Now for the second part of my two- part series: Beer 101. In the first article, I talked about the base ingredients that make up a beer; now it is time to give you a brief history of beer. And it will be quite a brief history, for beer is one of the first known beverages humans consumed beyond water. The earliest writings attributed to man are Babylonian recipes for beer. Many breweries today attempt to replicate these old recipes, Dogfish Head Midas Touch being the most notable. Brewers use strands of yeast found in ancient Egyptian tombs that have been woken up from dormancy and bred back into existence for these recipes.Fast forward to the Middle Ages: Throughout Europe, people were brewing beer, from the German lagers found in every town in Bavaria to Belgian monks brewing powerful ales. Most people drank beer because, unlike the water, the beer was known to be sanitary (the yeast had to eat it, so they knew microbials weren't in it). In Britain and in Ireland, ale was predominately brewed on a very small scale from town to town and served in drinking establishments called public houses. These public houses, often shortened to pubs, became known for their atmosphere as much as for their drinks. The traditions of British brewing were brought across the sea during the America's colonization.

It is important to note that while brewing today is a male-dominated profession, the women of the town were often the ones that made the beer. Alewife station in Cambridge on the T refers to this tradition. The wives would make the beer for the men of the town; there wasn't much in the way of the mass-scale brewing operations we see today. That grew over time as the village brewery tradition became more industrialized.

However, beer in America was still extensive, and there were thousands of breweries across the country; one in practically every town. However, in 1919, the government ratified prohibition, which put a damper on this tradition. By the end of this period of American history, most breweries were gone, and only the strong few survived. Add barley rationing in World War II to the mix, and beer became the weak, adjunct-filled beverage that is most known today. Brewers began using corn and rice in their beers, which cut costs but also diminished flavor. After World War II, people were so used to these flavors that the old recipes died out, and these began to be produced on a massive scale.

Until late in the 20th century, beer in this country was relegated to mass-produced lagers created by only a handful of surviving breweries from prohibition. Given their size, producing millions and millions of barrels per year, they held a monopoly on the beer industry. There were few choices, and no one really challenged the status quo.

This all changed in the 1970s when Jimmy Carter legalized homebrewing, allowing people to make beer by themselves in minute quantities. Soon after, many of the people who took advantage of this new law began experimenting with old-world styles and techniques and began going into business. This was the start of the microbrewery. Today, there are again thousands of little breweries all around the country.

And this is where we are today. While the large-scale breweries are still producing most of the beer in this country, more and more we are seeing the microbreweries getting more and more business. With the recent acquisition of Budweiser, Miller and Coors by European conglomerates, a microbrewery, Boston Beer, which makes Sam Adams, has become the largest brewery in America. More and more consumers are switching their preferences to try new things, and bars and stores are offering up more selections. People are sick of the bland, watered-down garbage that has been the norm for years, and more are seeking fresh organic products that don't cheat on flavor for the sake of costs.

We've come a long way, and beer remains the third-most-consumed beverage in the world after water and tea. Expect to see more experimentation and varieties in the years to come.