Abstract
Fermented beverages may be made from a variety of sugar-containing materials: cider from apples, sake from rice, mead from honey, beer from grains, and of course, wine from grapes [1].
This is a preview of subscription content, log in via an institution to check access.
Access this chapter
Tax calculation will be finalised at checkout
Purchases are for personal use only
Notes
- 1.
Antoine Laurent Lavoisier (1743–1794) was born in Paris on August 26, 1743 to a family of commoners that was just beginning to attain some status [10, 11]. He was educated at the College Mazarin, where he soon developed a taste for mathematics and physical science [11, 12]. He pursued legal studies as his main interest, however, eventually receiving a Bachelors of Law in 1763 [10, 11]. He eventually became a businessman, astronomer, geologist, tax collector, and a noted chemist. He was a member of the French financial and government establishment and was at one time or another President of the Academy of Sciences, Chief of the Bureau of Accounts, Commissioner to the National Treasury, and member of the National Assembly [10–13]. He is considered by many as the father of modern chemistry and included among his greatest accomplishments were a new, logical system of nomenclature and the organization of a new system of chemistry, with an operational definition of elements, classification of reactions and composition, and the mass balanced equation [11–13]. During the Reign of Terror, he was tried and sentenced as a result of his positions within the old regime, leading to his death by guillotine on May 8th, 1794 [10–13].
- 2.
Joseph Louis Gay-Lussac (1778–1850) entered the École Polytechnique in 1797. There he attracted the notice of the professor of chemistry, Claude Louis Berthollet (1748–1822), and began working in his private laboratory [14–16]. He received his Master of Arts in 1800 and went on to act as a demonstrator to Antoine François de Fourcroy (1755–1809). In 1809, he became a professor of chemistry in the École Polytechnique, as well as a professor of physics in the Sorbonne [15, 16]. He resigned from the Sorbonne in 1832 and became professor of chemistry at the Jardin des Plantes [15, 16]. Equally proficient both in chemistry and physics, Gay-Lussac made his mark in both sciences and is probably best known for his quantitative studies of the properties of gases [14, 16]. Gay-Lussac died in Paris in 1850.
- 3.
Eduard Buchner (1860–1917) was born in Munich on May 20, 1860 [18], the son of Ernst Buchner, professor of forensic medicine and physician at the University of Munich [19]. After a short period of study at the Munich Polytechnic, where he attended courses by Emil Erlenmeyer (1835–1909), he worked in a preserve and canning factory for four years to raise money for further studies [19]. He returned to his studies in 1884, including organic chemistry under Adolf von Baeyer [18] and plant physiology under Carl Wilhelm von Nägeli (1817–1891) [18, 19], and taking his doctor's degree at the University of Munich in 1888 [18]. von Baeyer took Buchner on as a paid assistant in 1890, made possible his Habilitation in 1891, and arranged for generous funding from the Munich brewers, which made it possible for Buchner to establish a small laboratory for the chemistry of fermentation [19]. In 1894 Buchner took an interim appointment at the University of Kiel [18, 19] before being granted the title of Professor in 1895. In 1896 he was appointed professor for analytical and pharmaceutical chemistry at the University of Tübingen, before becoming the chair of general chemistry in the Agricultural College in Berlin and director of the Institute for the Fermentation Industry in 1898 [18, 20]. He was awarded the Nobel Prize in 1907 for his biochemical investigations and his discovery of non-cellular fermentation. In 1909 Buchner moved to Breslau to the chair of physiological chemistry and in 1911 to Wurzburg [18, 20]. He died in 1917 as a result of wounds received on the Romanian front during the First World War [18].
- 4.
The English word mead derives from the Old English meodu, a derivative of the Proto-Indo-European root *médhu (honey, or an alcoholic drink fermented from honey). While in the east, *médhu referred to both honey and its fermented drink, its use in the west referred only to the fermented drink and *melit was used to denote honey [26].
- 5.
The Sanskrit word mádhu has been defined as: honey; the juice or nectar of flowers; anything sweet; mead, sugar, liquorice; sweetness; a spirituous liquor obtained from the blossoms of the Bassia latifolia; any sweet intoxicating drink; wine; spirituous liquor [26].
- 6.
Pliny the Elder or Gaius Plinius Secundus (23–79 CE) was a Roman officer and encyclopedist. Born in late 23 or early 24 at Novum Comum (modern Como), a small city in the region known as Transpadane Gaul (or Gallia Transpadana), he was introduced to Rome at an early age. He studied in Rome before becoming a military tribune at age 21. During his time as an officer, he held three posts, serving primarily in Germany. Pliny is best known as a writer and encyclopedist, writing his first treatise in 50–51, followed by a two-volume biography of the senator Pomponius Secundus, and the twenty-volume History of Rome's German Wars. He is most well-known for his encyclopedia, Naturalis Historia, published in 77 CE. This massive work resulted from years of collecting records, both from his own reading and from personal observations, as well as anything else that seemed to him worth knowing. He died in late August of 79 during the evacuation around the erupting volcano Vesuvius. The exact cause of his death is unknown, but it has been said that he was asthmatic and overcome by sulfurous fumes. Reports are that he was still recording his personal observations of the event during the final hours of his life [37].
- 7.
Lucius Junius Moderatus Columella (4 CE–ca. 70 CE) is considered the most important writer on agriculture of the Roman Empire. He came from provincial Spain, but moved to Italy as a young man, where he took up farming and lived near Rome [38]. He is most well-known for his De Re Rustica, which comprised twelve volumes on farming, animal husbandry, and estate management, and this work forms an important source on Roman agriculture.
- 8.
The term osmophilic yeast, coined by A. A. von Richter in 1912, has been used to designate yeast strains that are able to thrive in highly concentrated sugar solutions [36].
- 9.
The theoretical value for the sextarius is about 540.3 ml.
- 10.
Parthia was a region of north-eastern Persia.
- 11.
The modius was equal to 16 sextarii or a little more than the peck, a unit of dry volume equivalent to 2 gallons.
- 12.
The congius was a liquid measure equivalent to approximately 3.48 L or 0.92 U.S. gallons.
- 13.
The Mishnah is a Jewish text which represents the first major written record of the Jewish oral traditions.
References
Lambert JB (1997) Traces of the Past. Unraveling the Secrets of Archaeology through Chemistry. Addison-Wesley, Reading, MA, pp 134–136.
Hornsey IS (2003) A History of Beer and Brewing. The Royal Society of Chemistry, Cambridge, pp 6–7.
Vallee BL (1998) Alcohol in the Western World. Sci Am June 1:80–85.
Cavalieri D, McGovern PE, Hartl DL, Mortimer R, Polsinelli M (2003) Evidence for S. cerevisiae Fermentation in Ancient Wine. J Mol Evol 57:S226–S232.
Donalies UEB, Nguyen HTT, Stahl U, Nevoigt E (2008) Improvement of Saccharomyces Yeast Strains Used in Brewing, Wine Making and Baking. Adv Biochem Engin Biotechnol 111:67–98.
Legras JL, Merdinoglu D, Cornuet JM, Karst F (2007) Bread, beer and wine: Saccharomyces cerevisiae diversity reflect human history. Mol Ecol 16:2091–2102.
Partington, JR (1935) Origins and Development of Applied Chemistry. Longmans, Green and Co., London, pp 197–198.
Braidwood RJ (1953) Symposium: Did man once live by beer alone? Am Anthro 55:515–526.
Barnett JA (1998) A History of Research on Yeasts 1: Work by Chemists and Biologists 1789–1850. Yeast 14:1439–1451.
Partington, JR (1998) A History of Chemistry, Martino Publishing, Mansfield Centre, CT, Vol. 3, pp 363–368.
Stillman JM (1924) The Story of Early Chemistry. D. Appleton and Co., New York, pp 513–539.
Bell MS (2005) Lavoisier in the Year One. W. W. Norton & Company, New York.
Inde AJ (1964) The Development of Modern Chemistry. Harper & Row, New York, pp 58–86.
Inde AJ (1964) The Development of Modern Chemistry. Harper & Row, New York, pp 116–118.
Partington, JR (1998) A History of Chemistry, Martino Publishing, Mansfield Centre, CT, Vol. 4, pp 77–90.
Partington JR (1950) J. L. Gay-Lussac (1778–1850). Nature 165:708–709.
Barnett JA (2002) A history of research on yeasts 5: the fermentation pathway. Yeast 20:509–543.
Manchester K (2000) Biochemistry comes of age: a century of endeavour. Endeavour 24:22–27.
Lothar Jaenicke L (2007) Centenary of the Award of a Nobel Prize to Eduard Buchner, the Father of Biochemistry in a Test Tube and Thus of Experimental Molecular Bioscience. Angew Chem Int Ed 46:6776–6782.
Barnett JA, Lichtenthaler FW (2001) A history of research on yeasts 3: Emil Fischer, Eduard Buchner and their contemporaries, 1880-1900. Yeast 18:363–388.
Kohler R (1971) The background to Eduard Buchner’s discovery of cell-free fermentation. J Hist Bio 4:35–61.
Buchner E (1966) Cell-free fermentation. Nobel Lecture, December 11, 1907. In: Nobel Lectures, Chemistry 1901–1921. Elsevier Publishing Company, Amsterdam.
Pretorius IS (2000) Tailoring wine yeast for the new millennium: novel approaches to the ancient art of winemaking. Yeast 16:675–729.
Crane E (1999) The World History of Beekeeping and Honey Hunting. Routledge, New York, pp 36–42.
Arnold JP (1911) Origin and History of Beer and Brewing, From Prehistoric Times to the Beginning of Brewing Science and Technology. Alumni Association of the Wahl-Henius Institute of Fermentology, Chicago, p 149.
Le Sage DE (1975) The Language of Honey. In: Crane E (ed) Honey. Crane, Russak & Company, Inc., New York.
Crane E (1999) The World History of Beekeeping and Honey Hunting. Routledge, New York, pp. 513–515.
Arnold JP (1911) Origin and History of Beer and Brewing, From Prehistoric Times to the Beginning of Brewing Science and Technology. Alumni Association of the Wahl-Henius Institute of Fermentology, Chicago, p 44.
Morse RA, Steinkraus KH, Paterson PD (1975) Wines from the Fermentation of Honey. In: Crane E (ed) Honey. Crane, Russak & Company, Inc., New York.
Betts AD (1932) Nectar Yeasts. Bee World 13:115–116.
McGovern PE, Zhang J, Tang J, Zhang Z, Hall GR, Moreau RA, Nunez A, Butrym ED, Richards MP, Wang C, Cheng G, Zhao Z, Wang C (2004) Fermented beverages of pre- and proto-historic China. Proc Natl Acad Sci USA 101:17593–17598.
McGovern PE (2000) The Funerary Banquet of “King Midas”. Expedition 42:21–28.
Pliny the Elder (1855) The Natural History. Bostock J, Riley HT (trans) Taylor and Francis, London, Book XIV, Chapter 17.
Pliny the Elder (1855) The Natural History. Bostock J, Riley HT (trans) Taylor and Francis, London, Book XIV, Chapter 6.
Columella LJM (1745) L. Junius Moderatus Columella of Husbandry in Twelve Books and his Book concerning Trees. Millar A (trans) London, UK, Book XII, p 517.
Munitis MT, Cabrera E, Rodriguez-Navarro A (1976) An Obligate Osmophilic Yeast from Honey. Appl Environ Microbiol 32:320–323.
Reynolds J (1986) The Elder Pliny and his Times. In: French R, Greenway F (eds) Science in the Early Roman Empire: Pliny the Elder, his Sources and Influence. Rowman & Littlefield Publishers, Lanham, Maryland.
DiRenzo A (2013) Columella. http://faculty.ithaca.edu/direnzo/gallery/128/?image_id=816. Accessed 27 June 2013.
Steinkraus KH, Morse RA (1966) Factors influencing the fermentation of honey in mead production. J Apic Res 5:17–26.
Steinkraus KH, Morse RA (1973) Chemical Analysis of Honey Wines. J Apic Res 12:191–195.
Partington, JR (1935) Origins and Development of Applied Chemistry. Longmans, Green and Co., London, pp 301–302.
Hodges H (1992) Technology in the Ancient World. Barnes & Noble Books, New York, pp 114–117.
Broshi M (2007) Date Beer and Date Wine in Antiquity. Palest Explor Q 139:55–59.
Murray MA, Boulton N, Heron C (2000) Fruits, vegetables, pulses and condiments. In Nicholson PT, Shaw I (eds) Cabridge University Press, Cambridge, pp 609–655.
Samarawira I (1983) Date palm Phoenix dactylifera. Potential source for refined sugar. Econ Bot 37:181–186.
Wilkinson JG (1854) A Popular Account of the Ancient Egyptians. Harper & Brothers, New York, Vol. 1, p 55.
Pliny the Elder (1855) The Natural History. Bostock J, Riley HT (trans) Taylor and Francis, London, Book XIV, Chapter 19.
Yaggy LW, Haines TL (1881) Museum of Antiquity Illustrated. Western Publishing House, p 187.
Author information
Authors and Affiliations
Corresponding author
Rights and permissions
Copyright information
© 2014 The Author(s)
About this chapter
Cite this chapter
Rasmussen, S.C. (2014). Earliest Fermented Beverages. In: The Quest for Aqua Vitae. SpringerBriefs in Molecular Science(). Springer, Cham. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-319-06302-7_2
Download citation
DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-319-06302-7_2
Published:
Publisher Name: Springer, Cham
Print ISBN: 978-3-319-06301-0
Online ISBN: 978-3-319-06302-7
eBook Packages: Chemistry and Materials ScienceChemistry and Material Science (R0)