Nomads and beer

There has been some serious scientific speculation that the reason our nomadic ancestors settled down was due to the discovery of beer. It takes a settled population to make beer. Someone has to plant the grains and keep an eye on the fields. Once the beer is brewed the fermentation process takes time. Eventually they must have learned that beer tastes better if it rests a while first.

Early civilized life was a pretty steep step down from nomadic life. Civilized people were smaller from poor diets and prone to more diseases. There had to be some serious up sides to civilization and one of those up sides was beer.

As a home brewer myself I've found it very hard to brew due to my semi-nomadic lifestyle. While I don't have to grow my own grains, I do grow some of my own hops. The problem is that by the time time hops are ready I'm running out of time. Even if I'm able to successfully brew, there's not enough time for me to drink it all. In years past I've taken care of the beer surplus problem by throwing a big party. That always works. Other years I've brought some of my brew along, but it's bulky and the bottles are fragile.

One option would be to forget the beer and distill everything down to 180 proof moonshine. I call that “backpacker booze” as most the heavy and bulky water is left behind. Of course, in most places homemade hard liquor is illegal. Governments love to collect their taxes.

Early civilized people lived under constant threat of raids by nomadic people. I wonder how much of that involved the nomads wanting to get their hands on a good brew?

Since most of the world is now “civilized” us nomads can easily get a beer just about anywhere. We don't have to brew it ourselves, which is difficult to impossible while traveling. The next time civilization collapses I'm betting it's the desire for a good beer that reboots the whole crazy process.

-Sixbears