“He was a wise man who invented beer.” ~Plato

Plato’s got a good point. 

I think most Elon students will agree that beer and the drinking scene is very much a part of our culture here in the bubble.   

From this though stemmed a new thought-who actually did invent beer?

So I did some reasearch and here’s what I found.

The oldest proven records of brewing dates back to about 6,000 years ago to the Sumerians.  Lucky for them and for us, they discovered the fermentation process by chance and consequently created a drink of choice by many college kids across the nation today. This process was discovered before they even learned to make bread. 

When the Sumerian empire collapsed in the 2nd millenium B.C. the Babylonians took over the brewing process.  They mastered the skill and learned how to brew 20 different types of beer. 

One of the rules issued by Hammurabi, an important Babylonian King was a daily beer rationing.  Beer was so valuable at this time that it was used to pay workers, who would then pay for necessities with their earnings.  If only that were the case today: no one would care that gas is increasing at 16 cents a day.  We’d all either be able to afford it by selling our beer or be too drunk to notice the change!

In 1776, Thomas Jefferson signed the Declaration of Independence.  He and most of the founding founders of our nation were brewers. 

From 1920-1930 the 18th Amendment of the Constitution, Prohibition made it illegal for manufacturers to sell beer, making homebrewing a popular occurance. 

1978 was the  year brewing became legal again and brewing became more and more popular.

Today the annual per capita of beer consumption in the United States is 23.95 gallons, which puts the U.S. in 11th place against other nations in annual beer consumption.

So dont let our founding fathers down.  Keep up the good work and let the good times roll. Cheers!