Beer - what would we do without

Beer - what would we do without it?

We take our fresh, clean water for granted today. In earlier times life was not so simple and drinking untreated water could very often prove fatal from the cocktail of animal and vegetable life that it held. Beer was an answer.

There are two advantages to beer; firstly it has been boiled and secondly it contains alcohol which is a preservative. It would perhaps not be an exaggeration to say that without it's development the human race could never have flourished the way it has done! Anyhow, that's my excuse for drinking it and I'm sticking to it!

What goes with the lifestyle is a nice fast car (although not at the same time as drinking beer of course!) so what you'll need is some good car insurance for a young driver or perhaps a short term car insurance quote. Then again you may be a bit short and need temporary car insurance or car insurance with zero deposit!

There is evidence that beer was made from Barley over 8,000 years ago in Babylon and Sumeria and manufacture was still going strong around 2400 BC in Ancient Egypt, as we can see from tomb paintings. Roman historians relate that the Saxons, Celts and Germanic tribes were very fond of beer - no surprises there - but it must have tasted quite different to today because hops, the vital ingredient of our present day product was missing and it wasn't until the 15th Century that these were introduced to England as an additional preservative. In the same way that Greeks have adopted to the (ghastly!) taste of retsina after resin was used to seal their wine containers we all developed a taste for hops as well so modern beer was born.

The first beers in Britain British beers were based on repeated malt extracts from the same malt batch. The first extract produced a flavourful drink high in alcohol called strong beer; the third an usually final extract produced only a thin, poor quality specimen with a low alcohol content known as small beer, which is still a term used for poor quality substitutes. Much of this found it's way onto Royal Navy ships where it was drunk instead of fresh water, which was of much more uncertain quality. The alcohol content was so low that a man would be bloated before he became intoxicated so it was universally detested by the ordinary seamen!