When did consumption begin?

Answer 1

While no one knows when beverage alcohol was first consumed, it was presumably the result of a fortuitous accident that occurred at least tens of thousands of years ago. However, the discovery of late Stone Age beer jugs has established the fact that intentionally fermented beverages existed and were drank at least as early as the Neolithic period (cir. 10,000 B.C.), and it has been suggested that beer may have preceded bread as a staple; wine clearly appeared as a finished product in Egyptian pictographs around 4,000 B.C. In anthropological terms, fermentation and the consumption of alcohol are considered two of the principal indicators of civilization among any community of the homo sapiens.