Its been a few years since I researched it. Just from memory, beer making, and by extension wine making as well is thought to be invented when some grains from making bread got mixed with some water and sat around accidently until it fermented. Ancient Egyptian beers were much like this. They were some form of mashed grain that was fermented. They actually drank the liquid out of the mush with a filter straw. Those beers would have probably been fairly light on alcohol, and a little sweet. A real meal in a glass. The perfect thing to use for thousands of slaves building those pyramids.
Later on, beer making (and wine as well) was really a form of preservation and food safety. Since part of the brewing process involves boiling for about an hour, beer is incredibly safe to drink. Somewhere along the line, someone figured out that we get sick from drinking out of that stream, but the beer we make with the water from that stream is safe. Beers then would have been fairly low in alcohol, and bittered/preserved with different herbs and spices. They would have also been sour. Some, like Belgian beers were spontaneously fermented. Others picked up the bugs in barrels etc.
As for distilling...I have no idea. Other than someone having a great idea of how to get absolutely smashed.
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How Did All of This Get Started?
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