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The History of Beer (Advanced Program) · Spotlight English: Advanced

• 0:03
  Speaker 1: Welcome to Spotlight Advanced.
• 0:05
  Speaker 2: I'm Patrick Woodward and I'm Megan Nolette. Spotlight uses a
• 0:10
  Speaker 2: special English method of broadcasting. It is easier for people
• 0:14
  Speaker 2: to understand no matter where in the world they live.
• 0:26
  Speaker 1: India, pale, ale, lager, stout, hefervison. These are all different
• 0:33
  Speaker 1: kinds of beer. No matter where you're from, you've probably
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  Speaker 1: heard of this grain based alcoholic drink. Aside from tea
• 0:41
  Speaker 1: and water. It is the most popular drink in the world.
• 0:46
  Speaker 2: But beer is not just another alcoholic drink. Beer was
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  Speaker 2: once a holy drink in many societies. In ancient Egypt,
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  Speaker 2: people were paid in beer. Experts have found evidences of
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  Speaker 2: beer in writing from ancient to rock. This writing contained
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  Speaker 2: directions for making the drink. It also included a poem
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  Speaker 2: praising the god of beer. Some experts even think that
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  Speaker 2: beer helped create modern culture.
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  Speaker 1: Today's Spotlight is on beer. On this program, we will
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  Speaker 1: explore the history of this important drink. We will see
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  Speaker 1: how it's shaped culture. We will explore its influence on
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  Speaker 1: the present day.
• 1:32
  Speaker 2: Beer is a very wide description of drink. Today, there
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  Speaker 2: are hundreds of different kinds of beer. People create new
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  Speaker 2: kinds every day, but there are two basic things that
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  Speaker 2: make a beer grain and yeast.
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  Speaker 1: All beer is made from grain. This includes plants like rice, barley, sorghum,
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  Speaker 1: and corn. Today most people use barley to create beer,
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  Speaker 1: but other grains were more popular in the past.
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  Speaker 2: To make beer, brewers place grain in warm water. This
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  Speaker 2: water breaks the grain down into sugars. Brewers call this
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  Speaker 2: mixture of water and grain a wart. Yeast is a special,
• 2:18
  Speaker 2: very small form of life. There are many different kinds
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  Speaker 2: of yeast, but several turn sugar into alcohol. This is
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  Speaker 2: called fermentation. Brewers add yeast to a wart after it
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  Speaker 2: is cooled. This turns the sugary wart into an alcoholic beer.
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  Speaker 2: It also gives beer a special taste.
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  Speaker 1: Beer is one of the oldest man made drinks in
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  Speaker 1: the world. Experts have found evidence of beer as far
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  Speaker 1: back as eleven thousand BCE, but people have probably been
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  Speaker 1: making beer for much longer.
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  Speaker 2: Most likely, the discovery of beer was an accident. The
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  Speaker 2: Natufians were a group of ancient people from the Middle East.
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  Speaker 2: They lived in what is now Israel, Syria, and Egypt.
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  Speaker 1: The Natufians did not live in one place. Instead, they
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  Speaker 1: hunted animals. They also gathered wild barley, a kind of grain.
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  Speaker 1: Experts believe that somehow this barley mixed with wild yeast
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  Speaker 1: and water. The Natufians must have tasted this mixture. They
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  Speaker 1: must have liked how it made them feel.
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  Speaker 2: For many of these ancient people, the process of making
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  Speaker 2: beer must have seemed like magic. They did not know
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  Speaker 2: how it worked. Many seemed to have believed it was
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  Speaker 2: the work of gods. As a result, beer became part
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  Speaker 2: of religious ceremonies. People drank beer to celebrate and mark
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  Speaker 2: special days. Brian Hayden is an expert on ancient peoples.
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  Speaker 2: He works at Simon Fraser University. In a story on
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  Speaker 2: Natufian beer, he wrote.
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  Speaker 3: Beer was an important part of getting people to celebrations.
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  Speaker 3: It made these gatherings better places for creating political structures
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  Speaker 3: and power within communities. It also encouraged people to produce
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  Speaker 3: food in ever increasing amounts.
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  Speaker 1: Some experts even believe that beer helped create farming. Instead
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  Speaker 1: of gathering grain, people started growing it for themselves. They
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  Speaker 1: began to stay in one place instead of hunting and gathering.
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  Speaker 1: They created strong communities around celebration and meals. These communities
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  Speaker 1: may have been the start of modern towns and cities.
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  Speaker 1: Beer was one thing that brought people together to form
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  Speaker 1: complex communities.
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  Speaker 2: As time passed, methods from making beer changed. In some places,
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  Speaker 2: beer continued to have religious importance. In others, people used
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  Speaker 2: beer as a special drink for workers. Drinking beer had
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  Speaker 2: many advantages for people working physical jobs. Early beer had
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  Speaker 2: much less alcohol than it does today and much more sugar.
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  Speaker 2: It was like liquid bread. Beer kept workers energetic even
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  Speaker 2: if they did not have enough food. Beer was also
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  Speaker 2: safer to drink than some water. William Bostwick is a
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  Speaker 2: beer reporter for the New York Times. He told National
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  Speaker 2: Public Radio.
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  Speaker 4: Beers then were richer and heartier than today. They were
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  Speaker 4: a way of providing something like food for the lower
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  Speaker 4: classes who did not have healthy food.
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  Speaker 1: The first major change in beer came with the discovery
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  Speaker 1: of the hot plant in the ninth century CE in Europe.
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  Speaker 1: Adding this bitter plant to beer gives a special taste,
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  Speaker 1: but the oils from the hot plant are also natural preservatives.
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  Speaker 1: When added to beer, hops keep the drink from going bad.
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  Speaker 2: Many people who made beer during this time were Christian monks.
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  Speaker 2: This special class of religious person lived in a group
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  Speaker 2: away from normal society. These monks spent much of their
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  Speaker 2: lives in prayer and thought. Time away from society also
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  Speaker 2: gave them space to develop methods for beer making. They
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  Speaker 2: passed their methods down to other monks, who built on them.
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  Speaker 2: Hops gave them better taste control. The beers the monks
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  Speaker 2: developed are responsible for today's modern beers.
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  Speaker 1: Soon other people tried monastic beer methods. Beer taste became
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  Speaker 1: more complex, and hops became one of the most important
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  Speaker 1: elements in beer. William the fourth was the ruler of
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  Speaker 1: a part of Germany called Bavaria in the sixteenth century.
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  Speaker 1: He declared that people should only use three things to
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  Speaker 1: make beer, barley, water and hops.
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  Speaker 2: The next big discovery in beer was the identification of yeast.
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  Speaker 2: Humans had used yeast to make beer for thousands of years,
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  Speaker 2: but they did not know that yeast was what made beer.
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  Speaker 2: The discovery of this process gave people another chance to experiment.
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  Speaker 2: They could use different yeasts or a desired effect. This
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  Speaker 2: helped brewers control what their beer was like even more.
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  Speaker 1: Today beer is only a little like the drink than
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  Speaker 1: Natufians made. Modern beer has more alcohol. The taste of
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  Speaker 1: different beers is much more specialized. There are dark, sweet
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  Speaker 1: beers like the Irish stout, the India Palel is famous
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  Speaker 1: for its bitter, hot taste. Rice wines like japan saki
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  Speaker 1: are very similar to beer. These drinks have a cleaner
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  Speaker 1: taste than European.
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  Speaker 2: Beers, but modern beer does have one similarity to its
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  Speaker 2: ancient ancestor. For those who drink it, beer is a
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  Speaker 2: thing that brings people together. It encourages talking and celebration.
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  Speaker 1: Drinking alcohol is not good for everyone. Too much alcohol
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  Speaker 1: can cause health issues like liver disease and cancer. Some
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  Speaker 1: people reject it on religious grounds, but even then, it's
• 8:40
  Speaker 1: difficult to deny beer's historic importance. This ancient drink changed
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  Speaker 1: how many societies were formed. It may have even created them.
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  Speaker 2: Beer holds much importance in many countries. Do people drink
• 8:56
  Speaker 2: beer where you live? Why or why not? You can
• 9:00
  Speaker 2: leave a comment on our website at www dot Spotlight
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  Speaker 2: English dot com. You can also find us on YouTube, Facebook,
• 9:10
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• 9:14
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• 9:18
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  Speaker 1: The writer and producer was Dan Christman. The voices you
• 9:26
  Speaker 1: heard were from the United Kingdom and the United States.
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  Speaker 1: All quotes were adapted for this program and voice by spotlight.
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  Speaker 1: This program is called the History of Beer.
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  Speaker 2: We hope you can join us again for the next
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  Speaker 2: Spotlight program. Goodbye,