EARLY HISTORY OF BEER.
It is impossible to say where and when the brewing of beer began, for
the earliest historical records show its general use.
It is mentioned by Manathos, High Priest of Heliopolis, an Egyptian of
Greek education, who lived about 300 B. C. and by command of Ptolemaus
Philadelphus translated the old Egyptian history into Greek. He says
that the Egyptians, thousands of years before, had beer, and that its
invention was attributed to Osiris, a divinity representing all the
beneficent principles, also that celebrated breweries existed at that
time at El Kahirch, the Cairo of Europeans, and at Pelusinum on the
river Nile.
The Greeks had their _zythos_ (beer) as also their wine of barley, _ek
krithon methu_, and the _oinos krithinos_ as mentioned by Sophocles,
Æschylus, 470 B. C., Diodorus of Sicily and Pliny. Xenephon in his
account of the Retreat of the Ten Thousand, written 400 B. C., mentions
that the inhabitants of Armenia used fermented drinks made from barley.
[Illustration: VIEW OF AN OLD EGYPTIAN BREWERY,
_As described by Manathos (third century B. C.), High Priest in
Heliopolis_]
The Romans had their _cerevisia_ (beer) but with them it was a special
luxury. Julius Cæsar was a noted admirer of it, and Plutarch, 50 A. D.,
and Suetonius, each of whom wrote of Cæsar, tell us that after he had
crossed the Rubicon, 49 B. C., he gave a great feast to his leaders at
which the principal beverage used was _cerevisia_, and the biographers
of Lucullus tell us that at his magnificent entertainments beer was
served to his guests in golden goblets of the most costly device.
And at that time also the Romans were already accustomed to sing
_Cerevisiam bibunt homines, cœtera animalia fontes_.
In Germany beer was known about the same time, and Tacitus (54 A.
D.,) says, that the Roman general Varius, who was sent by Augustus to
conquer the country and subdue the inhabitants, but was defeated by
Arminius the leader of the Teutons, attributed the desperate valor of
the enemy and their complete success, in great measure to their free
use of _bior_ (beer).
The Allemanni, a large German tribe who were first mentioned by Dion
Cassius, 213 A.D., and who occupied the country between the river Main
and the Danube, were formidable enemies both to the Romans and the
Gauls. They attached great importance to their beer which was brewed
under the supervision of the priests, and before use was blessed with
many solemn rites. In an old code of theirs we find that every member
of a church (_Gotteshaus_) had to contribute for its maintenance
fifteen _seidel_ of beer or some equivalent. The Emperor Julian who
defeated them in the year 357 A. D., near Strasburg, where all their
forces were assembled under seven chiefs, found on the field of battle
numerous utensils designed to be employed in brewing.
The old Saxons in the seventh and eighth centuries when sitting in
council to consider questions of high importance would only deliberate
after drinking beer, which they took in common out of large _Humpen_
(stone mugs).
Charlemagne (742-814 A. D.,) himself gave directions how to brew the
beer for his court, and was as careful in selecting his brew-masters
as in choosing his councilors and leaders. A single circumstance,
attendant on his defeat of the Saxons at Paderborn, 777 A. D.,
illustrates the high respect in which brewing was then held, and in
this particular, is suggestive of its semi-sacred character among the
Allemanni as mentioned above. On that occasion it is related that the
Emperor, surrounded by his chief leaders and councilors and by the
ambassadors of distant nations, received the homage of the heathen
Saxon warriors, caused many thousands of them to be baptized and then
celebrated the double triumph of his arms and the Christian faith at
a great feast, at which there were seated with him Eginhard, Paul
Warnefried and Alcuin, the Emperor’s friends and advisers, and all
drank of beer brewed by Charlemagne himself, while they discussed the
great events that had just occurred. The drinking vessels were large
mugs of a peculiar form which are still to be seen among a collection
of relics presented to the Emperor by eastern potentates and now kept
in a tower at the west end of the Cathedral of Aix-la-Chapelle, and
exposed to public view once in every seven years. Within a few years
numerous relics have been found in the vicinity of Paderborn which
indicate that beer brewing must have been as common and necessary in
both parties as the cooking of food.
The old Danes as far back as 860 A. D. under Gorm the Old, 936 A.
D. under Harold Bluetooth, and 985 A. D. under Swend Twybeard, were
acquainted with the art of brewing, and their old codes mention it as a
most honorable occupation.
In Bohemia, breweries were built at Budweis in the year 1256 A. D. by
direction of Ottokar II., King of Bohemia, and few cities in the world
can point to an establishment of such antiquity. Budweis beer is now
almost universally known and approved, though it is needless to say
that it differs materially from that made six hundred years ago.
In the thirteenth century we see by an old law of France, in the reign
of Louis IX., of the year 1268, how highly beer was esteemed and that
laws were already made to secure the purity of beer as well as to
protect the brewers in their avocation, and for curiosity’s sake we
give our readers an extract of those laws as mentioned above:
1. No one shall brew beer or remove it in drays or otherwise, on
Sundays or on the solemn feasts of the Holy Virgin.
2. No one shall set up in the brewery who has not served a five years’
apprenticeship, and been three years a partner with a regular brewer.
3. Nothing shall enter into the composition of beer, but good malt
and hops, well gathered, picked, and cured, without any mixture of
buckwheat, darnel, etc., and the hops shall be inspected by juries,
to see that they are not used after being heated, moldy, damp, or
otherwise damaged.
4. No beer yeast shall be hawked about the streets, but shall be all
sold in the brew-houses to bakers and pastrycooks, and to no others.
5. Beer yeast brought by foreigners shall be inspected by a jury before
it is exposed to sale.
C. No brewer shall keep in, or about, his brew-house any cows, oxen,
hogs, geese, ducks, or poultry, as being inconsistent with cleanliness.
7. There shall not be made in any brew-house more than one brewing of
fifteen septiers at the most, of ground malt in a day.
8. Casks, barrels, and other vessels made to hold beer, shall be marked
with the brewer’s mark, in the presence of a jury.
9. No brewer shall take away from a house he serves with beer any
vessels which do not belong to him.
10. Those who sell beer by retail shall be subject to the inspection of
juries.
11. No one shall be a partner but with a master brewer.
12. No master brewer shall have more than one apprentice at a time,
which apprentice shall not be turned over without the consent of a jury.
13. No one shall take a partner who has quitted his master without the
consent of such master.
14. A widow may employ servants in brewing, but may not take an
apprentice.
15. Master brewers shall not entice away one another’s apprentices nor
servants.
16. There shall be three masters elected for jurymen, two of which
shall be changed every two years.
17. Such jurymen shall have the power to inspect in the city and
suburbs.
In addition every brewer had to pay duty, so that the king might
not be defrauded, was obliged to give notice of every brewing to a
commissioner, stating the day and hour he intended to kindle the fire
of his boiler, under a penalty of fine and confiscation. As brewing
necessitates the employment of a large quantity of grain, it was
customary, in times of scarcity, for the king to put a stop to the
manufacture of beer for a certain number of weeks. These rules and
regulations, made more than six hundred years since, are interesting
and curious to the brewers of to-day.
[Illustration: JACOB VAN ARTEVELDE,
“Brewer of Ghent,” Patrician, Orator and Ruler of the Province of
Flanders. Killed July 17, 1345. Taken from the original oil painting
in possession of Jan Van Artevelde, in Amsterdam.]
In the fourteenth century the monks were the ordinary brewers, and one
brewery founded by them at Dobraw near Pilsen, Bohemia, and endowed by
Charles IV. shortly before his death with a prescriptive right to brew
beer, is still in existence and is probably the oldest in the world.
Its five hundredth anniversary was lately celebrated with great pomp,
by all classes of society in that ancient city. Bohemian beer is to be
ranked with the very best known, and an idea of the annual product for
home and foreign consumption may be formed from the fact that there are
now no less than eight hundred and eighty-seven breweries in actual
operation.
In Austria, the first brewery built at Vienna was on the Weidenstrasse
and dates back as far as 1384. The oldest standing brewery in the same
place is the St. Marx Brew-house, founded in 1706.
In the Provinces of Flanders and Brabant a beer brewed of malt and
hops was the national beverage as early as the fourteenth century, and
brewers occupied an important position and were held in high esteem.
History tells us that one of them, _Jacob Van Artevelde_ the Brewer
of Ghent, a nobleman by birth, became a celebrated popular leader who
drove Louis I., Count of Flanders, into France, held the government of
the province and supported Edward III. of England until his death, July
17, 1345.
His son Philip, who at one time was chosen ruler of the provinces and
who died 1382, was as well known as a celebrated brewer as his father.
To Flanders also belongs the celebrated Gambrinus, who under his real
name of Jan Primus, Duke of Flanders, ruled Flanders and Brabant
wisely, and became the protector of the beer brewing fraternity. Under
the popular cognomen, however, (to which many mythical attributes have
been attached) he is universally known, and perhaps held in higher
esteem by a greater number of adherents than all the saints, even
including Saint Patrick, who have been canonized up to the present day.
In England beer was introduced by the Romans. The Saxons found it there
and improved wonderfully upon the discovery. For centuries it received,
in the modern literature of England, the constant attention and
consideration of churchmen, historians, poets and political economists.
The churchmen especially were active in the improvement of malt
liquors. William of Malmsbury says that the best brewers in England at
the time of Henry II. were to be found in the monasteries, and every
reader of early English literature remembers frequent allusions not
only to beer in general but to that of the holy fathers in particular.
The monks were the first to discover the peculiar fitness of the waters
of Burton on Trent for brewing purposes, and may thus be said to have
paved the way for the development of the enormous establishments that
now scatter their product over all the world.
According to “Tennant’s Guide to London,” published at the beginning
of the present century, there were in the reigns of the Tudors great
breweries at London, situated on the river-side below St. Katherine’s.
In 1492 King Henry VII. licensed a Flemish brewer, John Merchant,
to export a large quantity of the so-called “berre,” and that the
beer had to be of good quality and was under the surveillance of the
authorities, is proved by the fact that Geffrey Gate, an officer of the
king, twice destroyed the brew-houses on account of the weakness of the
beer.
In the reign of Elizabeth the demand for ale increased very largely,
and we find mention of an export of five hundred tuns of the precious
liquor at one time. This was sent to Amsterdam for the use of the
thirsty army in the Netherlands. Mary Queen of Scots in the midst
of her troubles seems not to have been altogether insensible to the
attractions of English beer, for when she was confined in Tutbury
Castle, Walsingham, her secretary asked “At what place near Tutbury
beer may be provided for her majestie’s use?” To which Sir Ralph
Sadler, governor of the castle made reply, “Beer may be had at Burton,
three miles off.” This Burton on Trent began to be famous for its
water in the thirteenth century. There is a document still extant,
dated 1295, in which it is stated that Matilda, daughter of Nicholas
Shoben had released to the abbot and convent of Burton on Trent certain
tenements, for which release they granted her daily for life two white
loaves from the monastery, two gallons of conventual beer and one
penny, besides seven gallons of beer for the men.
In the fifteenth century the monks in Germany brewed two kinds of beer
in the convents, one kind for the _Patres_, and an inferior beer for
the convents.
In the sixteenth century the breweries in Germany were already
celebrated for their malt beer.
Cities not having good cellars, on account of which good beer could
not be produced, were provided with the beverage through their city
fathers from other places, stored and sold in the cellars of the city
hall, hence the origin of the name Rathskeller. The most celebrated
beer at that time, was the Braunschweiger Mumme, and the beer of
Eimbeck, Merseburg and Bamberg. Beer before it could be sold had
to pass a strict examination by a committee consisting of brewers
of the greatest reputation, appointed by the burgomaster under and
by advice of the city fathers; and a “Brauherr,” (proprietor and
brew-master of a brewery) was a man of importance. In the principality
of Brandenburg—afterwards the kingdom of Prussia—it was thought as
early as the seventeenth and eighteenth centuries that beer was the
most wholesome of all beverages, and the electors of Brandenburg, later
the kings of Prussia, fostered breweries by the concession of numerous
privileges which were increased from time to time. Grants of this
character and of no small advantage were held by brewers in Cottbus,[1]
Province of Brandenburg, and were considerably enlarged by Frederick
the Great in favor of Huguenots who had at his invitation settled in
the kingdom after being forced by the revocation of the edict of Nantes
to leave France. These privileges, enjoyed by the Toussaints, Salems
and others for many years, were abolished by the declaration of the
freedom of trade in 1838.
[1] Celebrated for the famous white beer which was at that time largely
exported to Upper Silesia, Bohemia, Berlin, Hamburg, etc.
[Illustration: MYNHER JACOBUS,
Brewer and First Burgomaster of New Amsterdam (the present New York),
1644.]
After the year 1721 coffee began to be extensively used, and at last
Frederick the Great in order to check its introduction erected large
coffee roasting establishments which had a monopoly of the business,
and where the coffee was sold at an enormous price, only the nobility,
having the right of roasting their coffee beans. “Coffee smellers” or
spies were appointed to look out for evaders of the law, just as we
have now beer and whisky smellers. On the 13th day of September, 1777,
the great king issued his celebrated “coffee and beer manifesto.” It
was particularly addressed to the provincial members (_Landstande_)
of the provinces of Pommerania and Brandenburg, which were called
the nurseries of his armies, and read as follows: “It is disgusting
to notice the increase in the quantity of coffee used by my subjects
and the amount of money that goes out of the country in consequence.
Everybody is using coffee. If possible this must be prevented. My
people must drink beer. His majesty was brought up on beer and so
were his ancestors and his officers and soldiers. Many battles have
been fought and won by soldiers nourished on beer, and the king does
not believe that coffee-drinking soldiers can be depended on to
endure hardship or to beat his enemies in case of the occurrence of
another war.” This proclamation had the desired effect, and coffee was
thenceforth used merely as a luxury, while beer became the usual drink
of the people.
In the United States the pioneers in the brewing business were William
Penn and Jacobus, a Dutch brewer of whom Irving tells us that he
left the States General of Holland to settle on Manhattan Island in
company with Hendricks, the Kips and others. It will be remembered
that Manhattan Island was discovered by Hendrik Hudson in 1609 when he
passed inside Sandy Hook in search of a northwest passage, and that it
was granted by charter of the States General to the West India Company
to colonize the island. The company was not slow to discover the
advantages of such a concession and immediately set at work to build
forts, a church, a mill and a bakery while Jacobus, who thoroughly
understood the good effects of beer and the benefits that would follow
its introduction in the colony, established a brewery (in 1644) and a
beer garden on what is now the corner of Pearl street and Old Slip. He
afterwards became the first burgomaster and is said to have dispensed
beer and justice with equal gravity and impartiality, and to the
complete satisfaction of the inhabitants of new Amsterdam.
It may be interesting to some readers to know that while Jacobus
settled near the lower end of the present city the Kips were
established in the neighborhood of Bellevue Heights, and that on a part
of that settlement—in East 38th street—stands now the well known and
justly esteemed lager beer brewery of A. Huepfel’s Sons.
Somewhat later the same business was undertaken by Israel and Timothy
Horsfield, who came from England, one in 1706 and the other in 1720,
and settled in Brooklyn, L. I. Their brewery was near the ferry in what
is now Wallabout.
William Penn, 1644-1718, a man of Dutch extraction on his mother’s
side, founder of Pennsylvania and the leading spirit of its
settlement—so justly celebrated for his virtues—brewed and sold beer at
Pennsbury, Bucks County, Pa.
Good Quaker as Penn was, he was no ascetic. He was a great lover
of beer, and accustomed to praise his own brewing—he was not
averse to society, in his house was no lack of comfort, his table
was well provided, and his taste for good living could never be
impeached—dancing did not shock him, for both he and his family
patronized country dances and country fairs, and William Penn’s beer
was the beverage used on such occasions.
Under his proprietary laws he allowed beer to be sold free of license,
and this sensible enactment was continued under the state laws until
the year 1847, when a ten dollar license was substituted. Such a
tax certainly compares favorably with that of many other states and
displays a moderation and reasonableness that does credit to the Quaker
community and is in strong contrast to the spirit recently exhibited in
some parts of the country.
Another celebrated promoter of early beer brewing in America was Gen.
Israel Putnam, known to every child as the hero of the wolf’s den and
the desperate ride down the rocks, and to an older generation as a
brave soldier and marked character, the man who “dared to lead where
any dared to follow,” and who has gained a higher position in history
by virtue of his personal qualities and a touch of romance that clings
to his name than might strictly attach to his military services.
Although generally known as a Connecticut man he was born at Salem,
Mass., 1718, and in 1739, at the age of twenty-one, removed to Pomfret,
Conn., and later to Brooklyn in the same state, with which latter place
his name is afterwards associated. Here as a farmer and tavern keeper
he passed the remainder of his life except that considerable part which
was given to the active military service of his country. The change
from the life of a successful soldier to these commonplace pursuits
would seem to many to be near akin to a fall, but Putnam’s practical
good sense found no difficulty in it. When he returned from the army
he resumed his farming, tavern business and beer brewing, and seems
to have had no false shame at either of the humbler avocations. Like
a wise and self-contained man he did the work nearest to his hand and
found honor in it whatever it might be. On the other hand, however, it
is no small credit to the beer brewing fraternity to have had such a
man in their ranks, even were it in a more limited and incidental way
than was actually the case. The tavern sign of General Israel Putnam,
which hung before his door in Brooklyn, (Conn.,) in the year 1768 and
later, is now preserved in the rooms of the Historical Society at
Hartford, (Conn.,) and an illustration representing it will be found on
the opposite page.
The sign is made of yellow pine, painted alike on both sides. The
device is a full length portrait of General Wolfe, dressed in scarlet
uniform. The portrait of the young hero is quite correct.
The sign was presented to the Historical Society by Rufus S. Mathewson
of Woodstock.
Aside from the early public breweries there were doubtless many in
which beer was made for family consumption. “Home brewed” was common in
the native homes of most of the colonists, and there is no reason to
suppose that they voluntarily changed their accustomed manner of living
and dispensed with a wholesome drink to which they had been used from
infancy.
In leaving this branch of the subject it should be noted that the beer
of the earliest periods, like the ale of England before the seventeenth
century, was usually made without hops, and it is impossible to say
when these were first employed, although the experiment was certainly
of no very modern date. It was probably the greatest improvement ever
made in the production of beer, since it gives a light, clear, and
elegant product very different from anything that was produced on the
other plan. The modern demand was for a drink that should be agreeable,
refreshing and moderately stimulating, and it is now abundantly
recognized that the fermented decoction of malted barley, clarified and
preserved by the hops, best fulfills this requirement.
[Illustration: Gen^l WOLFE.
SIGN OF GENERAL PUTNAM’S TAVERN IN BROOKLYN, CONN.
_The original is now in the Rooms of the Historical Society, at
Hartford. Conn._]
Beer has been considered a necessity in all generations, and only in
this, the nineteenth century, have extremists arisen to condemn its
use. It is worthy of note that its greatest enemies are among a class
who, in the olden times, were its greatest friends. The old abbeys and
monasteries were the places where the best malt liquor was brewed; and
not least among the benefactors of their species were the Franciscans
and Dominicans, who brewed good beer to cheer the hearts of toiling
humanity. Bishops have written in its praise; universities have
encouraged its production; and kings having the comfort and contentment
of their subjects in view have cared for its proper provision. Under
date January 27, 1617, it is noted in “Langbaine’s Collections” that
one John Shurle had a patent from Abraham Lake, Bishop of Bath and
Wells and Vice Chancellor of Oxford, for the office of Ale-taster to
the university. “The office of Ale-tasting requires that he go to every
ale-brewer that day they brew, according to their courses, and taste
their ale; for which his ancient fee is one gallon of strong ale and
two gallons of strong wort.”
Such a fact is enough to make the modern teetotal dominies stand
aghast, but it may well be doubted if they are better or wiser men than
their predecessors, one of whose distinguishing characteristics was
usually a sound common sense in the ordinary affairs of life.