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This chimpanzee stumbles across a 
windfall of overripe plums.

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Many of them have split open, drawing 
him to their intoxicating fruity odor.

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He gorges himself and begins to 
experience some… strange effects.

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This unwitting ape has 
stumbled on a process

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that humans will eventually harness

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to create beer, wine, 
and other alcoholic drinks.

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The sugars in overripe fruit attract 
microscopic organisms known as yeasts.

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As the yeasts feed on the fruit sugars 
they produce a compound called ethanol—

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the type of alcohol in 
alcoholic beverages.

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This process is called fermentation.

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Nobody knows exactly when humans 
began to create fermented beverages.

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The earliest known evidence comes 
from 7,000 BCE in China,

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where residue in clay pots

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has revealed that people were 
making an alcoholic beverage

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from fermented rice, millet, 
grapes, and honey.

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Within a few thousand years,

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cultures all over the world were 
fermenting their own drinks.

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Ancient Mesopotamians and Egyptians 
made beer throughout the year

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from stored cereal grains.

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This beer was available 
to all social classes,

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and workers even received it 
in their daily rations.

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They also made wine, but because the 
climate wasn’t ideal for growing grapes,

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it was a rare and expensive delicacy.

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By contrast, in Greece and Rome, 
where grapes grew more easily,

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wine was as readily available as 
beer was in Egypt and Mesopotamia.

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Because yeasts will ferment 
basically any plant sugars,

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ancient peoples made alcohol from whatever
crops and plants grew where they lived.

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In South America, people made 
chicha from grains,

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sometimes adding hallucinogenic herbs.

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In what’s now Mexico, pulque, made from 
cactus sap, was the drink of choice,

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while East Africans made banana 
and palm beer.

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And in the area that’s now Japan, 
people made sake from rice.

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Almost every region of the globe 
had its own fermented drinks.

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As alcohol consumption became 
part of everyday life,

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some authorities latched onto 
effects they perceived as positive—

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Greek physicians considered wine 
to be good for health,

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and poets testified to its 
creative qualities.

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Others were more concerned about 
alcohol’s potential for abuse.

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Greek philosophers promoted temperance.

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Early Jewish and Christian writers in 
Europe integrated wine into rituals

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but considered excessive 
intoxication a sin.

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And in the middle east, 
Africa, and Spain,

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an Islamic rule against praying while 
drunk gradually solidified

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into a general ban on alcohol.

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Ancient fermented beverages had 
relatively low alcohol content.

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At about 13% alcohol, the by-products 
wild yeasts generate during fermentation

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become toxic and kill them.

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When the yeasts die, fermentation stops 
and the alcohol content levels off.

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So for thousands of years, 
alcohol content was limited.

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That changed with the invention 
of a process called distillation.

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9th century Arabic writings describe 
boiling fermented liquids

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to vaporize the alcohol in them.

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Alcohol boils at a lower temperature 
than water, so it vaporizes first.

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Capture this vapor, cool it down, 
and what’s left is liquid alcohol

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much more concentrated than 
any fermented beverage.

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At first, these stronger spirits were 
used for medicinal purposes.

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Then, spirits became an important 
trade commodity because,

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unlike beer and wine, they didn’t spoil.

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Rum made from sugar harvested in 
European colonies in the Caribbean

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became a staple for sailors 
and was traded to North America.

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Europeans brought brandy 
and gin to Africa

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and traded it for enslaved people, 
land, and goods like palm oil and rubber.

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Spirits became a form of 
money in these regions.

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During the Age of Exploration,

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spirits played a crucial role in 
long distance sea voyages.

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Sailing from Europe to east Asia 
and the Americas could take months,

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and keeping water fresh for the 
crews was a challenge.

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Adding a bucket of brandy to a water 
barrel kept water fresh longer

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because alcohol is a preservative 
that kills harmful microbes.

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So by the 1600s,

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alcohol had gone from simply 
giving animals a buzz

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to fueling global trade and exploration— 
along with all their consequences.

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As time went on, its role in human 
society would only get more complicated.