Beer! A Small Taste of My Upcoming Class

Sweet, delicious beer, the drink of the ages, as much a part of human existence as wheat. Mainly because beer couldn't really be made until there was grain, which required agriculture, which is literally why humanity isn't still scraping by on what few berries and fruits that grew in the areas near each band of hunter/gatherer people. A serious population spike caused resources to become even more scarce than the changing climate was already making things for those post-Neanderthal Sapiens.

They needed to find something better to sustain their ever-growing numbers, or they might end up like the recently extincted cousins they seriously out-bred and out-smarted not all that many generations ago (compared to the periods of Ice that had also dissipated relatively recently). 

You have to imagine that the one who figured out that the grass could be eaten was probably not the one who got to pass on his genes. He (or she  ) was probably starving because the alphas were taking a larger percentage of the dwindling hauls which left the ones lower in tribal status with little or nothing afterward. At some point, one member of the hypothetical tribe my story starts with was so starved that he/she would be dead in only a few short hours if they didn't try something. Withered and hardly capable of crawling, a patch of grass finally gets near enough to make it to our ancient ancestor's mouth, though the crawl sapped what little stamina they could even muster, almost assuredly dead now, our not so fit relation tries to make a final faceful of the only thing near enough to resemble false hope waiting to reveal the immense disappointment and failure that must lie anxiously waiting to regale in another foolish creature dying because it didn't have the strength to pluck a couple blades of sweet survival. This time was a last second victory for the frail Sapien with the seed pod in his mouth. 

As time went by, the tribe got good at growing mostly the seed bearing grasses, and were healthy enough to break an aurochs so as to help the tribe move the soil in such a way that it left the choicest soil ready to grow more grass. With a solid 2/3 of the food that the tribe eats grown all around, they could start focusing their attention to bigger and better things, like irrigation and free standing buildings, as well  as diversifying the plants they were able to grow reliably, starting to take shape as the urban dwellers of their late ancestry. 

Finally, one day a pitcher with grapes is found, smelling like nothing humanity had experienced to greatly, so instead of tossing it away, one of them decides to eat some. Euphoria unlike anything he had ever conceived possible. So he shares with the people closest to him, and amazed to see similar reactions in them. So at that moment, he decided that he must learn the secret of its magic, able make that feeling  on a regular basis.

After a few seasons of trying, also got a grain solution to cause the same effect as the fruit. AND beer had made it's first appearance in the human saga, true wines following about the same time. Now civilization was truly ready to drink away the troubles that would beset it into the modern era. It spread forth to the furthest tribes and soon all of humanity was blotting out the terrible memories of living in the #StoneAge. As time passed the ability to make it got easier, becoming more entwined with the tribes as they became more powerful in numbers and started to kill themselves over a land that they shared for generations. After each day of fighting, came a night of equally intense drinking in memory of the brothers lost. So the symbiosis grows deeper still. This wondrous discovery has been a shaping force in how we arrived where we are now.  The demand for it is still so deeply human that to turn away from this tool of change would be like devolving back to a cave dwelling Neanderthal.  http://skl.sh/14OTlxX