Malt liquor appears to have had its origin in the attention paid by an
eastern sovereign to the comfort and health of his soldiers; as we are
informed by the historian Xenophon, that "the virtuous Cyrus" having
observed the good effects that water in which parched barley had been
steeped, produced, exhorted and commanded his troops to drink this
liquor; the historian entitled it "_Maza_." It is highly probable that
Cyrus adopted this drink to counteract the ill effects of impure and
foul water (which had done lasting injury to other warriors of his
time), which is so common in warm, sunny climates; as Pliny informs
us, that if water be impure or corrupted, by putting fried barley into
it, in less than two hours, it will be pure and sweet; that its bad
effects will have evaporated, and that it then may be drunk with
perfect safety; he further adds that, this is the reason why we are in
the habit of "putting barley-meal into the 'wine-strainers' through
which we pass our wines, that they may be refined, purified, and drawn
the sooner." The information conveyed to our readers by Pliny, may be
made of great practical use and benefit by mariners, to whom sweet
water is such a desideratum; and is as important to those who traverse
the arid deserts of Africa, where sweet water is so seldom found.
That the ancients used the "juice of the grape," and that almost as a
common drink, has never been doubted by the most cursory reader of
history; the knowledge of this liquor being nearly coeval with the
first formation of society. In the Book of Genesis we read that Noah
after the flood planted a vineyard, "_manufactured_" wine, and got
intoxicated with this "nectar fit for gods." Beer can likewise boast
of as great antiquity. Its use was not unknown by the Egyptians; as we
are informed by Herodotus that the people of Egypt made use of _a kind
of wine_ made from dried barley, because no vines grew in that
country. According to Tacitus, in his time beer was the common drink
of the Germans, who drank it in preference to that more stimulating
(if not more nutritious) liquor, wine. We are also informed by Pliny,
that it was made and was in common use amongst the Gauls, and by many
of their neighbours. The name he gave to this drink was "_cerevisia_"
which evidently alludes to the article from which it was composed.
Although these nations held this liquor in such estimation, there has
been no record to inform us of their mode of preparing it.
Ale was introduced into our country centuries ago, by our Saxon
ancestors, and it was not long ere it became the favourite and common
drink of all classes of society. Their habit of drinking it out of
skulls, at their feasts, is well known to the reader of romance. It
was then, as it is now, commonly sold at houses of entertainment to
the people. After the Norman Conquest, the vine was very extensively
planted in England, but was drunk alone, as a chronicle of that time
says, "by the wise and the learned;" the people did not lose their
relish for the beverage of their forefathers, and wine was never held
in much respect by them. Hops had hitherto not been used in the
composition of beer; but about the fifteenth century they were
introduced by the brewers of the Netherlands with great success; from
them we adopted the practice, and they came into general use about two
centuries afterwards. Some historians have affirmed that Henry VI.
forbade the planting of hops; but it is certain that "bluff King Hal"
ordered brewers to put neither hops _nor sulphur_ into their ale. The
taste of the nation in the reign of Henry VI. seems to have changed,
as we find in the records of that time that extensive "privileges"
(_monopolies_ these _enlightened_ times would have called them) were
annexed to hop-grounds. In the reign of James I. the produce of
hop-grounds were insufficient for the consumption, and a law was made
against the introduction of "spoilt hops." Walter Blithe, in his
_Improver Improved_, published in 1649, (3rd edit. 1653) has a chapter
upon improvements by plantations of hops, which has this striking
passage. He observes that "hops were then grown to be a national
commodity; but that it was not many years since the famous city of
London petitioned the Parliament of England against two nuisances; and
these were, Newcastle coals, in regard to their stench, &c., and hops,
in regard they would _spoyl the taste of drink_, and endanger the
people: and, had the Parliament been no wiser than they, we had in a
measure pined, and in a great measure starved; which is just
answerable to the principles of those men who cry down all devices, or
ingenious discoveries, as projects, and therefore stifle and choak
improvements." According to a late writer, in the year 1830, there
were 46,727 acres occupied in the cultivation of hops in Great Britain
alone.
Thirty millions of bushels of barley are annually converted into malt
by the breweries of Great Britain; and upwards of eight millions of
barrels of beer (of which more than four-fifths are strong) are brewed
annually. This enormous consumption attests the fondness of the people
for the beverage of their forefathers.