Only in Germany, pity.

So the Romans continued the beer making thread only until they discovered wine making. After that they pretty much poo pooed it. Now we know where uppity wine drinkers come from. To be honest, most beer was still unfiltered and had no shelf life, refridgeration was thousands of years away AND, horror of horrors, it didn't have a head. No wonder the Romans preferred the drink of the gods.

In the outer reaches of the Roman empire, beer was still king. The Teutons were noted for their brewing prowess as early as 800 BC. Over the years beer making in what is now Germany became an art and then a trade. Beer had mainly been brewed by families for their own needs and bartered occasionally for other staples, but the Teutons saw it as a business. Bread making and beer making still went hand in hand.

Beer making made its way up to the Nordic tribes and figured prominently in many sagas. But it wasn't until the Christian era that beer enjoyed its first major popularity explosion. Odd. The monastaries were at the hub of early Christian beer making. Like beer makers before them they started out making beer for their own enjoyment. Rumour has it they preferred beer to almost anything else. The monastic life could be very frugal with little enjoyment. Beer fixed that. It was particularly handy during fasting when drinking liquids wasn't considered breaking the fast. We can thank the monks for this tradition of drinking beer for long periods without eating very much as a ritual shared worldwide to this day.