The earliest traces of brewing go back to 9,000 BC and cities were first built to help distribute beer to a larger audience. The Sumerians had 21 different beers. The Celts brewed beer using smoked barley sprouts and henbane. There are some recipes reconstructed from archaeological evidence.

Probably the most remarkable beer was a line that lasted only about 100 years in Ancient Egypt. The brewers had found a way to render ergot safe, but in the process discovered an entire class of antibiotics.

Although beer is older than wine, malt wasn't used in ancient beers at all - that didn't arise until very late in the game, as beers with longer shelflife were being worked on. Mead has no known etymology and kept beehives were common around pre-historic breweries, but honey was used in ancient beer too. Maybe they branched off a common ancestor.