Egyptian part of geological museum. 1994 On the Washington post, archaeologists from the University of Washington and the University of South Carolina discovered a wine-making workshop on the banks of the Nile, which contained four barrels. Through the analysis of black substances in jars, experts know that jars are used to brew beer, which has a history of 5400 years. This discovery provides a leap for the saying that beer originated in Egypt.

All these show that beer and its technology spread quickly. But the embryonic form of beer to modern beer is not-overnight. Some original beer is made by adding water to germinated barley and storing it in an open container for natural fermentation; Some are made of barley and millet bread, crushed and fermented in water; Others add spices to fermented wine and boil it before drinking. In 786 AD, a German.

Monks tried to use hops in beer production, which improved the quality of beer. But it was not until the15th century that hops were officially identified as the flavor of beer. 1850- 1880, French pasteur established the physiological viewpoint of microorganisms and created the famous pasteurization method: 1878, Rolenc Enzger developed a filter device, which can remove turbid substances in beer; In A.D. 188 1 year, the Danish Emile Kerk.

Christian Hansen discovered a large number of fermentation strains, and soon he successfully cultivated these strains: subsequently, refrigerators began to be used in the beer industry. These new technologies make beer brewing enter a new stage of industrial scale, and modern beer is basically stereotyped.

Throughout the above historical stories, it is not difficult to understand that wine, a magical drink, is the crystallization of human civilization. Therefore, it is of certain historical and practical value to study the history of wine, understand its present situation and explore its future. As for the origin of wine, it remains to be explored, studied and demonstrated by historians and archaeologists. For modern consumers, it is most important to enjoy the fun brought by wine.

The Origin of Wine —— Di Yi's Brewing Theory

According to legend, during the Xia and Yu Dynasties, Yidi invented wine making. The history book of the 2nd century BC> As the saying goes, "One brother makes wine". & gt further explained: "In those days, the emperor's daughter asked Yidi to make the wine beautiful, and when she entered Yu, Yu drank it and was willing to make it. On this day:' There must be a country that drinks wine in the future. "Therefore, I neglected etiquette and morality, but I never wanted to drink" (Emperor in Xia Nai).

There are many references in Historical Records to Yidi's "making wine for beauty" and "initiating wine mash". It seems that Yidi is the ancestor of wine making. Whether this is true or not needs further study. There is a saying that "Yi Di makes mash and Du Kang makes wine". There is no chronological order here. It seems that they are making different wines. "Laozi" is an "old jujube" made from glutinous rice fermentation. Soft and sweet, it is mostly produced in Jiangsu and Zhejiang provinces. Now many families still make their own mash. The mash is white and delicate, and the thick mash can be used as the staple food, and the clear juice on it is quite close to wine. "Zi" is another name for sorghum. Du Kang liquor-making means that the raw material used in Du Kang liquor-making is sorghum. If Yidi or Du Kang is the founder of wine, it can only be said that Yidi is the founder of yellow rice wine and Du Kang is the founder of sorghum wine.

There is a saying that "the rise of wine originates from the emperor and becomes virtue". It means that since the era of three emperors and five emperors in ancient times, various brewing methods have been popular among the people. It is easy to summarize these brewing methods and spread them to later generations. Of course, it is not ordinary people who can carry out this kind of summary and promotion work, so it is not unreasonable to think that Yidi is an official in charge of brewing in some books. After Yi Di made wine, Yu once "snubbed Yi Di", which also proved that Yi Di and Yu were very close to being officials.

When did Yidi come? Compared with Du Kang, the records in ancient books are more consistent. For example, Shi Ben, Lu Chunqiu and Warring States Policy all think that he came from the Yu Xia era. What exactly is his job? Is he a "craftsman" in the brewing industry or a subordinate of Yu Xia? Where was he born and buried? There is no conclusive historical data to test. So, how did he invent brewing? "The Warring States Policy" said: "In the past, the emperor and daughter ordered Yidi to make wine beautiful, and when it was time, Yu Qin was willing to make it, so she spared Yidi and refused to make wine, saying,' Someone will die of his country with wine in the future.' "Compared with other ancient books about Du Kang's brewing industry, this record is detailed. According to this record, the general situation is as follows: Women in Yu Xia asked Yidi to supervise brewing. After some efforts, Yidi made the wine delicious, so she gave it to Yu Xia for tasting. Yu Xia felt really beautiful after drinking it. However, Yu Xia, revered as the "holy king" by later generations, not only failed to reward Yidi for making wine, but alienated him from now on. Not only did he no longer trust him, but he also broke with the wine himself. What else is there to say: there will be kings who have lost their country because of drinking. The consequence of this record circulating in the world is that some people respect Yu Xia more and push him to be a clean and enlightened monarch; Because of "hating wine", Yi Di's image has become a villain who specializes in flattery. This is really unexpected for historians.

So, is Yi Di the "initiator" of wine? In some ancient books, there are contradictory statements with Shiben. For example, Confucius, the grandson of Confucius VIII, said that Emperor Yao and Emperor Shun were kings who drank a lot. Before Xia, Huangdi, Yao and Shun were all good drinkers. Who brewed the wine they drank? It can be seen that it is inaccurate to say that Yu Xia's ministers belong to Yidi. In fact, brewing wine with grain is a very complicated procedure and technology, which is difficult to complete by personal strength. It seems unlikely that Yidi can invent wine first. If he is a craftsman, master or official who is good at brewing, it is still possible that he summed up the experience of his predecessors, perfected the brewing method and finally brewed a good quality wine mash. Therefore, Guo Moruo said, "According to legend, joy chen Yidi began to make wine, which refers to the purpose wine that is sweeter and stronger than the wine in primitive society." This statement seems more credible.

The origin of wine

There are different opinions about the origin of wine. But we can say exactly that people have been drinking wine for more than 7000 years. At least according to archaeological data, the earliest grape growing area was AsiaMinon, the Asian part of Turkey today. Most historians believe that Persia (now Iran) was the first country to brew wine, and recent archaeological discoveries strongly prove this view. Xinhua News Agency reported on June 6th 1996: Archaeologists excavated a jar in a village in the late Stone Age in zagros mountains, northern Iran, which proved that people started drinking wine more than 7,000 years ago, 2,000 years earlier than previous archaeological discoveries. In an article for the British magazine Nature, McGovern of Pennsylvania State University said that the jar was made in 54 15 BC, and it also contained residual wine and resin to prevent the wine from turning into vinegar.

In addition, a large number of reliefs and murals found in ancient Egyptian tombs clearly reflected the scenes of ancient Egyptians farming, harvesting grapes and brewing wine at that time. In the tomb of a prince named "Men" 4,000 years ago, there was a mural depicting the method of squeezing grape juice at that time-putting grapes into a bag, and people clamped the grapes in the bag with two sticks to make the grape juice flow out.

Greece is the first country in Europe to grow grapes and make wine. With travelers and new conquerors, Greek grape cultivation and brewing technology first spread from Asia Minor and Egypt to Crete, and then gradually spread to Greece and the islands. After the Romans learned from the Greeks about grape planting and brewing technology, they quickly spread it in the Italian peninsula. With the expansion of the Roman Empire, grape cultivation and brewing technology quickly spread to France, Germany, Spain and Libya in North Africa, and entered Central European countries from the Danube River basin in Europe. Now, these areas are very important wine producing areas.

It was not until 15 to 16 century that grape cultivation and brewing techniques were introduced to South Africa, Australia, New Zealand, Japan and North Korea.

After Columbus discovered the New World, Spanish immigrants introduced grapes from America. Today, both North and South America produce wine. The wines produced in Argentina, Mexico and California are world-famous.

China is one of the centers of origin of the genus Vitis. The written records of grapes in China were first found in the Book of Songs, and the ancients called them "grapes", "grapes" and "peaches". With regard to the origin of the word grape, Li Shizhen wrote in Compendium of Materia Medica: "Grape, which is a peach in Chinese, can be used to make wine. If people drink it, the enzyme will be drunk, hence the name. " "Drunk" means drinking at a party, and "ketone" is said in a drunken way. Therefore, people use words such as "Han" and "ketone" to represent this kind of fruit that can make wine and make people drunk after drinking-grapes.

The Eurasian grape cultivated in China was introduced from Dawan country (now fergana valley, Central Asia) in the first year of the establishment of Emperor Wu of Han Dynasty (BC 138 ~ 19), when Zhang Qian, the famous ambassador of China, went to the western regions, and brought winemakers. After the introduction of cultivated grapes from Dawan country, they first arrived in xinjiang, passed through Hexi Corridor to Xi 'an, Shaanxi, and then spread to North China and Northeast China. But until the Tang Dynasty, China's wine

Our production department has made great progress, and at this time, such well-known poems as William Wang's "Glowing Cup of Grape Wine" emerge one after another, and the wine culture is gradually maturing.

Although China's wine has a history of more than 2,000 years, it developed slowly in the past and was not paid enough attention. It was not until 1892 that Zhang Bishi, a patriotic overseas Chinese, planted grapes in Yantai and established Changyu Grape Brewing Company, and modern new wineries appeared in China.

Origin of yellow rice wine

Jiang Tuo, a Jin Dynasty man, wrote in "Wine Stirrup": "The rice is inexhaustible, and the mulberry leaves stay empty, which makes it stagnant and delicious. Because of this, they have been fragrant for a long time. " This means that the original yellow rice wine is to put inexhaustible rice in the hole of mulberry trees, and the leftovers naturally ferment into wine in the hole, emitting a fragrance. Cao Cao, the Wei Emperor, once wrote in his book: "Du Kang alone can solve his worries." Since then, it seems that more and more people think that wine was created by Du Kang, but according to the records of yellow rice wine, there was original yellow rice wine before Yidi or Du Kang, and Du Kang was only the most famous brewer later, but it doesn't mean that he was the inventor of yellow rice wine.

In addition, ancient books such as Shi Ben, Lv Chunqiu, Warring States Policy and Shuowen Jiezi all contain records of Du Kang's brewing. Needless to say, Du Kang also recorded it in Baishui County Records rebuilt in the 19th year of Qing Qianlong. Baishui County is located at the junction of the southern edge of northern Shaanxi Plateau and Guanzhong Plain. Cai Lun, the inventor of word-making, porcelain-making and paper-making, and Du Kang, the "originator" of wine-making, are all famous here. "Jiuhua" records: "Du Kang, the word Zhongning, is said to be a member of Kangjiawei in the county and is good at making wine." There are "Du Kang Gully", "Dukangquan" and "Dukanghe" near Kangjiawei, and the water is clear and dry. According to the county annals, "It is said that Du Kang controlled this water to make wine".

Coincidentally, the records of Yiyang County in Ruzhou and Quan Zhi, which were rebuilt in the 18th year of Qing Daoguang, also recorded the sites of Du Kang, and these two counties also have the sites of Dushuihe, Dukangquan and Dukangxianzhuang. It is close to Luoyi, the capital of the Eastern Zhou Dynasty (in today's Luoyang Wangcheng Park), so people imagine that Du Kang, a master brewer, was born in Baishui County and went to Luoyang to perform in Beijing. In order to brew good wine, he waded through mountains and rivers to find high-quality water sources and came to Yichuan and Ruyang.

So how did rice wine come from? What is closer to reality is that the working people have accumulated the experience of naturally fermenting grains and scraps in Mulberry Cave through years of labor practice, which was summarized and perfected by Du Kang, a knowledgeable and far-sighted master, and passed down from generation to generation.

The amount of alcohol cannot be defined like the amount of food. This is a fact that everyone knows. It refers to the amount of alcohol consumed before and after unconsciousness. Alcohol consumption is said to be related to the contents of alcohol dehydrogenase and acetaldehyde dehydrogenase in the liver, with more males and less females. They are intoxicating ingredients in wine. However, when alcohol is more dominant than their quantity, ethanol and acetaldehyde (also called drunkenness) stay in the body, strung together first and then going down, which makes the body appear a "bear market" and cannot extricate itself. When "drunkenness" reaches 0.05% in the blood, people are most comfortable. Then, it takes the following steps:

1, slightly humorous: 0. 1% When entering the nonsense period, the section chief will initially feel that he is the director.

2, excitement: 0.2% is suitable for withdrawing money, and everything doubles. Already a director. Asking for it, beating or being beaten.

3, out of control: 0.3% of the self-operation ability disappeared, entered the stage of "surrealism", arbitrarily gave orders, and thought himself to be an out-and-out leader.

4. During Freud's period, it was also called unconsciousness, ignorance, and ignorance of life and death, all of which depended on the subconscious mind 0.4~0.5%.

5, intoxicated, also known as the site to become a Buddha, life is death, death 0.6~0.7%.

The above second category is collectively called "alcoholism", which can be converted into 60 kg/person/day /2 two liquors/1 kg of yellow rice wine/1 kg of wine /2 bottles of beer/1 bottle of champagne. People who linger in the second, third and fourth stages for a long time have reduced brain capacity, decreased memory and low intelligence. People who are especially used to living in the third and fourth stages are impotent, mentally retarded and even unable to reach the level of dementia.

The fifth issue can only be enjoyed once.

Anecdotes about wine

There is a saying, "water is the blood of wine." Famous wines in the world occupy the geographical position of famous springs and strange waters. Kweichow Moutai, Sichuan Wuliangye, Jiangsu Yanghe and Anhui Gujing Distillery can all be used as evidence. As the saying goes, "Shan Qi never dies, and water makes wine."

Compared with the arteries of Chinese civilization such as the Yellow River and the Yangtze River, the ancient Song He, located at the junction of eastern Henan and northwestern Anhui, can only be regarded as a microvascular. But the river is not big, and the wine is famous. On this narrow water surface, Gu Jing Winery and Song He Grain Liquid, known as Zhongzhou Maotai, were born. Because of enjoying the benefits of the same water system, Henan's He Lin Te Qu is also very famous.

There are many beautiful legends on both sides of the ancient Song Dynasty. Luyi County, Henan Province, through which ancient Song He flowed, is the hometown of Laozi Li Er, the originator of Taoism in China. According to legend, Lao Tzu once came to the place where Zaoji Town in Luyi County is now located, and exchanged many velvet skins for wine. But he only took a gourd with little milk as a container. The wine shop owner was surprised and reluctantly put the gourd into the jar. Unexpectedly, in an instant, a jar of wine was all put into the gourd. I took a swig myself and poured the wine left in the gourd into Song He. Suddenly, Song He was surging and the green waves were rolling, but Lao Tzu rode away on a green Niu Piao. Since then, the wine brewed in Song He has been called "Jujube Wine Collection", which is mellow, sweet and unparalleled. Later generations described this vivid story with the poem "A green wave flying egret, a blue cow in the air". Nowadays, when foreigners come to Luyi County for a period of time, they will find that the well water here is obviously a little sweet, and it seems to have a aftertaste after the entrance, which is mellow and sentimental.