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FOOD SCIENCE AND TECHNOLOGY 170

Wine and Beer in Western Culture

Lecture Outline

 

Right-click to download MS Word File

 

Lecture 2 - Wine and Beer History

 

•       Definitions

–    Amphorae- clay jars used to store wine and beer

–    Ninkasi- Sumerian goddess of brewing

–    Dionysus- Geek god of wine

–    Bacchus- Roman god of wine

 

Origins of beer and wine making

•      Both began before recorded history

•      Evidence is based on: Burial goods, Archeological findings, Linguistic patterns, Oral traditions, Written records

•      Wine making is simple; Beer making is multi-step process

•      Wine making started before beer making

–   Began at least 8000 years ago in Middle East (Southern Soviet Georgia/Iraq area)

•      Beer making began at multiple sites, likely in the Middle East

•      Wine valuable as a trade good; Beer used only locally

 

Inception of wine making

•      Creation stories from multiple religious traditions

–   Oldest written is Persian tale of Jamsheed

–   9th chapter of Genesis in the Bible about Noah

–   Greek tradition says Zeus flooded the earth and one couple survived

 

Dissemination of wine making

•      Extensive “world” trade in wine by 2000 BC for silk, gems, metals and slaves

•      From Middle East, wine making went to Greece & Crete, then Egypt, then Italy

•      Romans planted vines during the Pax Romana taking vines to France, Germany, Spain and Portugal

•      Wine in the new world didn’t exist until European colonization in the 1500s

 

Role of civilizations in wine making

•      Georgians gave us root for word wine and concept of toastmaster

•      Egyptians gave us the word vineyard, trellising, irrigation and hybridization records

•      Greeks gave us enology, established trade routes, religious significance to wine drinking, pine resin to seal clay jars

 

Early Wine Containers - Wine Skins

•      Made from the whole skin of a goat or another animal

•      Jesus used analogy of wineskins: "No one puts new wine into old wineskins; or else the new wine bursts the wine skins, the wine is spilled, and the old skins are ruined"

 

Early Wine Containers - Amphoraes

•      Why do amphoraes have a pointed tip?

•     Collects sediment (dead yeast, tannins, etc) and easy to plant in Sand/dirt floors

•      Problems with amphoraes: Did not prevent oxidation of wines – turned into vinegar, Float animal fat on top, but fat was valuable and changed flavor, Molded stoppers from clay and straw & dung, Greeks began sealing with pine resin – Retsina

 

Role of civilizations in wine making

§         Gaels invented wooden barrels for wine storage

§         Romans used grape growing and wine making to subjugate conquered peoples

§         Romans also brought vineyard design and examination of the qualities cultivars and regions

 

Wine making in the dark and middle ages

•      Catholic Church kept wine making technology from disappearing

•      Kept extensive records & improved quality

•      Monk, Dom Perignon, developed blending that was basis of champagne

•      Wars fought to protect wine trade routes

 

Spread of wine making to the new world

•      Britain took vines to Australia to occupy the convicts and provide daily wine

•      Brought British & German wine preferences to US east coast

•      Spanish took wine to Chile and Argentina and west coast of US

•      German colonist brought wine making practices to PA, OH and NY in 1800s

 

Changes in the Old World

•      Revolution caused many to lose their heads and their properties and wineries

•      In Burgundy, estates were broken into very small plots of land (4-5 acres) for peasants with no wine making skill and no contacts to market product

•      French wine suffered bacterial contamination leading Louis Pasteur to develop the germ theory of disease

•      Phylloxera destroyed European vines - Needed US rootstock to replant vineyards

 

Beer History

•      1st detailed records on Sumerian clay tablets

–   "Hymn to Ninkasi" (1800 B.C.) - Ancient recipe for beer (describes steps)

–   Ordinary & ceremonial beer – Sikaru

–   Drunk communally from a clay pot using long reed straws

–   Beer parlors receive mention in laws codified by Hammurabi (1700 B.C.)

•   Owners who overcharged were sentenced to death by drowning

•      Egyptians were brewing at same time period

–   Osiris taught man brewing and protected brewers

–   Beer used for masses and was taxed

–   "Bread and beer" was used as a greeting

–   Queen Nefertiti’s Sun Temple hid a brewery beneath

–   Ebers papyrus relied on beer & wine for health/medicine

 

Contributions of civilizations to beer (ale) making

•      Some believe need for beer led nomads to become agrarian

•      Egyptians

–    invented the malting process

–    collected taxes on alcoholic beverages (could pay with beer)

•      Babylonians - law against making unfit beer

•      Monasteries in Germany started adding hops ~ 750AD

-          So hops are a relatively late addition to beer

•      Pure beer law in 1516 by Duke Wilhelm IV – 1st food law

 

Beer in US history

•      Mayflower landing site changed to Plymouth instead because low on beer

•      Mayflower manifest had more beer and wine than water

•      Harvard University couldn’t open until the brewery for undergrads was finished

•      Colonists called alehouse cradles of liberty

 

Alcohol in US history

•      Puritans opposed drunkenness (not beer or wine)

•      1st test of new republic was over taxing distilled spirits-Whiskey rebellion

•      By 1800 alcoholic beverages were a significant part of the economy

 

Prohibition

•      Prohibitionist sentiment began in England in the 1600s

–   Water was safer, non-alcoholic beverages available, Increase in poor quality distilled spirit consumption

–   British Association for the Promotion of Temperance - Promised not to drink spirits

•      In US, prohibition talk came as early as John Adam’s presidency (1796)

–   Women's Christian Temperance Union founded in Cleveland, Ohio in 1874

 

Prohibition

•      WWI - reaction against Germans and beer

–   Drinking alcohol was promoted as unpatriotic and bad for children/families

•      Volstead Act passed in 1919 leading to the 18th Amendment - prohibition limiting manufacture, sale or distribution, but not drinking

•      Prohibitionists believed eliminating alcohol would solve all social ills

•      Once people realized lost tax revenue meant they paid more, prohibition lost support

 

Effects of Prohibition

•      Alcohol consumption declining before Prohibition, did not decline much further during

•      Shift in drinking patterns from beer & wine to distilled spirits

•      Criminal activity increased dramatically along with federal prison costs

•      Tax revenues declined & depression reduced revenues further. Tax burdens fell increasingly on the wealthy

•      21st Amendment repealed Prohibition in stages

–    First allowed 3.2% beer

–    Then regular beer, wine and distilled spirits

–    Home wine making allowed

–    Home brewing not allowed until 1978 (signed by Carter)