As to the history of alcoholic beverages, some people give this sequence. Stone age people may have left a pot of honey unattended. Given a little time, fermentation takes place and the result may have been pleasing to the user. With a little experimentation, other substances of high sugar content, perhaps dates or sap, could have been substituted. The essential recipe was to let time to its thing.
Major advances did not occur until agriculture developed plentiful grains and sweeter grapes. The wild grape is normally not sweet enough. By 6000 BC, people in Armenia were growing grapes that were sweet enough to produce wine. Before 3000 BC, the Egyptians and Babylonians were drinking beer from wheat and barley.
Alcohol and agriculture were closely tied together. As more efficient methods of growing the grains developed, people were released to live in cities. Concentrations of people polluted the water and made it unsafe. The alternative was beer and wines.
Babylonian tablets more than six thousand years old tell how to make beer. The Greek word "akratidzomai", which came to mean "to breakfast", literally means "to drink undiluted wine". Simultaneously with this increased use of alcoholic beverages, people in the west acquired the gene which makes the enzyme necessary for alcohol metabolism. In the east, only about half of the people have this ability and alcohol never had the role that it did in the west. The alternative in the east was tea using boiled water which killed the contaminating agents.
Until our middle ages, the alcohol content remained low. Even so, intoxication from excessive use was possible and appeals were made for moderation in its use. But the appeal was not to avoid alcohol but to be moderate in its use.
In 700 AD, the Arabs discovered distillation using the difference in the boiling points of alcohol and water. In fact, our word "alcohol" comes from the Arabic, where it means "basic essence". The resultant liquid had a much higher alcohol content.
In the 18th century a religious antagonism developed against alcohol, especially by the Quakers and Methodists. But the fact remained that the water of the Thames was as polluted as any stream ever was. Water was the biggest spreader of dysentery, cholera, and typhoid. Gradually, though, it became understood that excessive use of alcohol was very damaging to the body.
By the end of the last century, the Mennonites in the western US had developed a policy of abstaining from alcohol, while the Mennonites in the eastern US still allowed their members to use alcohol. The westerners appealed to the easterners to join them in a united front against alcohol. The eastern Mennonites agreed.
And so, from Christian Herr of two and one-half centuries ago, who owned two stills, the Mennonites have come to the position of avoiding alcohol. This was made possible by the advances in sanitation.
We gratefully acknowledge the work of John Blankenbaker who published over 2,500 Germanna History Notes via the Germanna-L@rootsweb.com email list from 1997 to 2008. We are equally thankful to George Durman (Sgt. George) for hosting the list and republishing the notes via rootsweb.com.