Wine may be arguably the most fashionably forward commercially produced fermented beverage—at least to the average consumer—but there are several other ferments that have been around for even longer and have equally storied histories: beer, sake, mead, and cider!
Beer
Beer, over time, has grown on me, unlike soccer and F1 … which is ironic because beer is the perfect drink to enjoy while watching such sports. As far as timelines go, beer is about 10,000 years old, which makes it older than wine. The Sumerians may not have been the first beer producers, but they certainly knew how to make it well and how to make it a cultural hit. Meanwhile, the Egyptians maintain that it was their God Osiris who taught man how to brew. Eventually, German monks in Medieval times compiled the knowledge on hops, but it wasn’t until Louis Pasteur set out to pasteurize milk that we learned about yeast. In the end, beer was a group effort—just how it’s best enjoyed.
In 1810, when the then Crown Prince (Ludwig I) celebrated his wedding with an open house public party and served free beer, it became a party that never stopped repeating itself annually, now better known as Oktoberfest! When the ice machine was introduced in the 1870s, year-round lager brewing became a possibility, which in turn catapulted beer into a widely consumable drink with mass appeal.
Sake
Sake might seem like Japanese for “alcohol,” but it mainly refers to Japanese rice wine. We say “wine” although, technically speaking, it is more akin to beer in many respects. Sake-like drinks can also be found in Korea, China, and other parts of Southeast Asia. A clear, subtle, and elegant beverage that can be served cold or slightly warmed, either in traditional sake cups or in stemware, it accompanies food and can also be a great aperitif. Generally sakes are not aged, though some might be held in special casks for 2–3 years.
The rice used to make sake is a special kind, so don’t go wasting your Basmati on it just yet. The process involves milling the grains, which means that the outer layers of the grain are removed gradually. This “polishing” process makes the rice more “pure”—free from the stronger flavors that components of the outer shell can bring—which thereby makes for a very clean and light beverage.
Be careful while consuming sake, though, for their softness of character belies their potency, which, at 15–16 percent, is almost always higher than average wine. There’s no point shooting it either—sipping it is definitely more pleasurable.
Would sake ever replace wine? I hope not! Both are born of tradition and time-tested methods and have their respective relevance, but to see them evolve could be fun. Sake cocktails, anyone?
Mead
I am pretty sure that the first thing mankind fermented—or rather the first fermented joy that our ancestors could partake of—came from that one ingredient found all around the world: honey. Fermenting honey gives us mead, and it has more origin stories than a Marvel superhero. From the Norse gods in Valhalla celebrating with it to Indian mythology worshipping it, from natives in continental America to cultures in South Asian communities enjoying it in small hamlets, mead takes many forms. However, good mead is expensive to make, and with cheaper options for low alcohol drinks abounding over time, mead became less common, which explains why it is surprisingly scant on the local store shelves today. It comes back into fashion every few years, in different formats and parts of the world (Braggot in UK, Tej in Ethiopia, and Midus in Lithuania, to name a few), but it is still quite some time away from acquiring widespread acceptability. Finland currently leads the mead race with France, Lithuania, and the UK not too far behind.
Cider
This beverage comes from fermenting apple juice. The similar beverage from pears is called perry. Cider has always had its cult crowd: those who drink it with a devotion as resolute as with beer lovers. There is no specific advantage to one over the other, not even if you switch to apple cider vinegar—except for that you will hate your life choices even more. Ciders range from dry to sweet, and the best way to enjoy them is poured over a lot of ice. They are made all around the world, but some regions take their cider more seriously than others. Normandy and Brittany in France, West Country in England, New England and Vermont in the US, and Tasmania in Australia come first to mind.
