It seems that the first people who produced beer were the Sumerians, an ancient civilisation of Mesopotamia. Based on archaeological findings, the Sumerians produced beer from 4,000 BC. stone slabs were used in order to grind cereals for the production of beer .
Probably the Sumerians accidentally discovered the fermentation from a wet piece of bread, which was somehow forgotten and after a while began to knead with the help of air. This produced a pulp of alcohol and as the Sumerians managed to repeat the fermentation process, they eventually created 16 different types of beer.
The beer of the Babylonians From the second millennium onwards.
The Babylonians who had known the art of fermentation by the Sumerians managed to further develop the technique of producing beer so that they came to the point of producing 20 different types of beer. The eight types of Babylonian beer were produced from wheat, while the other 12 were mixed with various cereals. Indeed, the Babylonians also exported beer to Egypt. The production of beer in Babylon belonged exclusively to women, as it was among household chores .
The Egyptians
The Egyptians because they thought that beer is bitter they added doughs when it was produced, and for the fermentation they used a loaf of bread . Later, at the time of Pharaoh Ramses II, barley was established for its production . In addition, beer has been widely used in Egypt as food and in general beer was a regular part of the daily life of every Egyptian, from the highest to the lowest, It was the coinage of power ,they used as a currency to pay mostly slaves and tradesmen. They also used it for the mooring of the dead. At the death of a relative, they opened their mouth and poured some beer inside so that they would not be thirsty on their trip to the afterlife where the Gods Hathor and Osiris were waiting . The Egyptians also dedicated beer as a sacrificial drink to their gods .
Greek beer
The ancient Greeks met beer by the Egyptians, but they always considered it inferior to wine because of the haze it displayed. Probably the Greeks, like the Babylonians, considered beer a woman's affair, and for this reason they believed it was a woman's drink.
The first mention of the production of beer is made in Homer's Odyssey, which states that in Alkinoos Palace there were jars with barley wine.
Moreover, ancient Greeks formerly called beer as "a barley wort". In fact, the Thracians, the Paisons and the Attics made beer and called it "wort", while the Macedonians and some Greeks who lived in Asia called it "pine" or "zithos". According to the Roman historian Pliny the Elder, the ancient Greeks used hops to make beer.
Roman Beer
The technique of beer production in Rome was taken by the ancient Greeks. Like the Greeks, so the Romans considered beer as inferior to wine and even regarded it as a drink of barbarians. Beer was produced mainly in the provinces of the Roman Empire, which was difficult to produce or import grapes, so it was impossible to produce wine.