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We at American Craft Beer.com are outspoken in our belief that buzz is an important aspect of drinking. And while many in our industry have chosen to conveniently overlook the obvious, we are adamant that one of the primary reasons that people drink is for the pleasure of the high that comes with it. Sure, the taste of what you’re drinking matters mightily – and we’re not suggesting that it doesn’t – but would you really choose drink if it didn’t also enhance your mood?
And not only do people seem to enjoy getting buzzed drinking, but studies now also show that we’ve been enjoying alcohol’s pleasures for a very long time. Some researchers are even suggesting that the origins of buzz might be traced as far back as 1.5 million years ago!
A recent article in Men’s Health discussing Paleolithic eating habits (we’re not kidding!) took on the subject of what they amusingly called Paleo ale. It is generally thought that cavemen did not have access to alcohol (a true bummer especially when you factor in them being chased around by gigantic mastodons all day). As a people, they were historically understood to have been hunters and gatherers and not to have developed any grains with which to brew beer or “any way to systematically ferment fruit for wine.”
But that doesn’t mean our ancestors weren’t getting buzzed…
Men’s Health explains this new thinking:
Researchers at the Foundation for Applied Molecular Evolution in Gainesville, Florida, recently calculated that the ability to metabolize alcohol goes back 10 million years, which is 5 million years before humans and apes became distinctly different species. To put that in even more perspective, humans adapted to eating meat as a regular part of the diet just 1.5 million years ago.
But things get even more fun when the article’s authors begin speculating wildly:
Our taste for alcohol (may) have started with the innocent discovery that overripe fruit, in the right circumstances, will give you a nice little buzz. It starts when wind-blown yeast spores land on fruit. The fruit’s sugars ferment and turn into alcohol at concentrations up to 4.5 percent, similar to beer. Call it the world’s first buzzfeed.
We’re not sure that there’s any scientific truth to what this article posits as to the Paleolithic origins of buzz – but that’s never stopped us in the past – so were running with this anyhow. But one thing’s for sure – people have been enjoying the mood-enhancing qualities that alcohol provides for thousands of years. Why is it so difficult to speak openly about it?
