A frequently asked question: What came first - beer or wine? Beer was produced in Mesopotamia at least 6,000 to perhaps even 8,000 years ago. This probably makes it the first alcoholic beverage produced by humans, even before wine. Beer and wine were the earliest components of drinking culture. In Egypt around 4,000 BC, half-baked bread was fermented with water to produce a kind of beer. The god of fertility Osiris himself is said to have taught the Egyptians how to grow wine and make beer. The Sumerian Epic of Gilgamesh, which dates back to 2700 BC, recounts the development of the prehistoric man Enkidu into a "cultivated man". He was offered beer, which he had never tasted before. He drank seven cups of it and his heart sank. In this state, he washed himself and became human.
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