I Brew, therefore I am.

by braciator

At last a blog, or rather a serious attempt this time. I have been contemplating to have a blog but as usual the idea of concentrating on a topic doesn’t seem appealing, and would explain for the several failures up to this date. Among them were blog devoted to rating each beers I have tasted, ranting about environment issues.

However recently I felt it is time to give it a serious go, focussing on three pillars; brewing, philosophy and politics. Which is why I chose the title “I brew, therefore I am”, don’t you agree that it is rather appropriate? I have been delving into few passions of mine which can be summarised by those three pillars and this is what the blog is about.

Yes of course, some of you may relate to this, I took my time, thinking of names for the blog, coming up with ‘I brew, therefore I am’, well yes it is becoming a cliché but I promise I won’t be using that phrase much in any of my post apart from this one. Of course I wasn’t satisfied by just plain English, it had to sound exotic, so I looked to Latin, which is a rather odd decision when I think about it.

Why do we have an obsession of translating phrases into another language, and in particular tattoo it! I don’t know but I am guilty myself! And I cannot understand why I picked Latin… a Roman language. The Romans weren’t known for brewing or beer, which is understandable given that there are no true latin word for beer. Scholars have given some examples of latin words that could be beer; Cerevisia, Cerevesia, Cerivisia.  They all are originally sourced from Gaulish when the Roman Empire conquered Gaul.

While ‘Beer’ isn’t exactly the word I was looking after in Latin, ‘Brewing’ is more complicated. Some of the scholars offered translation by combining Cerevisia with Latin for cooking; ‘Coquo cerevesiam ergo sum’ – I cook beer, therefore I am. That… is just… bad translation if you ask me. Thankfully I keep on searching and found another website that does request translations, obviously I am not the only one who are after the phrase, many before me have asked, and Bracio means brew in Latin. Braciator means brewer. I particular like those two words and the simplicity of it.

Now why did I choose Latin? Beer have its origins in other civilisations in particular Egyptian and Sumerian, were rather prominent in the Middle Ages. I could have used any of those language or even Medieval Latin. In the heart of the Roman Empire, beer were scare and citizens drank wine in devotion their God Bacchus. The irony is that Latin gave birth to beer. Not the drink itself, but the modern word we use; ‘Beer’ which comes from ‘bibere’ which means ‘to drink’.

Now what does that all have to do with Ergo Sum? The famous quote by René Descartes; Cogito ergo sum which translates as “I think, therefore I am”, which is the fundamental element of Western Philosophy. Wondering whether you exist or not requires thinking in the first place therefore you exist.

Bracio ergo sum, is a play on the phrase and for me is a fundamental reason why we are here, why  we exist and living in modern world. History of Beer have shown that Brewing is the birth of Civilisation, it is the reason why we have Civilisation. We stopped being nomads and attempted to create a functional society, harvesting barley, wheat for bread and beer. Every Civilisation in history have a form of beer whether it is made from corn, barley or rice. First brewing are credited to the women of the Sumerian Civilisation around 6,000 years ago although there are some theories that first beers were brewed between 10,000 and 15,000 years ago.

(From a variety of sources including “Beer: The Midwife of Civilisation” Here’s To Beer! )