The art of brewing is as old as civilization. Through hieroglyphics, cuneiform characters and written accounts, historians have traced the roots of brewing back to ancient African, Egyptian and Sumerian tribes, some 6,000 years ago. Written on clay tablets of ancient Mesopotamia, the making and drinking of beer are described in detail, sometimes listing a selection of different types. These early accounts, with pictograms of what is recognizably barley, show bread being baked then crumbled into water to make a mash, which is then made into a drink that is recorded as having made people feel "exhilarated, wonderful and blissful!" Sumerian pictograms went even further by publishing what is considered to be the first beer recipe.

As the cultivation of barley spread north and west, brewing went with it. As time passed, the production of beer came under the watchful eye of the Roman Church. Christian abbeys, as centers of agriculture, knowledge and science, refined the methods of brewing. Initially in the making of beer for the brothers and for visiting pilgrims, later as a means of financing their communities. However, there was still very little known about the role of yeast in completing fermentation.

By the fifteenth century, there was a record of hops used in Flemish beer imported into England, and by the sixteenth century hops had gained widespread use as a preservative in beer, replacing the previously used bark or leaves.

Perhaps the most widely known event in brewing history was the establishment of German standards for brewers. The first of these regulations was the inspiration for the Reinheitsgebot of 1516 - the most famous beer purity law. This pledge of purity states that only four ingredients can be used in the production of beer: water, malted barley, malted wheat and hops. Yeast, though not included in this list, was acceptable, as it was taken for granted to be a key ingredient in the brewing process. The "Reinheitsgebot" was the assurance to the consumer that German beers would be of the highest quality in the world and acknowledges the European disdain for adding adjuncts such as corn, rice, other grains and sugars.

The next great development occurred in the mid-nineteenth century, through work done by Louis Pasteur, the first to propose an explanation of how yeast worked. Shortly thereafter, samples of Bavarian yeast provided the successful identification of a single-cell and strain of the bottom-fermenting lager yeast.

German brewers had started to make beer by lagering in 1402. Brewing was not possible in the warm months because wild yeasts prevalent in the warmer weather of summertime would sour the beer. Brewers discovered that brewing in the cold months and storing the beer in caves in the nearby Alps impacted stability to the beer and enhanced it with a cleaner taste, although they did not know why. Today, we know that the reason the beer was clearer and cleaner was due to the fermentation process the beer underwent in the cold, during which the chemicals and bacteria responsible for clouding beer were unable to thrive and were therefore filtered out of the beer. In 1880, there were approximately 2,400 breweries operating in the US embracing many of the classic brewing styles. Today, there are 375 breweries. The change can be traced back to the era of the Volstead Act of 1919 - this Eighteenth Amendment to the Constitution ushered in Prohibition. During this time, the smaller breweries lay idle as the larger establishments limped by with the production of cereal malts and near-beers.

Following Prohibition came World War II, with corresponding food shortages and therefore increased substitution of adjuncts for malt - a lighter beer resulted. With a large part of the male population off fighting the war, the work force in America was made up largely of women; thus marketing to this population solidified the hold of a lighter-styled beer. Following the war, the large national breweries catered to the tastes of this expanded beer market.

In 1978, Charles Finkel founded Merchant du Vin Corporation. "When I couldn’t find good beer at my local market, I decided it was time to change all that," stated Finkel. Through Merchant du Vin, he pioneered the concept of offering a selection of authentic beers that represent each of the major brewing styles, many of which Merchant du Vin introduced to the American beer drinker for the first time since before Prohibition in l9l9, and many for the first time in history. Several are styles that had gone out of production in their native lands.

After working with the brewers of the beers he imported, Finkel developed an appreciation of the beer culture and its customs. What’s more, he got the itch to make his own. On October 17, 1989, Finkel’s own brewery, The Pike Brewing Company, tapped their first keg of Pike Pale Ale at Cutter’s Bay House, located in the Pike Place Public Market. Demand for Pike beer was brisk from the beginning and the company developed a worldwide reputation for brewing extraordinary top-fermented ales of character.

Today, there is a revolution in America as brewing returns to its roots, and a great variety of high-quality beers are being revived and enjoyed!