In 2008, nearly 1 billion 400 million hectolitres of this wellknown drink have been consumed in the world. More than anything else, this is evidence of its immense popularity, across all cultures and civilizations. While it was first encountered in Egypt 6 000 years ago, its real economic development started only in Europe during the Middle Ages. It created a famous dividing line from SouthEast to NorthWest, cutting the continent in two parts: wine settled in the South, and beer conquered the Northern and Eastern parts of Europe. Yet, who can pretend to know everything about Beer? Where does it come from? How is it made? And of course, what does
it represent in our culture?
In the olden days, making beer always involved a solid know how, and a bit of mystery. Today, the chemical and bacteriological process the brewing goes through is fully controlled. Yet, despite of all the modern technology, the individual breweres unique know how is still essential. Some of them are very proud of their secrets. Yet, the basic ingredients are always the same: First, and the most important: barley, or any other kind of grained plant. - which is why it is sometimes called a liquid bread - Then comes Water
and Heat, then Hops and finally Yeasts. And then there is another, final ingredient. But this one is invisible : it is called Time. The Brewing tradition has shaped European history and culture. Beer has put its mark -and still does- on most of our popular festivities, gatherings who give us an opportunity to escape the laws of nature, to break the contingencies of daily work and to redefine the limitations time. In the five films of our series, we intend to travel all over Northern Europe to find those mythical brewers, but also the hundreds of artisans related to this craft, such as the Bohemian glassworkers, the Alsatian boilermakers or the embroiderers of the famous Bavarian Dirndl. We will of course also meet the farmers producing the ingredients: barley, or malt and hop.