#Beer History
5,000 years of beer — wages, rituals, and IPAs.
- May 20, 2026
The Origins of Beer: How a Fermented Mash Predates Civilization
Pottery residues from Jiahu in China and ritual vessels at Göbekli Tepe in Turkey put fermented grain drinks at around 7,000–9,000 BCE — older than writing, older than the wheel, and possibly older than settled agriculture itself.
- May 6, 2026
Why Ancient Egyptians Worked for Beer
In ancient Egypt, workers on the great pyramids were commonly paid with beer instead of coins.
- May 12, 2026
Lacto-Fermentation vs Brewing: Two Cousins, Different Endings
Pickles and beer use the same biochemistry up to a point. Then they diverge sharply.
- April 30, 2026
Beer as Wages: Ancient Egypt's Ingenious System
In Ancient Egypt, a civilization renowned for its monumental achievements, workers were often compensated with beer as their primary form of payment.
- March 15, 2026
Beer Was the Salary. It Made Perfect Sense.
In roughly 2450 BCE, the workers constructing the pyramids at Giza received a daily wage of approximately ten loaves of bread and four to five ceramic jugs of beer.
- April 4, 2026
Why Beer Belongs in the History of Work
Beer wasn't a luxury for the workers who built the Pyramids. It was lunch — paid out in jars, drunk on the job, accounted for in calories before it was accounted for in coin.