Oldest documents, concerning the production of beer, belong to Mesopotamia. Drawings, engraved on clay tablets, and the texts describe in cuneiform the process of brewing and consuming the oldest known beer sicar (4000 years BC). Sumerian traditions were continued by the Babylonians, who brewed beer from barley, wheat and spelled. The importance of beer in Babylonian culture is attested to by the famous Hammurabi codex, four paragraphs of which are devoted to the topic of beer.
Beer also played a huge role in the lives of the people of Ancient Egypt.. Together with bread, the drink was the main food ingredient and one of the most important gifts., placed in the grave of the deceased. The oldest brewery ever discovered is in Egypt.. Dated 3700 g. BC. Greek and Roman civilizations preferred wine and did not value beer, but in the Roman Empire it was brewed by the Gauls, Celts and Iberians.
Beer in the Middle Ages – low alcohol and initially unfiltered – was an everyday drink all over Europe, excluding the mediterranean region, where wine prevailed. Initially, it was made mainly at home.. The art of brewing began in monasteries. Beer was a natural drink for monks, and only in special cases was it replaced with water. At first, the monks prepared it for their own needs., but over time the sale of beer became the main source of income for many abbeys.
Монахи экспериментировали, добавляя в пиво различные ароматизаторы, чтобы улучшить его вкус и продлить срок хранения. Одним из них был хмель, который постепенно вытеснил другие добавки, and 14 century, beer with hops captured almost all of Europe, except England, where it became popular only in 16 century. For a long time, beer was thought to be healthier., than water. And not in vain, поскольку приготовление пищи на пиве позволяло избавиться хотя бы от некоторых микробов.
Средневековые правители рассматривая пиво как источник богатства, начали предоставлять привилегии на пивоварение и подачу пива, взимать соответствующие налоги и регулировать пивоваренную деятельность, eg, определяя условия для получения титула главного пивовара. On the other hand, развитие городов и пивоваренной промышленности привело к созданию небольших местных рынков, increasing competition and uniting brewers and brewery owners into brewery guilds, protecting the interests of this professional group.
The change in brewing was slow, and numerous wars actually hampered the development. Only technical progress and economic development, started in 18 century, made significant changes to European brewing. Discoveries and inventions played an important role here, such as:
- alcohol thermometer, designed by René-Antoine Ferchaud de Réaumur;
- исследования ферментации Антуаном Лавуазье;
- открытие угольной кислоты (углекислого газа).
Однако настоящая пивная революция произошла в девятнадцатом веке, when the existing traditional method of brewing using the so-called top-fermenting began to be replaced by bottom-fermenting.
History of Ukrainian beer
One of the first breweries in Ukraine was founded back in 1878 g. in Uman by merchants Frenkel, Rutcheicher, Bergelson and Ettinger. The brewery works to this day, you can buy Uman beer even on the Internet on the page https://umanpivo.ua/ru/production/zhigulevskoye-light.html. Popular brands of Umanpiva:
- Zhigulevskoe;
- Honey;
- Wheat.
Brewing traditions in Ukraine go back to ancient times, к истории праславянских народов и к самым истокам украинской государственности. Пиво в Украине быстро стало популярным напитком, and with the development of medieval cities, brewing also developed rapidly. Almost every city boasted one or more breweries. Beer, in which at that time there was not much alcohol, drank like ordinary people, so well-to-do know – even several hundred liters per year. To 17 century mainly wheat beer was produced, которое позже было заменено ячменным пивом.
Из-за многочисленных войн в 17 century, недостатка зерна, из которого производилась дешевая водка, rise in prices for good beer and deterioration in the quality of cheap beer, beer in Ukraine began to slowly lose its positions. Катастрофическая политическая и экономическая ситуация в Украине и ее разделы, one side, привели к снижению качества украинского пива, and on the other – вызвали наводнение страны импортным пивом. This trend has been reversed by the technical revolution, which led to the creation of medium and large breweries. Thanks to modern technologies and investments, the Ukrainian drink has regained its former glory. However, with the First World War, the brewing industry went into decline., and the quality and consumption of beer decreased.
Reconstruction of brewing took place only in the 1990s, when breweries, nationalized in the communist era, began to be privatized. The development of a free market economy has led to an interest in the Ukrainian brewing market of the world's largest brewing groups. One side, this led to the collapse of many small and medium-sized breweries, but also to the consolidation and development of the largest breweries and a radical increase in beer consumption in Ukraine.
