1687- 1860 for nearly 200 years, a hospital in London managed its own brewery, saving lives while brewing beer. What are you doing? Every hospitalized patient has three pints of water to drink every day. Sensational? This move has its origins. A thousand years ago, Saint Arnold, who became Bishop of Metz in northern France in 6 12, strongly promoted beer and advocated drinking more, less or no water. The bishop was also regarded as a saint by the Catholic Church for his achievements in promoting beer. Sounds a little strange?

Therefore, beer is far more than just for us to drink with gossip. Among the five common alcoholic beverages, beer is the most popular in the world and has played the most important role in the course of human history. The posthumous bishop actually advocated drinking beer from the perspective of public health, not advocating indulgence. In ancient times, clean drinking water was difficult to obtain. He noticed the connection between unclean drinking water and the spread of diseases, which made everyone drink more beer. After fermentation, even if the alcohol concentration is not enough for sterilization, it is cleaner than the water near the village head.

This shows at least two things. First of all, the technology of brewing beer is very popular, and the raw materials are easy to get all year round, so everyone can afford beer. Moreover, the alcohol content of beer at that time was probably lower than now, otherwise three glasses of beer a day would be unacceptable to everyone.

2. Brewing makes people stable.

Brewing may have started in the Neolithic Age in10,000 BC, almost at the same time as primitive people changed from gathering and hunting to settled farming. Historians in the past generally believed that after entering the farming civilization, grain production tended to be stable and there was a surplus of grain, so people began to make wine. Since the second half of the 20th century, more and more archaeological evidence shows that this causal relationship may need to be reversed. In the hunter-gatherer era, compared with the farming lifestyle, it is more pleasant to enjoy fresh and diverse foods with the seasons moving-farmers face the loess and face the sky, work all year round, and eat only a limited variety of foods. What is the picture? The purpose of the map is probably to make wine-settlement and farming are obviously more convenient and stable to obtain raw materials for making wine. As for why primitive people are so interested in wine, one guess is that it is out of the need of sacrifice and worship. In short, if it weren't for a sip of beer, human beings might still be picking fruits and hunting for a living today.

It can be inferred from archaeological achievements and common sense of life that brewing beer with barley is the earliest brewing method discovered by human beings. Barley germinates under certain temperature and humidity conditions, and the enzymes released by malt help starch to be converted into sugar, and then alcohol fermentation. This process can occur naturally without human intervention. Primitive people observed this phenomenon and took the initiative to make use of it, which became beer. The origin of wine is similar, but grapes are far less widely distributed than barley and are limited by seasons, so they are not as popular as beer. The earliest discovered remains of brewing beer are in today's Turkey. Babylonia has a profession specializing in brewing beer. Babylonians' attention to beer even rose to the height of law. Code of hammurabi recorded twenty different kinds of beer, and stipulated that eight of them must be brewed entirely from barley, while the other twelve kinds can use different grains.

Most other liquors have a clear origin, and then spread from one region to another with the tide of civilization convergence. Beer also has this process, but at the same time, people have found traces of beer brewing technology independently developed by ancient humans in different corners of the world. In China, although modern beer was introduced by Germans in 190 1 year, beer brewed in ancient times can still be found. Liu Li, a professor of East Asian Archaeology at Stanford University, once took her students with her to imitate China beer 5,000 years ago according to the residue on the inner wall of the pottery jar at the archaeological site in China.

In fact, literature research also reveals the possibility of brewing beer in ancient China. In Oracle Bone Inscriptions, "Yi" and "Jiu" are two different words. In that precious era, two different meanings must have been expressed. "Make wine by bending, and make glutinous rice by pressing" is a popular saying in later generations. Qu is a distiller's yeast, and Ba is a germinated grain, which means that Ba recorded in ancient books is an alcoholic beverage fermented from malt, which is basically beer. As for why beer didn't catch on in China, it may be because people in China quickly mastered the method of brewing yellow rice wine with Qu, and the alcohol content of yellow rice wine is much higher than that of Qu, so no one likes to drink light Qu any more.

3. Drink beer today

The main difference between today's beer and ancient beer is that hops are added to add flavor. According to raw materials, production technology, storage time and other factors, there are far more than 20 kinds of beer in Babylonian era today.

The two most common classifications are lager and ale, and the main difference between them lies in the way of fermentation. The word Lager comes from German lagern, which means to store. As the name implies, it is a kind of beer that has been aged for a long time. It originated in Bavaria. One problem of early beer brewing was that the fermentation process was difficult to control in summer, but the monks in Bavaria moved the fermentation process to a cool wine cellar, allowing the yeast to sink to the bottom of the jar and ferment from bottom to top. Compared with malt liquor, there are fewer yeast components left in cellar beer, so the finished product can be preserved for a relatively long time. At the same time, due to the small amount of yeast residue, the aroma of malt and hops is richer and the taste is purer.

However, ale is fermented from top to bottom, which makes the beer taste more layered and richer. The word Ale can sometimes refer to beer. Malt wine can be further subdivided according to the types of malt used. The lightest color is called pale ale, with pale malt. At first, it was made in Britain. Because the color and taste are light and suitable for hot areas, it spread to India, and there was Indian light ale, IPA for short. Deeper than pale ale, amber ale brown ale. As for why malt has different colors, it is completely artificially controlled in the process of barley germination.

Since pale malt can be made into pale ale, can it be made into pale ale? It is also possible. The earliest place to do this was pilsner in Bohemia, so this wine was later called Pils ner, which can also be spelled Pilsner or Jane writing Pils.

Some people like light taste, while others like heavy taste, such as Guinness. The malt used in this wine is smoked or roasted. This wine is called dark beer, or it can be called dark beer directly.

Speaking of Guinness, I wonder if you have noticed that there is a hard thing like a stone in its bottle or jar. This thing is called widget. What is this for? People in China often say draft beer, but there is no difference between draft beer and cooked beer in English. Draught beer is called draft beer, and it is written as draft in the United States. This word comes from the old English word dragan, which means drag and move. What are you dragging? Beer barrel. So draft beer refers to fresh beer that has just been poured out of the barrel. Strictly speaking, a new barrel of beer must be sold out within three days before it can be called bulk. Therefore, any bottled beer is actually not in bulk. For commercial purposes, many packaged beers claim to keep the flavor of draft beer. Guinness's gadgets are his family's patented technology. It looks like a needle with a hole in the middle. Its function is to store the excess gas in the bottle in the hole, and then release it slowly when pouring the wine, so that the bubbles in the wine are more uniform, which can imitate the effect of the newly opened wine barrel.

The real drama has to be drunk in bars or wineries. This kind of bulk wine is called "ready to drink" in the bar. Tap is the faucet, and on tap is of course to connect the bucket to the faucet and let it out of the water. When you enter a bar, the waiter asks what you want to drink. Bottled wine is usually written on the wine list, but fresh wine is not necessarily, especially in characteristic small bars. The draught beer served every day may be different. You can ask the waiter, "What's available today?" This sentence has also become a common saying. If someone asks this question in a meeting, it is not drinking, but asking what is the agenda of today's meeting.

Domestic version of the unique menu | beer fried fish

English fish and chips (fish &; Chips) is almost a national dish in Britain and is also very popular in North America. This thing is actually very simple to say, and there is no technology. Whether it is delicious or not depends largely on the freshness of the fish. If you want to pay attention to anything, the main thing is that the layer of paste wrapped outside the fish should be made of beer, called beer batter. Fish fried in beer batter is more fluffy and crisp than ordinary batter.

Many people in Toronto have a small porch surrounded by a glass wall outside their doors, where they can change their shoes before entering the door. Especially in winter, I don't want to bring a foot-thick slush into my house. This place is outside the house, there is no heating, but there are glass walls, so it is a little warmer than pure outdoor. Under normal circumstances, if the temperature is as low as MINUS 10 degrees, the temperature in this small entrance will be around zero degrees, so it won't freeze, so many people put beer and drinks here to cool down. I did it, too. Unexpectedly, a few days ago, it suddenly appeared extremely cold weather, the temperature dropped to MINUS 20 degrees, and my beer was frozen into ice. Ice is bigger than water. As a result, the expanding beer ice pushes the bottle cap up and the gas inside bubbles out. I quickly moved the wine into my house, and the bubbles rose even more, so I put the bottle upside down in the cup and drank the bubbles that came out. At the entrance, this kind of brewed wine is much higher than ordinary beer. The ice left in the bottle turned into water the next day, which was much lighter in color and taste than normal beer and could not be drunk. I made beer and fried fish with these "leftover wine"

Of course, the recipes introduced here need not be deliberate, and any beer will do. This beer batter can also be used to fry other things.

Raw materials:

Fish fillets can be frozen in the supermarket and can be used after thawing.

The quantity of beer depends on the quantity of fried fish. Mix batter with beer as water.

Proper amount of flour

A little salt and pepper. This kind of fish fillets are generally marine fish, and the taste is a little salty, so the amount of salt used is slightly less than usual.

Exercise:

1. Wash the fish fillet and cut it into small pieces. According to the practice of authentic English fish and chips, the fish should be in relatively large pieces, but if you do this, the pot must be large to fry, and it is more convenient to cut it smaller when cooking. Fish need neither seasoning nor pickling.

2. Add the beer to the flour and stir until it is thick enough to be hung on the fish, but it is still liquid. Add salt and pepper.

3. Add oil to heat the pan. Fried fish is different from fried chicken and fried meat. Fish is easy to cook, so the frying time can be shorter to keep the fish fresh and tender. If you want the fish to stay in the pot for a short time, the batter outside can reach a beautiful golden color and the oil temperature is slightly higher than usual.

4. Fish wrapped in batter and fried

Unique recipes overseas mixed version | Beer roast chicken

There are beer ducks for Chinese food, and beer roast chicken for western barbecue. An interesting way is to roast chicken with beer cans. As the name implies, when roasting chicken, a can of beer is stuffed into the chicken's stomach as a support and roasted with slow fire. During the roasting process, beer gradually volatilizes and is absorbed into chicken. It can be simplified. Add more beer to soak when pickling, and don't stuff beer cans when baking.

Raw materials:

Whole chicken, choose smaller chicken to eat.

Salt and pepper, I like simple spices, less spices. The amount of salt is inversely proportional to the curing time. It's best to marinate in the refrigerator overnight. If baking is in a hurry and curing time is short, it is necessary to increase the amount of salt appropriately.

A can of beer

Chili powder and pepper powder are mixed Sichuan "dried vegetables", which can be omitted if you don't like them.

Exercise:

1. Wipe the chicken inside and outside twice with salt and pepper, pour the beer into the container to soak the chicken, and put it in the refrigerator for curing overnight.

2. Preheat the oven at medium temperature.

3. Put the chicken in the baking tray and put it in the oven. You can put the beer soaked in chicken at the bottom of the oven.

4. Bake1~1.5h.

5. If you want to dry the vegetables, mix the pepper powder with the Chili powder and add some salt.

References:

Beer-Global History, Gavin D smith, Innovation Book Company, 2014; Chinese and Foreign Famous Wine Culture and Appreciation, Li, Huazhong University of Science and Technology Press, 2005; What is the difference? Light beer and light beer, Emma Christensen, thekitchn.com, 2010; Stanford students reproduce the secret recipe of China beer in 5000 years, Alex Shashkevich, Stanford News, 2017; Image from Pixabay public copyright sharing resources