The Ancient Mesopotamians Really, Really Loved Beer

Nestled between the Euphrates and Tigris rivers, in what is modern-day Iraq, a sophisticated early civilization called Sumer sprang up some 6,000 years ago (long before any of Europe's most ancient breweries came to be). Sumerians were notable for their art and architecture, language (the oldest recorded), developed sciences like medicine and mathematics, as well as their diet — especially what they drank. You see, the Sumerians of Mesopotamia invented beer, and they drank a lot of it.

Historians believe that beer was available and consumed by everyone in ancient Mesopotamian society. It was likely consumed every day as Mesopotamians had a rudimentary understanding that beer was safer to drink than dirty water. So ubiquitous to daily life was beer that, in the texts Sumerians left behind, one of the most-used cuneiform pictographs is the one that represents beer. Mesopotamian writing and art also describe how beer was made, and how and when it was consumed — not only as part of everyday life but also in religious settings and during festivals and celebrations.

Would you recognize Sumerian beer today? Probably not, as it was thick in texture, more likely resembling creamy oatmeal than a pure liquid. It is also widely depicted as being sipped through a straw, which the Sumerians invented (and the Babylonians improved), seemingly to help the drinkers avoid the sediment.

Sumerians considered beer to be holy, even assigning a goddess to the drink. This goddess was known as Ninkasi. She represented not just the process of brewing, but also the final product. Sumerians believed the hands that crafted this beverage were guided by Ninkasi, and so her energy was infused into it. By drinking the beer, they were also imbibing her essence (for more about Sumerian beer culture, check out "In the Land of Ninkasi: A History of Beer in Ancient Mesopotamia," by Tate Paulette).

Further blurring the lines between secular and religious beer consumption was the fact that the priestesses who served Ninkasi were also the initial brewers of her beer. Women were  also the primary brewers in the home, as depicted in Sumerian pictographs and art. (Once beer started to be bought and sold, however, the pictures changed, and the women were overseen by men.) A beautiful — and descriptive — ode, called the Hymn to Ninkasi, survived the millennia, and is both a tribute to the goddess and a description of the brewing process, which historians conjecture the Sumerians sang as they worked.

While we don't know everything about how Mesopotamian beer was brewed, especially the type of yeast that was introduced for fermentation, we do have a rough outline of the process. It was a lot of work, and it took several days from start to finish, beginning with malting the grains or bread bappir which was then ground up with water to form a mash. The mash was boiled and filtered once, and flavorings and yeast were added. The yeast allowed fermentation to occur and created beer. Notably, Mesopotamian beer was not made with hops (so, perfect for people who hate them), but was instead flavored with spices such as coriander or cardamom, and herbs like juniper. For sweetness, sometimes the brewers would add syrup of dates or honey.

In 2013, a group that included the University of Chicago's Institute for the Study of Ancient Cultures and the Great Lakes Brewing Company, as well as author Tate Paulette, teamed up to recreate Mesopotamian beer, complete with drinking the finished product from a large vat through reed straws. The beverage was met with great enthusiasm by the imbibers, both for its flavor and the effort involved.