1
00:00:06,794 --> 00:00:12,118
This chimpanzee stumbles 
across a windfall of overripe plums.

2
00:00:12,118 --> 00:00:14,081
Many of them have split open,

3
00:00:14,081 --> 00:00:17,601
drawing him 
to their intoxicating fruity odor.

4
00:00:17,601 --> 00:00:19,032
He gorges himself

5
00:00:19,032 --> 00:00:23,042
and begins to experience some… 
strange effects.

6
00:00:23,042 --> 00:00:26,032
This unwitting ape 
has stumbled on a process

7
00:00:26,032 --> 00:00:28,179
that humans will eventually harness

8
00:00:28,179 --> 00:00:33,192
to create 
beer, wine, and other alcoholic drinks.

9
00:00:33,192 --> 00:00:37,438
The sugars in overripe fruit 
attract microscopic organisms

10
00:00:37,438 --> 00:00:38,878
known as yeasts.

11
00:00:38,878 --> 00:00:43,781
As the yeasts feed on the fruit sugars 
they produce a compound called ethanol—

12
00:00:43,781 --> 00:00:46,791
the type of alcohol 
in alcoholic beverages.

13
00:00:46,791 --> 00:00:49,766
This process is called fermentation.

14
00:00:49,766 --> 00:00:51,861
Nobody knows exactly when

15
00:00:51,861 --> 00:00:54,611
humans began 
to create fermented beverages.

16
00:00:54,611 --> 00:00:59,572
The earliest known evidence 
comes from 7,000 BCE in China,

17
00:00:59,572 --> 00:01:01,682
where residue in clay pots

18
00:01:01,682 --> 00:01:04,875
has revealed that people 
were making an alcoholic beverage

19
00:01:04,875 --> 00:01:09,311
from fermented rice, millet, 
grapes, and honey.

20
00:01:09,311 --> 00:01:11,111
Within a few thousand years,

21
00:01:11,111 --> 00:01:15,441
cultures all over the world 
were fermenting their own drinks.

22
00:01:15,441 --> 00:01:19,663
Ancient Mesopotamians and Egyptians 
made beer throughout the year

23
00:01:19,663 --> 00:01:21,919
from stored cereal grains.

24
00:01:21,919 --> 00:01:24,837
This beer 
was available to all social classes,

25
00:01:24,837 --> 00:01:28,232
and workers 
even received it in their daily rations.

26
00:01:28,232 --> 00:01:29,922
They also made wine,

27
00:01:29,922 --> 00:01:32,882
but because the climate 
wasn’t ideal for growing grapes,

28
00:01:32,882 --> 00:01:36,212
it was a rare and expensive delicacy.

29
00:01:36,212 --> 00:01:40,162
By contrast, in Greece and Rome, 
where grapes grew more easily,

30
00:01:40,162 --> 00:01:45,072
wine was as readily available 
as beer was in Egypt and Mesopotamia.

31
00:01:45,072 --> 00:01:48,702
Because yeasts 
will ferment basically any plant sugars,

32
00:01:48,702 --> 00:01:50,625
ancient peoples made alcohol

33
00:01:50,625 --> 00:01:53,995
from whatever crops and plants 
grew where they lived.

34
00:01:53,995 --> 00:01:57,195
In South America, 
people made chicha from grains,

35
00:01:57,195 --> 00:01:59,912
sometimes adding hallucinogenic herbs.

36
00:01:59,912 --> 00:02:03,806
In what’s now Mexico, 
pulque, made from cactus sap,

37
00:02:03,806 --> 00:02:05,316
was the drink of choice,

38
00:02:05,316 --> 00:02:09,476
while East Africans 
made banana and palm beer.

39
00:02:09,476 --> 00:02:13,916
And in the area that’s now Japan, 
people made sake from rice.

40
00:02:13,916 --> 00:02:17,689
Almost every region of the globe 
had its own fermented drinks.

41
00:02:17,689 --> 00:02:21,125
As alcohol consumption 
became part of everyday life,

42
00:02:21,125 --> 00:02:25,680
some authorities latched onto effects 
they perceived as positive—

43
00:02:25,680 --> 00:02:28,920
Greek physicians 
considered wine to be good for health,

44
00:02:28,920 --> 00:02:32,305
and poets 
testified to its creative qualities.

45
00:02:32,305 --> 00:02:36,427
Others were more concerned 
about alcohol’s potential for abuse.

46
00:02:36,427 --> 00:02:38,970
Greek philosophers promoted temperance.

47
00:02:38,970 --> 00:02:43,547
Early Jewish and Christian writers 
in Europe integrated wine into rituals

48
00:02:43,547 --> 00:02:46,936
but considered excessive intoxication 
a sin.

49
00:02:46,936 --> 00:02:49,715
And in the middle east, 
Africa, and Spain,

50
00:02:49,715 --> 00:02:52,691
an Islamic rule 
against praying while drunk

51
00:02:52,691 --> 00:02:57,052
gradually solidified 
into a general ban on alcohol.

52
00:02:57,052 --> 00:03:01,613
Ancient fermented beverages 
had relatively low alcohol content.

53
00:03:01,613 --> 00:03:04,062
At about 13% alcohol,

54
00:03:04,062 --> 00:03:07,332
the by-products wild yeasts 
generate during fermentation

55
00:03:07,332 --> 00:03:09,692
become toxic and kill them.

56
00:03:09,692 --> 00:03:11,220
When the yeasts die,

57
00:03:11,220 --> 00:03:15,000
fermentation stops 
and the alcohol content levels off.

58
00:03:15,000 --> 00:03:18,900
So for thousands of years, 
alcohol content was limited.

59
00:03:18,900 --> 00:03:21,234
That changed 
with the invention of a process

60
00:03:21,234 --> 00:03:22,834
called distillation.

61
00:03:22,834 --> 00:03:27,280
9th century Arabic writings 
describe boiling fermented liquids

62
00:03:27,280 --> 00:03:29,708
to vaporize the alcohol in them.

63
00:03:29,708 --> 00:03:32,681
Alcohol boils 
at a lower temperature than water,

64
00:03:32,681 --> 00:03:34,741
so it vaporizes first.

65
00:03:34,741 --> 00:03:39,490
Capture this vapor, cool it down, 
and what’s left is liquid alcohol

66
00:03:39,490 --> 00:03:43,800
much more concentrated 
than any fermented beverage.

67
00:03:43,800 --> 00:03:47,992
At first, these stronger spirits 
were used for medicinal purposes.

68
00:03:47,992 --> 00:03:51,181
Then, spirits became 
an important trade commodity

69
00:03:51,181 --> 00:03:55,097
because, unlike beer and wine, 
they didn’t spoil.

70
00:03:55,097 --> 00:03:56,668
Rum made from sugar

71
00:03:56,668 --> 00:03:59,358
harvested in European colonies 
in the Caribbean

72
00:03:59,358 --> 00:04:01,375
became a staple for sailors

73
00:04:01,375 --> 00:04:03,595
and was traded to North America.

74
00:04:03,595 --> 00:04:06,663
Europeans brought 
brandy and gin to Africa

75
00:04:06,663 --> 00:04:09,581
and traded it 
for enslaved people, land,

76
00:04:09,581 --> 00:04:12,251
and goods like palm oil and rubber.

77
00:04:12,251 --> 00:04:16,001
Spirits became 
a form of money in these regions.

78
00:04:16,001 --> 00:04:17,903
During the Age of Exploration,

79
00:04:17,903 --> 00:04:21,745
spirits played a crucial role 
in long distance sea voyages.

80
00:04:21,745 --> 00:04:25,677
Sailing from Europe to east Asia 
and the Americas could take months,

81
00:04:25,677 --> 00:04:28,848
and keeping water fresh 
for the crews was a challenge.

82
00:04:28,848 --> 00:04:33,728
Adding a bucket of brandy 
to a water barrel kept water fresh longer

83
00:04:33,728 --> 00:04:38,520
because alcohol is a preservative 
that kills harmful microbes.

84
00:04:38,520 --> 00:04:40,320
So by the 1600s,

85
00:04:40,320 --> 00:04:43,890
alcohol had gone from 
simply giving animals a buzz

86
00:04:43,890 --> 00:04:49,754
to fueling global trade and exploration— 
along with all their consequences.

87
00:04:49,754 --> 00:04:50,999
As time went on,

88
00:04:50,999 --> 00:04:55,201
its role in human society 
would only get more complicated.