Beer is one of the oldest and most consumed alcoholic drinks in the world. It is the third most popular drink overall after water and tea. Beer is brewed from cereal grains—most from malted barley, though wheat and rice are used. During the brewing process, fermentation of the starch sugars in the wort produces ethanol and carbonation in the resulting beer. Most modern beer is brewed with hops, which add bitterness and other flavours and act as a natural preservative and stabilizing agent. Other flavouring agents such as gruit, herbs, or fruits may be used instead of hops. In commercial brewing, the natural carbonation effect is removed during processing and replaced with forced carbonation; some of humanity's earliest known writings refer to the production and distribution of beer: the Code of Hammurabi included laws regulating beer and beer parlours, "The Hymn to Ninkasi", a prayer to the Mesopotamian goddess of beer, served as both a prayer and as a method of remembering the recipe for beer in a culture with few literate people.

Beer is distributed in bottles and cans and is commonly available on draught in pubs and bars. The brewing industry is a global business, consisting of several dominant multinational companies and many thousands of smaller producers ranging from brewpubs to regional breweries; the strength of modern beer is around 4% to 6% alcohol by volume, although it may vary between 0.5% and 20%, with some breweries creating examples of 40% ABV and above. Beer forms part of the culture of many nations and is associated with social traditions such as beer festivals, as well as a rich pub culture involving activities like pub crawling and pub games. Beer is one of the world's oldest prepared drinks; the earliest archaeological evidence of fermentation consists of 13,000 year old residues of a beer with the consistency of gruel, used by the semi-nomadic Natufians for ritual feasting, at the Raqefet Cave in the Carmel Mountains near Haifa in Israel. There is evidence; the earliest clear chemical evidence of beer produced from barley dates to about 3500–3100 BC, from the site of Godin Tepe in the Zagros Mountains of western Iran.

It is possible, but not proven, that it dates back further — to about 10,000 BC, when cereal was first farmed. Beer is recorded in the written history of ancient Iraq and ancient Egypt, archaeologists speculate that beer was instrumental in the formation of civilizations. 5000 years ago, workers in the city of Uruk were paid by their employers in beer. During the building of the Great Pyramids in Giza, each worker got a daily ration of four to five litres of beer, which served as both nutrition and refreshment, crucial to the pyramids' construction; some of the earliest Sumerian writings contain references to beer. The Ebla tablets, discovered in 1974 in Ebla, show that beer was produced in the city in 2500 BC. A fermented drink using rice and fruit was made in China around 7000 BC. Unlike sake, mold was not used to saccharify the rice. Any substance containing sugar can undergo alcoholic fermentation, it is that many cultures, on observing that a sweet liquid could be obtained from a source of starch, independently invented beer.

Bread and beer increased prosperity to a level that allowed time for development of other technologies and contributed to the building of civilizations. Xenophon noted. Beer was spread through Europe by Germanic and Celtic tribes as far back as 3000 BC, it was brewed on a domestic scale; the product that the early Europeans drank might not be recognised as beer by most people today. Alongside the basic starch source, the early European beers might contain fruits, numerous types of plants and other substances such as narcotic herbs. What they did not contain was hops, as, a addition, first mentioned in Europe around 822 by a Carolingian Abbot and again in 1067 by abbess Hildegard of Bingen. In 1516, William IV, Duke of Bavaria, adopted the Reinheitsgebot the oldest food-quality regulation still in use in the 21st century, according to which the only allowed ingredients of beer are water and barley-malt. Beer produced before the Industrial Revolution continued to be made and sold on a domestic scale, although by the 7th century AD, beer was being produced and sold by European monasteries.

During the Industrial Revolution, the production of beer moved from artisanal manufacture to industrial manufacture, domestic manufacture ceased to be significant by the end of the 19th century. The development of hydrometers and thermometers changed brewing by allowing the brewer more control of the process and greater knowledge of the results. In 1912, the use of brown bottles began to be used by Joseph Schlitz Brewing Company of Milwaukee, Wisconsin in the United States; this innovation has since been accepted worldwide and prevents harmful rays from destroying the quality and stability of beer. As of 2007, the brewing industry is a global business, consisting of several dominant multinational companies and many thousands of smaller prod

Fortune Bridge is a small unincorporated area on Lot 43, East Parish, King County, Prince Edward Island, Canada. It is located west of the Town of Souris. Author Elmer Blaney Harris founded an artist colony in Fortune Bridge. Local residents, including Lydia Dingwell of nearby Dingwells Mills, would be the inspiration for his play Johnny Belinda; the home was owned by actress Colleen Dewhurst and is now The Inn at Bay Fortune and Fireworks restaurant and operated by Chef Michael Smith and his partner Chastity Smith. Fortune Bridge had its own post office from 1889 to until 1914; the postal code for Fortune Bridge is C0A 2B0 and the following are rural route addresses for the community: Souris Rural Route 4. Fortune Bridge is known for tourism and fishing. Fortune Bridge is home to the Fortune River and "Front Beach". Many cottages are located in the area due to its scenic vistas. During the summer months, the Fortune River is a popular destination for boaters and paddlers of all skill levels, due to it being calm and sheltered.

Paddles on Fortune River has opened in 2017 to offer kayak and paddleboard rentals for river exploration with Fortune River Charters opening in June 2019 offering Pontoon Boat Tours of the river and bay. Fortune Bridge is home to the Fortune Community Centre, serving the local area since 1928

John Wyn Evans is a retired Anglican bishop. He had served as Bishop of St David's in the Church in Wales from 2008 to 2016. Born into a clerical family in 1946, he studied archaeology at Cardiff University and was ordained in 1972, he was a Minor Canon at St David's Cathedral Diocesan Archivist until 1982. He was Diocesan Director of Education from until 1992. Since he has been successively Canon and Bishop, he was elected by the Electoral College of the Church in Wales on 1 September 2008. He was consecrated a bishop in a service at Llandaff Cathedral on 29 November 2008, enthroned in St Davids Cathedral on 6 December 2008, he is credited with extensive knowledge of the history of his cathedral. He is the Patron of the Order of St David and St Non as the Lord Bishop of St David's