page_title: Brewery
section_title: History
hierarchical_section_title: Brewery / History
caption_attribution_description: English: Sumerian tablet created during the 45th year of the reign of Shulgi, the King of Ur, in 2050 BC. It is a dated and signed receipt written by a scribe called Ur-Amma for the delivery of beer, by a brewer named Alulu. The text translates as "Ur-Amma acknowledges receiving from his brewer, Alulu, 5 sila (about 4 1/2 liters) of the 'best' beer."
context_page_description: A brewery or brewing company is a business that makes and sells beer. The place at which beer is commercially made is either called a brewery or a beerhouse, where distinct sets of brewing equipment are called plant. The commercial brewing of beer has taken place since at least 2500 BC; in ancient Mesopotamia, brewers derived social sanction and divine protection from the goddess Ninkasi. Brewing was initially a cottage industry, with production taking place at home; by the ninth century monasteries and farms would produce beer on a larger scale, selling the excess; and by the eleventh and twelfth centuries larger, dedicated breweries with eight to ten workers were being built.
  The diversity of size in breweries is matched by the diversity of processes, degrees of automation, and kinds of beer produced in breweries. A brewery is typically divided into distinct sections, with each section reserved for one part of the brewing process.
context_section_description: Beer may have been known in Neolithic Europe  and was mainly brewed on a domestic scale.
  In some form, it can be traced back almost 5000 years to Mesopotamian writings describing daily rations of beer and bread to workers. Before the rise of production breweries, the production of beer took place at home and was the domain of women, as baking and brewing were seen as "women's work".
caption: The Alulu beer receipt records a purchase of "best" beer from an ancient Sumerian  brewery, c. 2050 BC[2]
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