A lot (most) nights we have wine with dinner. Without getting into whether drinking wine is healthy or not, or how much wine is good for you and how much would be bad or any of those other discussions that basically come down to someone’s opinion anyway, the fact is — we drink a fair amount of wine.
The other night, I didn’t have wine, I had a beer. Well, I got to thinking… which was invented first — wine or beer. Extensive research? You bet! Seems like the perfect subject for some of my extensive research. That extensive research came up with a conclusive, “it’s hard to tell” for an answer.
There is evidence of beer production all the way back to the caveman. Some of the earliest of the Sumerian writings by the Sumerians of Mesopotamia (about 3500 – 3000 BC) mention beer. The earliest writings mentioning wine appear to be in the Bible — much later than the Sumerian writings. I don’t recall any mention of beer in the Bible, but I’m not sure that means anything.
One argument (discussion) makes the point that which came first might be dependent on the region of the world. In some areas, grains might be more protected as foodstuffs — in other areas they might be allowed to sit out in containers, allowing natural fermentation to occur. In other areas, fruits could have been more prevalent, and allowed to sit to “cure.” If some of the juice leaked out and fermented, someone probably figured out that might be pretty good to drink.
So after all my extensive research, I’m not sure what to think. I don’t understand either process, but there’s some technique to making beer and I’m pretty sure that wine just happens. If you take some grapes and squish them a little to get some juice out and don’t do anything else — just wait, wine happens pretty much naturally and automatically. If you wait too long, that natural process proceeds to vinegar, but it starts as wine. Maybe not good wine, but wine nonetheless.
So after all my extensive research, my guess is that wine probably came first, because it can just happen naturally. Beer on the other hand, requires a process and people had to figure that out. But I like wine and I like beer. I don’t appear to be alone in that, because both were invented before we got around to inventing the wheel.
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