The Ancient Egyptians

Beer culture has its origins in ancient Mesopotamia, the land between the Euphrates and the Tigris. A stone plate from around 6000 BC was found there showing primitive illustrations of the brewing process.
The next trace of the first beer preparations brings us to Babylon where 2000 years before Christ, King Hammurabi issued specifications relating to the brewing and serving of beer.
From Babylon, beer found its way into Egypt where the pharoahs themselves mastered the art of brewing. The beer jugs from the time of Ramses III are far bigger than the Bavarian beer tankards: they held a good 3.5 litres. It can be assumed that at this time beer had a much lower alcohol content than the beer we drink today. Beer was also used as an offering to please the gods.

Brewing beer in ancient Egypt was subject to very strict rules. A brewer who dared serve low quality beer risked being drowned in his own beer.

There were different types of beer in both Babylon and Egypt. In order to give the drink a certain flavour, many types of plants and herbs were added. Even today brewers still experiment with herbs.

The Roman Empire

The Romans concentrated on producing wine and planted many vineyards. But in areas where the vines could not grow due to an unfavourable climate, they grew cereals from which beer could be brewed. At that time beer was used to quench the thirst of the Roman legions. Beer preceded wine in all locations. Dionysius only became the god of wine after he had first ruled as Sabazios, the god of beer.
After the fall of the Roman empire the church took control of farms. Clergymen and monks started brewing beer. Until the eleventh century brewing beer was something that could only be done by the clergy. The clergymen wrote the recipes for their “spirited drink” on parchment. As already mentioned, brewing beer was not allowed outside the monastery walls, but some civil breweries were nevertheless set up here and there. But it would be several centuries before brewing became the common property of ordinary people.

The Middle Ages

In the fourteenth and fifteenth centuries, breweries sprang up like mushrooms in a field. Beer became a popular people's drink. The De Horen brewery in Louvain, subsequently the Artois brewery, was set up during this period, ie. in 1366.
At the time of the great epidemics of plague and cholera, therapeutic properties were attributed to beer. Not altogether wrongly so, as in this period water for daily consumption was taken from rivers and moats and was responsible for spreading disease. But as a result of the boiling process in brewing, beer was germ free and consequently offered a safe alternative to water.

Drinking beer was not seen as harmful in any way in the Middle Ages. On the contrary. Large quantities of beer were consumed in the monasteries. In certain convents the nuns drank more than five litres of beer a day, or at least they were entitled to that quantity.

In those days food and provisions were distributed according to a kind of social ladder. A brother from humble origins, for example, only got water and one litre of wine on feast days. Those from higher origins sometimes had wine every day, etc. The beneficiaries often gave wine away in return for other favours.

In the Middle Ages the brewers formed themselves into guilds. In the low countries they formed powerful groups that paid excises to the king, which meant that the king also had to have due regard for them. In Liege, for example, excise on beer was used for maintaining the city and Louvain also had the brewery to thank for its wellbeing.
The Brewers House on the Grand Place in Brussels, where the Confederation of Belgian Breweries has now set up a beer museum, demonstrates the wellbeing that the brewers guilds enjoyed in the Middle Ages.
Brewing within corporate guilds led to the use of certain brewing recipes in certain regions. Thus arose the various regional beers with their typical flavours. This also meant that beers were imported from other regions, where taxes could be levied.

Beer was very popular. A lot more beer was drunk than is the case today.

Louis Pasteur’s discovery

The French Revolution (1792-1794) heralded the end of the wealthy brewers guilds. At the same time many monasteries were destroyed and a large proportion of the brewing activities in monasteries were lost with them. The economic chaos, which Belgium missed, was ended by Napoleon. Then local breweries could slowly resume their activities.

1880 was a turning point in the history of beer. The French scientist Louis Pasteur added a final touch to brewing beer.

The flavour of beer is determined by the fermentation: yeast cells convert the sugars into alcohol. This fermentation initially happened spontaneously, such that it was impossible to determine the flavour beforehand. The brewers could only hope that the end product would taste good.
Louis Pasteur (1822 - 1895) discovered that there were different types of yeast cells and that not all yeasts were so suitable for a good fermentation, and consequently the optimum flavour of the beer. The search was on for the most suitable families of yeasts for the brewing process. By continually cultivating them brewers could obtain the same fermentation and thus make beer with the same flavour time and time again.
Pasteur also discovered that it was possible to conserve drinks by heating them to 70°C. At this temperature all the micro-organisms present are inactivated. This new technique - which is called pasteurisation - now makes it possible to keep beer for longer periods.

Thanks to the knowledge of Pasteur, the breweries flourished again. At the end of the 19th century Belgium had as many as 3,200 breweries. Brewers did well and enjoyed prestige and standing.
As fermenting beer has to be kept in a cool place, brewing was only done in winter. Refrigerating equipment did not yet exist. At the end of the 19th century, ice was imported from Scandinavia and stored in special ice cellars. After the invention of the refrigerator by Von Linde in 1877, these ice imports fortunately became redundant.

The twentieth century

The flourishing brewing industry had to endure a second hard blow during the First World War. Due to a lack of personnel and raw materials, half of the Belgian breweries had to close. After the war a number of these breweries were restarted and mechanised.

The breweries had to contend with another problem during the war of ’40 to ‘45. Raw materials were again scarce, but this time substitute raw materials were used, albeit of a lower quality. It was not only the beer itself, but also the bottles that presented problems. Crown tops could no longer be made and the idea of the swing-top bottle was born. The rubber for these bottle tops could be made from worn car tiers. When these materials also fell into short supply, the bottle deposit became compulsory. Beer bottles could then be recycled and reused.

After the Second World War 775 breweries still remained in Belgium. In the meantime, many of the small, mostly family companies have disappeared or have been purchased by larger ones. Today Belgium only has a hundred or so breweries remaining.

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