No one knows exactly when or where beer was invented. Some believe that because beer and bread used the same ingredients, they must’ve happened around the same time. Archaeologists and scientists have discovered ancient beer recipe tablets, beer residue inside pottery jars, poems mentioning beer, cave drawings depicting beer, beer drinking songs, and more.

From around 8000 BCE to 1000 CE, beer was warm, slightly thick, murky, and probably had particles floating in it. Hops became popular to use when making beer around 800 CE because it added flavor, bitterness, and, most importantly, helped with preservation. Up until the 1400s, beer was something one made at home. By the 1500s the brewing of beer had become commercialized. Beer ingredient laws were passed, lagers were accidently discovered, and beer was stored in cool places underground or in caves. The 1700s brought the Industrial Revolution and beer production soared.

When the American Prohibition (1920–1933) started, it put 1,300 breweries out of the alcohol business, so they had to sell other products. Some sold ice cream and some used their equipment to make dyes. The large breweries such as Pabst, Schlitz, and Miller sold malt extract (what you needed to make beer at home), but they advertised it as a bread-making product.

In 1979, President Jimmy Carter made it legal to sell beer ingredients for home brewing, which kick-started the microbrew movement of the 1980s. Today, America has over 4,000 breweries. Almost every big city offers several local beers in all types and styles.