Beer

Lore & Background

Beer is one of the world's oldest prepared alcoholic drinks. Some of the earliest writings mention beer: the Code of Hammurabi included laws regulating it, and 'The Hymn to Ninkasi' contains a recipe. The Sumerians drank many types of beer, and workers in Uruk were paid with beer. During the building of the Egyptian pyramids, each worker got a daily ration of four to five litres. In medieval Europe, beer was spread by Germanic and Celtic tribes, and early beers often contained gruit rather than hops. Modern beer is brewed with hops, which add bitterness and act as a preservative.

Reader's Guide

Beer's significance lies in its deep historical roots and global cultural impact. Beer was integral to early economies—workers were paid in beer, and it was crucial to pyramid construction. The Code of Hammurabi regulated it, and the Hymn to Ninkasi preserved its recipe. In medieval Europe, beer evolved from domestic brewing to monastic production, and the Reinheitsgebot set a purity standard still referenced today. The Industrial Revolution shifted beer to industrial manufacture, and modern brewing is a global industry dominated by multinationals alongside many small producers. Beer is associated with social traditions like beer festivals and pub games. However, the article notes that alcohol is an IARC group 1 carcinogen, and excessive consumption can cause health issues. Beer's etymology is debated, with theories linking it to Proto-Germanic *beuzą, barley, or Latin bibere. The word originally may have denoted a strong, sweet drink, later expanding to cover ale and hopped beer.

Did You Know?

• During the building of the Egyptian pyramids, each worker received a daily ration of four to five litres of beer.

Ancient Roots and Medicinal Beginnings

Root beer traces its lineage back to at least the eighteenth century in the United States, where it was originally brewed as a small beer rather than the carbonated soft drink we recognize today. Written recipes appeared as early as the 1830s, and by the 1840s the beverage was available in confectionery stores. Throughout the nineteenth century, people often drank it hot and valued it for its perceived medicinal properties. The aromatic and therapeutic qualities of sassafras were well understood by both Native American communities and European settlers, and druggists capitalized on this reputation by marketing root beer as a health tonic. By the 1850s, the drink was being combined with soda and sold as a concentrated syrup rather than a finished beverage. The traditional brewing method called for a syrup of molasses and water, cooled for three hours, then combined with sassafras root, sassafras bark, and wintergreen. Yeast was introduced to kick off a twelve-hour fermentation, after which the mixture was strained and rebottled for a secondary ferment. The resulting drink typically contained no more than two percent alcohol, though variations could push the strength higher.

From Pharmacy to Franchise: The Commercial Revolution

Pharmacist Charles Elmer Hires is widely credited with transforming root beer from a home-brewed curiosity into a commercial product. In 1875 he developed a root tea derived from sassafras, and the following year he debuted a commercial version at the Philadelphia Centennial Exposition before beginning to sell his extract. Although Hires was a teetotaler who preferred the name "root tea," he ultimately chose "root beer" to appeal to Pennsylvania coal miners. By 1886 he was bottling a ready-made beverage from his extract, and by 1893 the drink had achieved wide distribution across the country. Non-alcoholic root beer found particular commercial success during the Prohibition era. Competition soon followed: Barq's entered the market in 1898 with a sarsaparilla-based formula, and in 1919 Roy Allen opened a root-beer stand in Lodi, California, that would evolve into A&W Root Beer. Allen's signature innovation was serving his homemade brew in cold, frosty mugs. IBC Root Beer emerged as another enduring brand during this same period of commercial expansion.

The Safrole Ban and the Modern Recipe

In 1960 the US Food and Drug Administration banned safrole, the aromatic oil naturally present in sassafras roots and bark, from commercially mass-produced foods and drugs. Laboratory studies had shown that animals given large oral doses of sassafras tea or oil containing safrole suffered permanent liver damage or developed various cancers. As a result, the vast majority of commercial root beers shifted to artificial sassafras flavoring, though a handful of producers such as Hansen's continued to use a safrole-free sassafras extract. Today, root beer is manufactured in Canada and every US state, and brands are produced in or imported by countries including Australia, the United Kingdom, Malaysia, Argentina, Germany, the Philippines, Singapore, Taiwan, South Korea, Indonesia, Sweden, Vietnam, and Thailand. The core ingredients of modern root beer are filtered water, sugar, and safrole-free sassafras extract, complemented by flavorings such as vanilla, caramel, wintergreen, licorice root, sarsaparilla, nutmeg, cinnamon, and honey. Soybean protein or yucca create the signature foam, while caramel coloring gives the drink its characteristic brown hue. Most major brands are caffeine-free, with Barq's being a notable exception at roughly 1.8 milligrams per fluid ounce.

Foam, Floats, and Living Tradition

One of root beer's most distinctive sensory traits is its thick, long-lasting foam, a quality that originated in the mucilaginous properties of sassafras root and bark. When the beverage was originally carbonated through fermentation, this natural foaming was an inherent feature. As production shifted to carbonated water, manufacturers turned to small amounts of starch from cassava combined with natural surfactants to replicate that familiar head. Some brands have leveraged their unique foaming behavior as a point of marketing identity. The drink's cultural footprint extends well beyond the glass: adding vanilla ice cream to create a root beer float is one of its most common and beloved preparations. In 2021, a dedicated Museum of Root Beer opened in Wisconsin Dells, cementing the beverage's place in American cultural heritage. Meanwhile, the tradition of alcoholic root beer has seen a modern revival, with craft breweries in the 2000s producing hard versions under names like Small Town Brewery's Not Your Father's Root Beer, Coney Island Brewing Co.'s hard root beer, and Best Damn Brewing Co.'s Best Damn. Home brewers can still make the drink from factory extract or from raw herbs and roots, keeping the old craft alive.

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