Speaker 1: One of the most ancient alcoholic beverages. Beer has brought
Speaker 1: people together since the dawn of civilization. Today's episode is
Speaker 1: all about the history of beer. My name is Eva
Speaker 1: Lamboria and I am and welcome to Hungry for History,
Speaker 1: a podcast that explores our past and present through food.
Speaker 1: On every episode, we'll talk about the history of some
Speaker 1: of our favorite dishes, ingredients, and beverages. So make yourself
Speaker 1: at home. Even do you have a beer with you
Speaker 1: right now? I have like what I have in front
Speaker 1: of me. I have a little a little container filled
Speaker 1: with ice, and I have a little coronita. I love those.
Speaker 1: I have charo beer. You have had? You have that.
Speaker 1: It's wonderful. It's like the opposite of this. I love
Speaker 1: that we both we both picked Mexican beers. I'm gonna
Speaker 1: open this one up? Is it twist? Opening it up
Speaker 1: with my teeth? Don't do that. No, I got it.
Speaker 1: Oh that's a good sound. I was trying to get
Speaker 1: that sound. M Now, you are a fan of beer.
Speaker 1: I am not. You're not a fan of beer. I'm
Speaker 1: not a beer drinker. No. I feel like I drink
Speaker 1: more other things than I drink beer. But on a
Speaker 1: hot summer day. There's nothing better than a beer oh
Speaker 1: or like a really good mit. Okay, that's my jam.
Speaker 1: Now you're now you're speaking my language. I'll drink a
Speaker 1: michelala and I'll drink um. Uh. What's the other? The
Speaker 1: clemato has that tomato based Yes, that's the one. I
Speaker 1: like the clamato with the with the chamoi on the rim,
Speaker 1: with the uh pica as a straw. I mean all,
Speaker 1: I like it. I like it fully, the full prepared,
Speaker 1: say that it is the best, and when it has
Speaker 1: a piece of celery sticking out of it, that's even better.
Speaker 1: I did not know michell Lava came from Michella elava
Speaker 1: my beer ice cold Michella. I love these sort of
Speaker 1: play on words, like when you think about where words
Speaker 1: come from. I find that so interesting. So even the
Speaker 1: word servesa comes from the Roman goddess of agriculture setis,
Speaker 1: so setis the strength of setis, so the strength of
Speaker 1: agriculture is the set is the goddess weak. Right, Yeah,
Speaker 1: Cetis is the goddess. Yeah, because that's where cereal comes
Speaker 1: from as well, exactly the exactly goddess of setis. Yes,
Speaker 1: ohsa comes from Yeah, very interesting, so many interesting things.
Speaker 1: Beer's older than wine. Correct, beer is one of the
Speaker 1: most ancient fermented revergence. Like, we don't know exactly when
Speaker 1: beer was first fermented, but it was probably at least
Speaker 1: four thousand BC when we first see evidence of beer
Speaker 1: preparation in the Near East. So it goes back Okay,
Speaker 1: a very very very very very long time. I know,
Speaker 1: we don't know exactly when it started, but who did
Speaker 1: it and when did it become like popular, that's a
Speaker 1: good question. We don't know exactly who did it first,
Speaker 1: and it's probably something that was discovered, not necessarily something
Speaker 1: that was invented. So the first evidence of beer dates
Speaker 1: to you know, the Fertile Crescent, this area stretching from
Speaker 1: modern day Egypt, the Mediterranean to Turkey, Iran, Iraq, these
Speaker 1: whole areas that we started study in fourth grade. Basically
Speaker 1: we see the evolution of beer starting when people move
Speaker 1: from a hunting and gathering society to becoming sort of
Speaker 1: sedentary and growing wheat to bake bread. So it probably
Speaker 1: just happened and this sort of fermentation that were probably
Speaker 1: making dope for bread and it was fermented, so we
Speaker 1: start seeing beer for the first time so that goes
Speaker 1: back even like ten thousand BC, but the first evidence
Speaker 1: is around four thousand and there's this image from ancient
Speaker 1: Mesopotamia on modern Iraq. That's a little pictogram of two
Speaker 1: figures drinking beer from a straw. So it's this container
Speaker 1: and then two figures drinking beer from it. So this
Speaker 1: is the first evidence of sort of sharing a drink
Speaker 1: becoming a symbol of hospitality and a symbol of friendship.
Speaker 1: But beer was consumed by everybody, rich, poor men, women.
Speaker 1: It wasn't like the quila, which was like for the
Speaker 1: gods or the royals, right, everybody consume Everybody consumed beer.
Speaker 1: It was the drink for everybody. Yes, rich, poor men, women,
Speaker 1: you know, elderly, children's, everybody was drinking beer. So it's
Speaker 1: very different than a lot of other you know, ancient
Speaker 1: beverages and even you know today we have so many
Speaker 1: different varieties of beer. This is something that has always
Speaker 1: been around. I mean, the ancient Egyptians had at least
Speaker 1: seventeen different kinds of beers, and they had different names.
Speaker 1: You know, they had names ranging from the beautiful and
Speaker 1: the good, the heavenly, the joy bringer. But you mentioned
Speaker 1: like the Gilan, you know or Bulkan mayawel and all
Speaker 1: of these ideas of We talked about this a little
Speaker 1: bit with when we did our tequila episode and also
Speaker 1: with the wine episode that drinking and getting a little
Speaker 1: bit buzzed connecting us to the gods. So this is
Speaker 1: the same with with beer. Right, This whole idea of
Speaker 1: beer's ability to intoxicate and inducing a state of you know,
Speaker 1: altered consciousness was something that was magical. It was like
Speaker 1: it was a gift from the gods. I think I
Speaker 1: stole that from you that every time I drink wine,
Speaker 1: I go, I'm just connecting to the gods. Don't mind me,
Speaker 1: don't mind me. But yeah, it was like it seemed magical.
Speaker 1: It was like a magical experience. And you know, talking
Speaker 1: about our wine episode, you know, I had read that
Speaker 1: beer was easier to make because grapes were seasonal. Wine
Speaker 1: couldn't be stored without pottery, and pottery really didn't emerge
Speaker 1: until six thousand BCS. So beer could be stored like
Speaker 1: in leather bags or animal stomachs or I mean like
Speaker 1: really stone vessels. Like it wasn't It was a very
Speaker 1: low maintenance alcoholic. Absolutely, it was very low maintenance and
Speaker 1: because of this, eventually it becomes a drink of the
Speaker 1: lower classes because it wasn't wine, and we start seeing
Speaker 1: this shift, whereas for millennia it was such a for everybody,
Speaker 1: especially you know, the ancient Greeks and the Romans. They
Speaker 1: started creating this division, even though everybody was still drinking
Speaker 1: beer because it was accessible, it was easy, it was enjoyable.
Speaker 1: So yeah, but yes, absolutely, I love that that beer.
Speaker 1: Like in original writings, like the earliest collections of written language,
Speaker 1: beer is one of the most familiar words that was
Speaker 1: written down because of tax purposes, and so they were
Speaker 1: obviously taxing it, but it was like one of the
Speaker 1: most common words, one of the earliest and most common
Speaker 1: words that was like recording. Yeah, I find that so interesting,
Speaker 1: especially like writing was originally invented to record the collection
Speaker 1: and distribution of grain, beer, and bread, these three things.
Speaker 1: That's why writing. The earliest you know, documents in Cuney
Speaker 1: form basically were about bread, beer, and and grain, which
Speaker 1: is so interesting to me. But they would use it
Speaker 1: medicinally too, sometimes sometimes saffron and beer massaged into a
Speaker 1: woman's abdomen was prescribed for labor pains. I was like, okay, yeah,
Speaker 1: it's like, Okay, that's interesting. Yeah, and this comes from
Speaker 1: a document what it's called the ebers Papyrus, an Egyptian
Speaker 1: medical text from around fifteen fifty BC with hundreds of
Speaker 1: different examples of beer. Another one is half an onion
Speaker 1: mixed with beer is said to cure constipation. Oh, I
Speaker 1: gotta try that. That does not sound appetizing to me,
Speaker 1: not at all, not even a little bit. It's so
Speaker 1: funny that. Yeah, but the olive, the olives, the olives
Speaker 1: with beer cured indigestion. So I just think people were very,
Speaker 1: very innovative, and the specifically the Egyptians. They also thought
Speaker 1: in the afterlife that a good afterlife depended on having
Speaker 1: an adequate supply of bread. I wonder what that means.
Speaker 1: It's like, what is adequate? What would be adequate to you?
Speaker 1: If it were wine, be adequate to you, Oh, it
Speaker 1: would be bottomless, like bottomless mimosas, but bottomless, bottomless vats
Speaker 1: of wine. I love it. Don't go anywhere. We've got
Speaker 1: more on the history of beer when we come back.
Speaker 1: I think what I find the most interesting about beer
Speaker 1: in general is that traditionally brewers were women. What for
Speaker 1: many women sort of fermenting beer was a household you
Speaker 1: know task, It was an important thing. And ancient Sumerian women,
Speaker 1: double just priestesses, a fermented beer for religious purposes, to
Speaker 1: honor their goddess um Nicasi, who they believed gave beer
Speaker 1: to humans and brought peace and well being to society.
Speaker 1: So for thousands of years when and had extensive knowledge
Speaker 1: of plants associated with currying ailments, cooking, brewing, and also
Speaker 1: which craft, I love this story. This is my favorite story.
Speaker 1: I'm obsessed with the Middle Ages and all of that
Speaker 1: Renaissance England. And during the Middle Ages and Renaissance England,
Speaker 1: women transported their their beer brews in cauldrons so that
Speaker 1: they would make it in their house in these big
Speaker 1: cauldrons and then they would go to market. But when
Speaker 1: they went to market, the markets were so crowded they
Speaker 1: had to wear pointy hats so people could spot them
Speaker 1: and know where to find the beer. So this is
Speaker 1: where the term which is brew comes from, or the
Speaker 1: word brewery, which I found so funny. But also the
Speaker 1: fact that this led to some religious movement that you know,
Speaker 1: just as women were like establishing their mark not only
Speaker 1: in beer, but like in the economy. I don't find
Speaker 1: it ironic that religion was like, oh, hang on, hold
Speaker 1: on a minute, women are getting too far ahead of themselves.
Speaker 1: The religious movement made it more strict for women to
Speaker 1: make beer and condemned witchcraft, which was like associated with brewery.
Speaker 1: And then the male brewers saw the opportunity and to
Speaker 1: reduce competition, and so some of those male brewers would
Speaker 1: accuse female brewers of witchcraft and being witches, and they
Speaker 1: were brewing up spells and potions instead of the beer.
Speaker 1: And that was it, like the rumors took over, and
Speaker 1: then over time it just became dangerous for women to
Speaker 1: practice brewing beer for the fear of being misidentified as
Speaker 1: a witch. Like what, it's insane. Yes, because of the
Speaker 1: whole Reformation movement that was so okay, no, no, no,
Speaker 1: we can't have women in the economy. We can't have
Speaker 1: powerful women. The fact that to date, to date and
Speaker 1: men dominate the beer industry and all these beer companies,
Speaker 1: you know, really position beer as a male drink. And
Speaker 1: it's really you see, you can connect the dots of
Speaker 1: history and go, oh, that's where it's you know, it's
Speaker 1: so it's so fascinating, it's that blows my mind. This
Speaker 1: whole which which is with the pointy hats making beer,
Speaker 1: they were just you know, they were just trying to
Speaker 1: make a living. And another part of that story, some
Speaker 1: of the women had their shops, but maybe they worked
Speaker 1: with their husbands and had their shops. So they used
Speaker 1: to have cats to keep mice away from their grains
Speaker 1: that they were using to make beer. So that's a
Speaker 1: whole other thing that Pointy had. And if that's a
Speaker 1: whole added, a whole added story, let's talk about the
Speaker 1: history of beer in Mexico because you know, I covered
Speaker 1: this in Searching for Mexico when I was in Nouivo
Speaker 1: Leon and there's a huge beer movement in Nouivo Leon.
Speaker 1: Uh And I got to go to a couple of
Speaker 1: beer factories, breweries and and solve the whole process and
Speaker 1: how they make it. And there's like this huge artisanal movement.
Speaker 1: So is the artisanale beer Is it the same as
Speaker 1: a craft beer movement? That's different from like that I'm drinking,
Speaker 1: But it's the charo that you're drinking, right, that's this
Speaker 1: is like this, Yeah, char a craft beer. Yeah, charos
Speaker 1: a craft beer. Yeah, it's a it's a premium Mexican pilsner. Uh,
Speaker 1: and it's definitely made differently. And these are also these
Speaker 1: artisanal you know, craft beers are much smaller batch beers,
Speaker 1: like much more much smaller production. It's not the millions
Speaker 1: and millions and millions of gallons that are produced. They're
Speaker 1: much more thoughtful. Um. Yeah, you don't even want to
Speaker 1: know how much water goes into making one bottle. Really
Speaker 1: it's at Wow, it's a lot of water. I mean
Speaker 1: from from beginning to end, I mean from how much
Speaker 1: you have to water wheat and barley and the crops
Speaker 1: to fermenting it, dumping that out, fermenting it, dumping that out,
Speaker 1: boiling it, dumping that out. Like it's a lot of
Speaker 1: a lot of gallons per bottle. So beer is beer
Speaker 1: the most consumed alcoholic beverage? It is or one. It
Speaker 1: is right, it is the most. It is the most.
Speaker 1: So barley and we were brought to Mexico, New Spain
Speaker 1: early on between fifteen twenty one and fifteen twenty three.
Speaker 1: And beer was first made the summer of fifteen forty two,
Speaker 1: so really early on by a man named Alfonsorera. He
Speaker 1: was a member of Nancortes's expedition and he established a
Speaker 1: European style brewery near you know, Mexico City, on the
Speaker 1: foot of the volcanoes around Mexico City, and this is
Speaker 1: an area known for its water. You just mentioned how
Speaker 1: much water is needed, so there was a lot of
Speaker 1: water there and he was making amazing beers, but three
Speaker 1: fourths of the profits had to be sent to Spain.
Speaker 1: So and then Spain didn't like that local beer was
Speaker 1: competing with the sale of imported wines. So the brewery
Speaker 1: closed after a couple of years. And for centuries, beers
Speaker 1: were imported from Europe, you know, primarily from Germany and Belgium,
Speaker 1: alongside beer and other liquors. But because of this, beer
Speaker 1: was super expensive, so the locals, you know, population, they
Speaker 1: couldn't afford it, or much of the population couldn't afford it,
Speaker 1: and they preferred the native pulque, which is another fermented
Speaker 1: you know drink. And then after the before the revolution
Speaker 1: with when Portfilio the as President Bofilia Diaz was in
Speaker 1: power in the late eighteen hundreds, he started cracking down
Speaker 1: on drinking. He started imposing regulations on pulque, which was
Speaker 1: very popular among the indigenous population. Because he wanted Mexico
Speaker 1: to be seen as more modern and European. So these
Speaker 1: European brewers, it started opening up breweries around Mexico, started
Speaker 1: spreading rumors that Pulke was dirty, that pul was written
Speaker 1: with feces, stigmatizing Pulke and its producers, and by the
Speaker 1: nineteen fifties beer had overtaken Pulke and many of Mexico
Speaker 1: cities Bulke as closed. Just like the railroad network built
Speaker 1: in Mexico allowing the importing of that of all this
Speaker 1: machinery forced Mexican brewers to compete against North American beers,
Speaker 1: and that's how we started this mass distribution throughout Mexico.
Speaker 1: And I thought that was interesting, like the railroad brought
Speaker 1: the access to the machinery, because you know, I've been
Speaker 1: through that with in Central America. I've visited so many
Speaker 1: farms into America on Luras, Nigarawa, El Salvador, and the
Speaker 1: thing that holds them back is lack of tractors. They
Speaker 1: don't have the technology to be a force, but yet
Speaker 1: they have the soil and the climate, and so you're like, wait,
Speaker 1: you know, this is crazy, this something as small as
Speaker 1: a tractor, but it's not that small. It's like it's
Speaker 1: it's a big deal. And we the charity I was with,
Speaker 1: took down some tractors that we're going to change the
Speaker 1: lives of some of these families. So it's interesting when
Speaker 1: I saw that, I was like, the importing of machinery
Speaker 1: from the US allowed Mexican brewers to compete, Yeah, to
Speaker 1: grow otherwise, Yeah, it makes it makes perfect sense. Otherwise,
Speaker 1: how are they gonna how are you gonna get it
Speaker 1: from one place to the to the other. So then
Speaker 1: we start seeing by the end of the nineteenth century,
Speaker 1: we start seeing brewery on a large scale. And then
Speaker 1: how did prohibition affect be prohibition US prohibition in the
Speaker 1: nineteen twenties, Americans couldn't drink. Americans cross the board to drink.
Speaker 1: And this was in the nineteen twenties. They already had
Speaker 1: the machinery in the railroads. And this really helped propel
Speaker 1: the brewing industry in Mexico's brewing industry. And by nineteen
Speaker 1: twenty five, the beer industry was thriving, and we started
Speaker 1: seeing you know, glass industry, the bottlecap industry, advertising industry,
Speaker 1: so ice, iced ice, everything just really started to grow
Speaker 1: around that time in the nineteen twenties. Wow, and then this,
Speaker 1: I mean so pro us prohibition really forced Americans to
Speaker 1: travel South to drink. I mean that helped tequila, That
Speaker 1: helps spirits, that out rum, that helped everything. When we
Speaker 1: come back, Carmembla of Mohere's Brewhouse sends us a message,
Speaker 1: stay with us, Welcome back to the show. Moherrez Brewhouse
Speaker 1: is a southern California brewery that is redefining gender and
Speaker 1: race in the craft beer industry. Plus it's an all
Speaker 1: female run Latina owned brewhouse. Amen Here's Carmen Velasco Favela,
Speaker 1: one of the founders to tell us more about this
Speaker 1: incredible business. My name is Carmen Velasco and I was
Speaker 1: born in San Diego. I'm the first generation of parents
Speaker 1: from Sinaloa and Sonora, and I am the founder and
Speaker 1: owner of Moheres Brewhouse. Some Mohdes Brewhouse actually started as
Speaker 1: a beer club back in two nineteen. It was a
Speaker 1: six month series to basically educate and empower Latina's in
Speaker 1: the craft beer industry. So we started with the history
Speaker 1: of craft beer all the way to making a beer
Speaker 1: together with the girls, and from an idea, it turned
Speaker 1: out that we had over fifty women show up on
Speaker 1: our first class, and that was really the beginning of
Speaker 1: this project, which has now become its own brewery, which
Speaker 1: is now mouhett Is Brewhouse that opened up during the pandemic.
Speaker 1: We had built so much momentum with the girls that
Speaker 1: doing zoom and other things was just not an option.
Speaker 1: So there have been a vacant brewery in the community,
Speaker 1: and so we reached out to them. We said, hey,
Speaker 1: we've got all these women. We would love to use
Speaker 1: your space to continue our education further. And one thing
Speaker 1: led to another. Here we are two years later and
Speaker 1: we have Mouhettes Brewhouse that is all operated by women
Speaker 1: and basically dedicated to women. A lot of the recipes
Speaker 1: we come up with, they, you know, some of them
Speaker 1: are true to style. So we have a straight West
Speaker 1: Coast ipa and then we have beers that are like
Speaker 1: la It's Thamadino Belgian with and we incorporate some of
Speaker 1: the flavors that I grew up with as far as
Speaker 1: being Latina Mexican into our beer, and people really love
Speaker 1: to see that. They enjoy that. Not only do we
Speaker 1: make beers with some of the ingredients we grew up with.
Speaker 1: But also we make miche lavas that I'm from Sinaloa,
Speaker 1: so I'm a Marisco girl and I love my miche lava.
Speaker 1: And so those are things that we've incorporated in our
Speaker 1: brewery that celebrate what we grew up with as as
Speaker 1: Latin x or as Mexican. I'm just so proud of
Speaker 1: my team, all the girls that have come this far
Speaker 1: to be part of this project and to represent because
Speaker 1: it's not easy. Anytime you go into an area that's
Speaker 1: now male dominated, it's intimidating. But you know what, at
Speaker 1: the end of the day, if you're if your heart,
Speaker 1: if it's speaking to you and that you need to
Speaker 1: do something, you can do it. And so I just
Speaker 1: recommend that for any woman in the craft beer industry
Speaker 1: or in any other business it's male dominated, to move forward. Well,
Speaker 1: I think the craft beer is the original beer. The
Speaker 1: craft beer is the original beer. Absolutely, it is the
Speaker 1: original beer. And there is a company in Mexico craft
Speaker 1: beer movement in Mexico called Impetuosa. Do you know about this.
Speaker 1: It's a group of women, it's a it's a it's
Speaker 1: a Mexican craft beer movement, you know, buy women and
Speaker 1: it's all of these women that are getting together and
Speaker 1: making craft beer and their proceeds go to women organizations. Um,
Speaker 1: so that is very very cool. I haven't had that
Speaker 1: many Mexican craft beers other than Chato. Really, I don't
Speaker 1: think I've had that many Mexican craft beers. I love Chato.
Speaker 1: I'm not a beer drinker, but Charo's my jam um.
Speaker 1: I really it's just smooth. And then I was like, oh,
Speaker 1: maybe I'm a pilsner girl. Like I. Charo brought me
Speaker 1: into beer, like to really experience it and like like
Speaker 1: other things like wine and tequila, where you have notes
Speaker 1: and you have like finishes and you have yoh yeah,
Speaker 1: you can smell the barley, you can taste the honey,
Speaker 1: and I'm like, I taste beer. Um. But Charo really
Speaker 1: like a lot of the craft beers. Really you have
Speaker 1: a better experience than the mass produced ones because you
Speaker 1: can really feel those those notes and the care and
Speaker 1: concern that is brewed in every bottle. You go, Okay,
Speaker 1: this is like. I went to a bar in Monterrey
Speaker 1: that had ninety nine beers, which is funny play on
Speaker 1: ninety nine bottles of beer on the wall, but ninety
Speaker 1: nine draft draft beer, and one tasted like mango, one
Speaker 1: tasted like chocolate, one tasted like They had a really
Speaker 1: fun menu and it was really a really fun place.
Speaker 1: It's in the searching for Mexico. So you you guys
Speaker 1: will have to check. I have to go. I'm going
Speaker 1: to Terre in April for a wedding, so you have
Speaker 1: to give me, give me list. It's um, it's it's
Speaker 1: it's built. The restaurant is built out of old train
Speaker 1: box cars, so it's super cool. And the food like
Speaker 1: it's a bar, but the food and they have brisket.
Speaker 1: They have a lot of Texas stuff. They have a
Speaker 1: lot of barbecue and stuff like that there. And I
Speaker 1: was like, oh my god. And they were so excited
Speaker 1: to serve me the brisket because I was that's awesome.
Speaker 1: It was like and it was briskets and beer, briskets
Speaker 1: and beer. It's like the best, the best thing. I
Speaker 1: will say. I'm so proud that that, like even mass
Speaker 1: market Mexican beers are so good and very on par
Speaker 1: with the good European beer. I agree that really they were,
Speaker 1: that they were modeled after total I thought, I thought
Speaker 1: the evolution of beer in Mexico is something. It is.
Speaker 1: I agree, and I love a good even though it's
Speaker 1: not the fanciest, it's not the you know, craftiest, there's
Speaker 1: just something very good about this sort of little sunshine
Speaker 1: in a bottle. Love it. What a fascinating history, and
Speaker 1: there's so much more. I mean, we went down the
Speaker 1: lane of Mexico because that's who we are, but like,
Speaker 1: if you really did a deep dive of beer, it
Speaker 1: could take you down many family trees, many family trees
Speaker 1: of countries. And I was, I was, I like, obviously
Speaker 1: having the lens of Mexico. But what fascinated memost is
Speaker 1: the women's involvement in the early evolution of pearly. You know,
Speaker 1: like all good things that are invented, it was invented
Speaker 1: the war exactly not invented, but but helped along the way.
Speaker 1: I totally totally, Well, thanks everybody for listening. Cheers. I'm
Speaker 1: holding my beer ups. Cheers too, everyone who has clicked
Speaker 1: and subscribed to our podcast. People listening, We'll have some
Speaker 1: more fun episodes coming up. Thank you and cheers everyone.
Speaker 1: Hungry for History is an unbelievable entertainment production in partnership
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