Beer And Wine: Age Of Exploration And Colonial Ages

Standage draws his information on the use of beer from multiple sources. The use of pictograms, historical records, ancient myths, literary works, as well as the use of beer as currency provides an insight as to how ancient civilizations used

Distilled spirits were created by Arab chemists by distilling wine and using the residue as medicine.

Wine has also impacted the world in many ways. If wine hadn 't been invented or discovered we would not have vineyard farming today. Wine was a very popular drink during the Roman and Grecian era. In fact wine was the main drink. Greek and Roman men would have get togethers called symposia. The sophisticated, formal, and intellectual atmosphere of the symposion reminded the Greeks of how civilized they were. It reminded that they weren 't just there to drink wine, they were there to discuss many things as well. Wine

In a time of voyages and exploration there was a new atmosphere surrounding not only Europe but also the newly discovered Americas. Of course with a new era must come and new favorite drink of choice amongst the people. For the Colonial age this beverage was spirits. By popularizing a technique known as distillation a new range of drinks were on the rise. When originally cultivated spirits were primarily used for medical purposes. The appeal then turned to how easily people were intoxicated by it and how much easier it was to store. Distilled drinks then became popular mainly because of increased durability and could more compactly fit on ships. Distilled drinks were more easily traded, traders were able to fit more alcohol in the ship much

People drank more alcohol during this time than any other era. Alcohol was a huge part of everyday life. They drank it for many reasons, fear of unsanitary water, its medicinal properties and to keep them warm. Average Americans drank 8oz of alcohol on a daily basis. They had it with breakfast, lunch, dinner and also in the evening. They drank many different types of alcohol such as beer, rum, wine and a mix of other concoctions. One explanation for drinking so much alcohol was that the English had claimed that water was bad for your health. They felt that it was unsanitary and this may have been true during this time period. A “healthy” substitute for water was beer which was thought of as a type of food. Beer often replaced water as a daily drink. Children consumed beer in place of water. Many believed only the very poor drank water. It was even believed that it was bad for your health to drink cold water on a hot day. It was better to drink warm beer on a hot day. There were signs posted to warn people of this belief. When the Pilgrims came to America they brought more beer than water. Settlers of the frontier began to turn corn into whiskey as a substitute for beer. They felt this gave them strength to endure the manual labor that was required of living in the wilderness. Ingredients found in beer did not grow well in some parts of the colonies and soon cider became a popular drink. Apple orchards were

Spirits helped build America in many ways. Rum in particular had always been favored drink by Americans, however in the late seventeenth century, New Englanders began importing raw molasses so they could distill their own rum at a lesser cost. This became an extremely profitable business and arguably helped America come one step closer to independence as they deviated away from British rule and became self-sufficient. In addition, when the British passed the Molasses Act in 1773, American colonists defied the law and continued smuggling in molasses in order to maintain their economy. This led to their resistance against more acts passed by their English counterparts and eventually to their freedom at

Till 1827, the idea of sobriety was practically non-existent in North-America . Taverns were open at all times of day and were a place of encounter for everyone – regardless of class, race and gender. Moreover, they facilitated ‘political negotiations, economic exchanges and interracial sociability . So, where did the idea of reducing alcohol consumption come from amid the booming socio-economic stability that taverns seemed to provide?

In his book, The Alcoholic Republic: An American Tradition, William J. Rorabaugh makes the argument that early American society was a place where alcohol flowed freely through every level of society. Americans in the late eighteenth century and into the nineteenth century partook in so widely it was one of the defining characteristics of the culture of the early United States. Using data collected from censuses, surveys, and reports from those who traveled across the country in its early years, Rorabaugh concludes that the drinking in the United States found no barriers with age, sex, race, class, or location. But his assumptions and conclusion are not proved strongly enough by hard evidence and data to be considered a reliable narrative of the early America.

From the first years in American history, we have drank. Records of the first Europeans on America’s mainland tell about the colonists’ "great thirste" after their original supplies of European-made alcohol ran out. The settlers made their own wine. Eve Alcohol was imported from all over the world. Innovative colonists made alcohol from almost anything. One song from the 1700’s went like this:

Consumption of alcohol changed greatly after the war as well. Whiskey became the America's favorite liquor, and a deeply valued trade item. It was efficient to make, saved materials, and cheap for people to buy. Whiskey was suddenly being consumed in record amounts, and was even used to instead of water and milk in cities, where the water was often polluted and the milk expensive (Blocker 9). Drinking changed in ways other than higher consumption rates and cheaper whisky in cities. Whereas in the colonies drinking took place in community situations, in the cities drinking often took place outside the home. It was no longer being produced by families but had to be purchased with money that can ultimately hurt the family. People began drinking more in informal individual situations instead of closely tied community events, creating hostility

Absinthe is a highly alcoholic distilled spirit, reputed to have psychotropic qualities. In the history of liquors it holds a special place for being one of the most controversial drinks of French history. Yet it wasn’t always that way, for a period in the late 1800’s absinthe was one of the most popular liquors in the western world. Some companies at the height of its popularity produced over 30,000 liters of it a day. American Chemist T. A. Breaux has spent years researching the drink; through his research he has found that the drink originated as a medicine developed as a digestive aide in the late 1700’s (pg.2-3). The drink then rose in popularity after the 1840’s when the French government would dispense rations of the drink to its soldiers fighting in foreign campaigns as a means of purifying unclean water. These soldiers developed a taste for the drink claiming it to be the drink of a true man, due to its strong bitter taste (pg. 4-5). By the late 1870’s it became the most coveted drink, especially among artist and intellectuals who would feature the iconic drink in their works.

Beer and wine might have been one of the first drinks that caused humans to civilize and create a great community. In fact Tom Standage introduces us to this idea of these early drinks shaping human culture in his book A History of a World in Six Glasses. As Standage informs us about how beer was one of the causes in early settlement, and why farming was led to a great success because of the use of beer. Standage also mentions a start in traditions and a formation of government due to these drinks. Although beer being very important, Standage also introduces us to wine as a form of a class status that helped man distinguishing barbarism to a world of high standards and manners allowing for the community to become more cultured and

Beer: Beer was not invented, it was discovered. Exactly when the first beer was brewed is unknown but there was almost certainly no beer before 10,000 BCE. The rise of beer was closely associated with the domestication of the cereal grains rom which it is made and the adoption of farming. Beer originated in the Fertile Crescent in Egypt and Mesopotamia. To beer drinkers in the Neolithic period, beer’s ability to intoxicate and induce a state of altered consciousness seemed magical. This caused them to believe beer was a gift from the Gods. Since it was a gift from the gods, it was presented as a religious offering in religious ceremonies, agricultural fertility rites, and in

Other influential people like John Adams and James Madison drank every day and owned stills. For example, George Washington owned one of the most prosperous whiskey distilleries in Virginia . After the birth of our nation in 1776, Congress passed a law to tax whiskey. Since whiskey making and drinking was a large business for Americans, this caused uproar among the people. A small army of whiskey makers and tax protesters went on a rampage against anything that had to do with taxes. This became known as the “Whiskey Rebellion” and was quickly ended by George Washington, but this showed that whiskey and alcohol not only are importantly culturally, but also economically.

Alcoholic beverages have been around for thousand of years, and still exist here in modern day but now though their purpose has changed significantly. Many centuries ago, it was used as a currency, “Rum had become the preferred form of alcoholic currency with which to purchase slaves on Africa's west coast.” (Standage, Pg. 117) It was used to pay for