- [Narrator] Green Dragon Tavern, Boston 1768.
The Sons of Liberty
have gathered to lift tankards in solidarity.
They do so surrounding a silver bowl
filled with rum punch
made by one of their members, Paul Revere.
Another among them is a malter
named Samuel Adams
who produces the serialized mixture
sold to brewers to make beer.
And across from him is John Hancock,
a merchant specializing
in importing Spanish wine.
They swill American beer and rum
talking about how new British laws
have impacted their lives.
The Sugar Act squeezed the rum business.
Trade restrictions kept the colonists
from selling their products,
including alcohol, abroad.
And now they have to quarter British soldiers
in their homes, barns, and stables
and were legally required
to give them five pints of beer a day.
In retaliation, Boston brewers
have instituted a boycott
refusing to buy British malt.
The colonies are drinking
their way toward revolution.
Thanks so much to Hello Fresh
for helping us bring
this history to the table.
By the 18th century,
Europe was barreling toward revolution
and the Green Dragon Tavern was not alone
as a center for dissent.
During both the American and French Revolutions,
rebels organized themselves
around taverns and other drinking establishments.
And later, beer halls would serve a similar role
in the revolutions of 1848.
But another revolution was taking place
at the same time,
one centered on the process of making beer.
See, for most of history,
beer had little competition.
Apart from grape producing regions
where wine was cheap enough
for common people to enjoy,
there just wasn't another commercial beverage
that could compete with it.
But now, there were tons,
with the increasing global trade network
bringing more options.
Coffee originally from Ethiopia,
and that you can learn more about
in our History of Coffee Series here,
had made its way through Europe.
Not to mention
tea had arrived on the scene from China
and Europe had even gotten a taste
for the Aztec practice of drinking chocolate.
But the biggest rival of beer
was distilled spirits,
which began circulating
in the 13th century as medicine
and named with nebulous terms
like strong waters or aqua vitae.
And a few centuries of experimentation meant
that by the 18th century,
brandy, rum, gin, and whiskey
were not only commercially viable products,
but increasingly tasted
way better than years prior.
So if you wanted to get drunk,
and no, ifs, ands, or buts about it,
the early modern Europeans
most assuredly did,
spirits got the job done a lot faster
and at a lower cost.
Though, with a lot more danger as well.
During the gin craze of the 18th century,
London started seeing a level of drunkenness
it had never experienced before.
People were dying of alcohol poisoning,
a thing almost impossible to do
with lower strength beers
common at the time.
drunk Londoners were dying
in gory accidents,
losing their businesses,
and even selling their
or their children's clothes to buy gin.
And while this created a moral panic
about drunkenness in the lower classes,
and it's always about the lower classes,
I mean, members of parliament
were actually admired
for their ability
to give speeches while drunk,
this moral outcry also provided
cover for beer.
In contrast, beer was seen as wholesome,
even healthy.
In 1751, English artist William Hogarth
published The Prince, Beer Street, and Gin Lane
to make an explicit side by side comparison.
On Gin Lane,
the people are dying skeletal zombies.
A carpenter paws his tools
as buildings fall apart
while violence and crime are rampant.
Meanwhile, over on Beer Street,
the only one going out of business
is the pawn broker.
Everyone is rotund, happy, prosperous, patriotic
and glowing with health and virality.
And not only was beer supposedly healthy,
it was entering a new era of innovation.
Large brewers were starting
to produce it in larger volumes.
And new types of beer popped up
all over Europe.
Crucially, these were not created using additives.
But rather, by innovations
in the process of fermentation.
In the 1760s,
a new series of technologies appeared
that meant beer could be produced
with greater consistency and control.
Steam engines made large scale factories
easier to manage.
Thermometers and hydrometers
meant beer could be monitored
for temperature and consistency while brewing.
And the drum roaster created in 1817
sealed out the smoky flavor malts acquired
by roasting directly
over wood, straw,
or a cold concentrate called coke.
One of these new exciting beers arose in England
just before the gin craze.
By the 1720s,
London brewers were selling
a new brew called Porter,
a name that supposedly arose
because it was popular
among the porters
that carried loads on the streets and docks.
Made with a dark malt and heavily hopped,
it was delicious, cheap,
and lasted for months.
Porter beer traveled all over Europe,
but it was in Ireland
where it made its biggest impact.
There, breweries began
making it particularly strong,
or extra stout
in the language of the time.
And Irish brewers
often used malt that had been cooked
until it was crisped,
giving the thick beer
a deep black color.
And one brewer became so famous for it,
his name has become
forever linked with the drink.
Arthur Guinness.
Though another fan of stout
was Catherine the Great,
who insisted that her court
be supplied with the best English beer.
Supposedly, English sailors found
that beer shipped to Russia
tended to freeze.
And in response,
developed a brew
with a high enough alcohol content
to prevent ice from forming.
Thus, the story goes Russian Imperial Stout was born.
Though that wasn't the only beer created
by a sea voyage.
Pale Ales, a golden or amber colored ale,
had arrived around the same time as Porter.
It's a beer the East India Company
was interested in
given that Porter was too heavy
for company officials and troops
serving in the heat of the subcontinent.
So they went to a brewer named George Hodgson
who was just up the river from their docks.
After experimenting with other beers,
he tried making a well known brew
called October Ale.
This was a heavily hopped autumn beer
that was supposed to mature in the cask
for a year before being bottled
to mature for another year.
But Hodgson got extremely lucky.
The conditions of heat and agitation
on the four month journey to India
sped up the maturation process,
and it arrived ready to drink.
And though his sons went on
to lose the contract,
a rival brewery recreated the formula,
which by then, was already known
as India Pale Ale.
Yet beer innovation was not
the sole province of the English.
Most German beers had traditionally been Lager,
a name derived from a process called lagering,
which meant letting them
ferment in basements
under relatively low temperature.
One type, Doppelbock,
was even left out to freeze in winter
and the ice discarded
in order to concentrate it.
These beers were often dark and sweet,
but that was changing.
In the early 1930s,
Gabriel Sedlmayr of the Spaten Brewery in Munich
traveled Europe in hopes of learning
how to modernize the German brewing industry.
Supposedly, he even engaged
in industrial espionage.
Stealing malt, hops, and beer samples
from the British breweries
and hiding them in a cane.
When he returned,
he adopted thermometers,
installed the first brewery steam engine in Germany.
And tried making a Pale Ale
with the process of lagering,
thereby inventing Pale Lager.
Another Bavarian brewer, Josef Groll,
decided to iterate a pale lager
at his own brewery in Pilsen
in what is now the Czech Republic.
That resulting beer
would be named after his city, Pilsner.
This Pale Lager, or Pilsner,
Some used them interchangeably, exploded.
Light and refreshing,
it was the perfect type of drink
for warmer climates.
Bavarian brewers then took it
to the United States
where it became the leading style
and German immigrants also took it to Mexico
where most beers are still lagers
and garnished it with local touches,
like lime, salt, and chili powder.
Now trust me, Rob and I
could go on like this for hours,
and we have in private meetings,
but you get the point.
By the mid-19th century,
there were more beers available
than ever before
and in greater quantities.
And breweries were no longer
at home operations,
but large industrial factories.
For example, in 1814,
a series of rusting tank rings
at a brewery in London gave way,
flooding the district with beer.
Wiping out multiple buildings
and killing eight people.
Yeah, that's how much beer
they were making.
Enough to cause a natural disaster.
But a happier thing happened
a few years earlier in 1810.
A wedding.
On a fine October day,
crown prince Ludwig married princess Therese
on a meadow outside Munich.
They held a parade
and days of horse racing
with beer, of course,
present in abundance.
It was so fun
that they decided to do it again
the next year
and the year after that.
And the year after.
In fact, apart from cancellations
due to wars and epidemics,
it's been held every year since.
Both in Munich
and in German communities all over the world.
You probably know it as Oktoberfest
and I've been to a few.
But German immigrants would carry more
than drinking festivals abroad.
So join us next time
as humanity finally discovers yeast.
The temperance movement leads
to a crusade against alcohol.
And a German immigrant fresh out
of the Union Army
creates the largest beer company
in the world.
Ah, what a bud.
Now, Zoe, before we dive into the research
for our final episode of the History of Beer,
it's probably a good idea to get some food
in our stomachs, you know?
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The biggest easy thanks
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Kyle Murgatroyd, and Orels1
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