Law affects beer, and beer affects law. The connection between the two is stronger than you might think, as we have illustrated in the recently published book Beer Law.

So as you pour a nice cold one during the summer holidays, here are a few things to think about.

1. Beer was a trigger for civilisation

It is common knowledge that humans transitioned from a “hunter-gatherer” type of life to civilisation and settling down to cultivate wild grains. But why did our ancestors take this life-changing step?

Many have assumed they wanted the grains to bake bread and make porridge. But modern science suggest the harvests would have been inadequate as a reliable food source, and that it was for the production of alcohol in the form of a type of beer that our ancestors became farmers.

So perhaps humankind became civilised by beer? That fact alone may be worth a toast.

2. Once upon a time, beer laws were very, very tough

People have been brewing beer for at least 13,000 years and as it turns out, beer law is also a very old discipline. Nearly 4,000 years ago, the Code of Hammurabi, an ancient Babylonian law from around 1755–1751 BCE, regulated the serving of beer.

For example, if a person selling beer watered down the beer, they could be drowned. This sort of consumer protection law makes the

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