Beer is one of the most popular beverages in the world, with nearly every country having its own local lager. In the U.S. alone, the overall beer market in 2023 totaled $116.9 billion, and breweries shipped out 192 million barrels of beer.
But the ice-cold, bubbly beverage we know today didn’t always exist. So when was beer invented?
The answer traces back thousands of years. But there’s still some mystery surrounding the exact origins of beer, and the beer of ancient times probably didn’t taste anything like what you’re used to today.
“We don’t actually know exactly how [beer] was discovered,” Tate Paulette, an associate professor of history at North Carolina State University, told Live Science. “Partly because of the kind of evidence we have, it’s unlikely that we’re going to get that kind of answer.”
Because humans…