http://www.justaguything.com/how-to-properly-enjoy-a-beer/

The thing I find compelling about the beer-before-bread hypothesis is that grain sprouting is something that happens spontaneously when it gets wet. Things get wet by accident all the time.

I can totally see a big batch of sprouted grain porridge being made of grain that got rained on and sprouted, then, as yeast is everywhere, the porridge ferments, but keeps getting eaten (because it's they food they have) and you end up with a thick, gloppy ale.

I've not done as much research as you have, but I'm under the impression that early beer was mostly thick and gloppy - more porridge-like - than today's brew.

There were many, many different kinds of beers, even back in the Sumerian age. Thick and gloppy was most certainly part of the mix.

But to the beer before bread hypothesis, the variable that needs to be taken into account is what ever process added the yeast. Being an unknown variable back then, the yeast would have been surely an accident of location, whether the sitting grain sat next to the right field, or in the right pot/hole.

My guess is that unleavened bread came first, and leavened bread and beer happened roughly the same period of time. In fact, there were several kinds of beer throughout Sumeria and Egypt that started out as a small loaf of bread to which you ripped off a chunk, let it sit in water for a set period of time, and voila! Soggy porridge-beer. It was their version of instant beer, just add water.

There were many, many different kinds of beers, even back in the Sumerian age. Thick and gloppy was most certainly part of the mix.

But to the beer before bread hypothesis, the variable that needs to be taken into account is what ever process added the yeast. Being an unknown variable back then, the yeast would have been surely an accident of location, whether the sitting grain sat next to the right field, or in the right pot/hole.

My guess is that unleavened bread came first, and leavened bread and beer happened roughly the same period of time. In fact, there were several kinds of beer throughout Sumeria and Egypt that started out as a small loaf of bread to which you ripped off a chunk, let it sit in water for a set period of time, and voila! Soggy porridge-beer. It was their version of instant beer, just add water.

Instant beer. Wow. That sounds awful. Be careful with that phrase - someone will package that, and the world will never be the same. Little packets of dry "instant beer" next to the instant cider, cocoa and coffee. Just add to water, wait a bit, and drink. It wouldn't contain alcohol of course. That's a liquid, and a controlled one. Just sugar, hyperactive yeast, malt powder, artificial colors and flavors. Maybe you could even get it to change colors as it ferments, so you know when it's done.

The thing about yeast is that it's everywhere. You don't really have to go looking for it. It's a spoilage organism that we've co-opted. Starters and yeast cultures increase the probability of success, and decrease fermentation time, but people still make wild yeast wine and beer. And of course, sourdough is wild yeast bread.

I do wonder about the wine/beer/bread relationship. Wine's the other big yeast application, and grapes do spontaneously ferment, really easily, with no human intervention. Mostly, people just have to put the wine in jars before it oxidizes.

So I'm willing to bet that wine came before leavened bread or beer. It wouldn't surprise me over much if the fermenting jug for wine got used to store dough or porridge, and resulted in leavened bread/beer.

Wine and beer production leave behind considerable quantities of yeast culture. I can easily see adding yeast from beer production (wild yeast beer, or wine-yeast beer) to unleavened dough, and ending up with leavened bread, or just making bread with beer rather than water (a buddy of mine makes killer Guiness bread). The bread/beer similarity is so obvious you'd have to wonder what would happen if you mixed them.

The grinding step bugs me. Why grind grain to flour? It makes it easier to chew, but so does just cooking. It seems non-obvious, and so very deliberate. I think that's why I like the beer-first hypothesis. Bread requires grinding.

Perhaps there were other foods (roots or something?) at that time and place that required grinding (probably mortar and pestal, not mill), and someone decided to see what happened if you applied the technique to grain. It seems more of a leap than the yeast though.

True, yeasts are everywhere, but it's only a small subset of yeasts that make grain palatable. They may have been fermented, but it is likely that what it fermented into was something literally undrinkable.