Fermentation
By Kim Helseth
Fermentation has been used for thousands of years to make alcohol, but it has its problems. There have been many stories and myths about the discovery of the "water of life." It has been used since the earliest of civilizations. Fermentation also led to the idea of Prohibition in the early 20th century. Fermentation has been used for an extremely long time.
There have been many stories and myths about the making of the magical drink, alcohol. One story is about the King of Persia, Jamshid, who loved grapes. One year, Jamshid ordered that some of their abundance of grapes be laid aside for eating in the winter. When the King tasted these grapes after a few months, they had formed an awful tasting purplish liquid. Jamshid labeled them poisonous and locked the juice in the cellar. A little bit later, a member of King Jamshid’s court decided to commit suicide. She discovered the "poisonous" juice, and drank some of it. She soon felt the after effects, and decided not to kill herself. She went straight to the king with the liquid and, after Jamshid had felt its effects, he ordered that this liquid be made every year.
Of course, this is just one story of many. There are some stories that don’t tell how it was discovered, but more of how it caused problems for some people. One is the Chinese story of He and Ho, two Chinese astronomers that lived in 2150 bce and worked for the Emperor. After drinking too much alcohol, they forgot to warn the emperor about an upcoming eclipse. The Emperor was so scared and angry that he decreed that if He and Ho "were behind time" ever again that they would be put to death.
Alcohol not only has stories about its making, but it also has myths about its hold on the ancient world. Many people believed many different things. One tale about alcohol is that you, once drunk, would be capable to communicate with the gods. In Rome, to tell the god’s decision about something, an oracle would get drunk and "talk" to the gods. Another story about alcohol is that it was the cure to every disease. One ancient cure for the common cold was to put your hat on your bedpost, drink whisky until you saw two hats, then climb into bed. Most of the cures actually didn’t work. Not all of the myths about alcohol were about its good points. One idea was that a drunk was possessed by demons. This idea developed because of the actions of a person when drunk.
Alcohol has been a part of human life since the beginning of recorded history. In the Mesopotamian Period, people supposedly discovered alcohol. No one is quite sure who discovered it. Some believe that it was made by the Cro-Magnons, while others argue that it was more likely to have started being made in Sumer. It is true that in Sumer, also called Sumeria, beer and wine were drunk. Beer was drunk by the commoners, and sold very cheap. Drinking wine was considered only for the upper class. A person’s class was determined by what they drank in many other ancient communities. In Egypt, beer was part of a core diet. It was drunk so much that the saying "bread and beer" was a common greeting. When an important person died, jugs of beer, along with other things, would be placed in their tomb for them to drink in the afterlife. In Greece and Rome, the people created gods to beer and wine (Dionysus and Bacchus), and held grand festivals for them each year.
During Prohibition in the U.S., the art of making alcohol was not forgotten. Prohibition was when the government abolished the use of alcohol from 1919 -1932. The 18th Amendment made every drinker a criminal. It didn’t prove very effective on the people of the United States. Many people made "moonshine" (homemade whisky) for the entire time Prohibition was the law. The only people who were happy were the people who proposed the law; the religious people and the moral people. After thirteen years, the law was repealed.
The problems caused by alcohol still exist today. Alcohol is the third leading cause of death, and is involved in over one-half of all car accidents. It is the cause of one-half of all homicides, and from alcoholism, the result is one-fourth of all suicides. The life span of alcoholics is a full 12 years shorter than a non-drinker. Alcoholics are involved in 800,000 car accidents each year. Drunk drivers cause about 25,000 highway deaths. So, you can see, alcohol isn’t exactly the "miracle drink" as it was thought to be a few thousand years ago.
Alcohol has been around for many ages, but it still has problems associated with its use. Fermentation has been used for thousands of years, from Mesopotamia to today, but it still is basically the same. The only difference is the way it is drunk, from responsibly to alcoholism. Alcohol is a good and a bad drink - what do you think?