Part Four - God's Happiness: From the Beginning
Part Four of God's Gift of Happiness provides a glance over the last 6,000 years of beer making history from the Sumerians to the 500th anniversary of the Reinheitsgebot - Bavaria's ground-breaking beer "purity law" in 2016. It also shares information about a 2011 study theorizing how lager yeast may have descended from cold-tolerant yeast that hitched a ride from the Patagonia region of Argentina back to Europe following the discovery of the New World.
“Microbe domestication and the identification of the wild genetic stock of lager-brewing yeast,” by Diego Libkind, Chris Todd Hitting, Elissbete Valerio, et. al., Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences of the United States of America, Aug. 30, 2011 (published online Aug. 22, 2011) https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/arti...
However, historians say that Bavarian brewers began developing the use of cold-tolerant yeast in the 15th Century, long before Amerigo Vespucci and others first explored South America.
I sent an email to the contact listed for the study regarding the timing of the development of the lager method of brewing and the discovery and exploration of the New World.
Jose Paulo Sampaio
Faculdade de Ciencias e Tecnologia
Universidade NOVA de Lisboa, Portugal
Q: If the Argentinian yeasts were responsible for the existence of the lager yeast, how then could lager beer have been first developed and brewed in the 15th Century?
I received his response on Dec. 18, 2018.
Sampaio: “Back in 2011, when we first found this yeast, the information on its distribution was very limited and corresponded to Patagonia. Currently, and although we still have reasons to believe that Patagonia / South America is probably the place where this species was born, we also think S. eubayanus is distributed in other regions of the world. I do believe S. eubayanus is also present in Europe although no-one has yet isolated it from this region. Therefore the hybridization might have occurred in Europe as it is logical from an historical perspective.”
Photo credits
Photos and video were taken by Gregory Van Tighem, unless otherwise noted. Any other images were downloaded from Flickr.com or from other internet sites and also used under Creative Commons licenses.
Sumerian terra cotta tablet by Robin Zebrowski
Rosicrucian Museum Entrance by Blue Dragon Photos
Wooden model beer making from Rosicrucian Egyptian Museum
Egyptian stone stela from Horniman Museum
Rosicrucian Egyptian Museum_priestess_by Thomas Hawk
Egyptian scarab from Horniman Museum
Hymn to Ninkasi by Chris Murtagh
Brooklyn Brewery Photo by Daniel Lobo
Cathedral of St. Lawrence by Stefano Merli
City center trau, Splitsko-Dalmatinska, Trogir Croatia by Stefano Merli
Affligem Abbey by Roger W
Augustiner-Brau coat of arms by Bernt Rostad
Troubled Times (statue in cemetery) by Don
St. John the Baptist Wroclaw Poland by Hans Permana
Underground tavern Klodzko Poland by petrOlly
Amber Road by DI Richard Resch [Copyrighted free use], via Wikimedia Commons
St Bernardus Abt 12 by Bernt Rostad
Belgian Aperitif (gloazen stutjes) by Fourquier
Ganstaller-Brau birra kultura scura by Bernt Rostad
Herzog Wilhelm IV by Hans Wertinger - Bavarian State Painting Collections
Reinheitsgebot 1516 - Seite 1 by die deutschen Brauer
Studies on fermentation by Yoursforgoodfermentables.com
Panoramic Nahuel Huapi Lake and refugio lynch by Linda De Volder
Bienvenidos Parque Nacional Nahuel Huapi by velodenz
Cerro Tranador Parque Nahuel Huapi Argentina by VT Polywoda
Nothofagus antarctica by Denisbin
Marcha Mapuche by Esteban Ignacio
Chicha by Benja
Martin Waldseemüller world map - Minnesota Geological Society
Amerigo Vespucci 007 (sailing ship silhouette) by Teruel Pedro
Higson’s Brewery Liverpool England by Terry Kearney
Beer in Maryland by Thomas Cizauskas
Clydesdales by Nan Palmero
Pabst by Don Harrison
Schlitz by Don Harrison
Chr. Heurich Brewing Co. by Joe Haupt
Olympia Brewing Co. by SoulRider.222
Rainier Beer by Thomas Hawk
Pano of Anheuser-Busch InBev Brewery by Marc Nozell
Anheuser-Busch InBev (executive roundtable) by Fortune Live Media
Festakt224 by Die deutschen brauer (500 Jahre Reinheitsgebot - Veranstaltung in Ingolstadt)
Music credits
All music was downloaded from the YouTube Creator Studio Audio Library
https://www.youtube.com/audiolibrary/... and used under Creative Commons licenses.
“Grace Behind the Curtain,” by Silent Partner
“Desert Caravan,” by Aaron Kenny
“Dvorak Polka,” by Kevin MacLeod is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution license (https://creativecommons.org/licenses/...)
Source: http://incompetech.com/music/royalty-...
Artist: http://incompetech.com/
“Four Beers Polka,” by Kevin MacLeod is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution license (https://creativecommons.org/licenses/...) Source: http://incompetech.com/music/royalty-... Artist: http://incompetech.com/
“Summer Love,” from the YouTube Audio Library