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Besides wine, the other alcoholic drink that the Egyptians produced was beer, which they referred to by the ancient Egyptian word <i>henqet</i>. Modern scholars believe that the ancient version of Egyptian beer was probably very similar to the modern Nubian beer known as <i>bouza</i> in its taste, alcoholic content, and ingredients. <i>Bouza</i> is a wheat beer that ranges from 6.2% to 8.1% alcohol content, which can be modified to create different varieties. <ref> Lucas and Harris, pgs. 11-12</ref> Similar to wine, the Egyptians documented their beer -making methods in a number of tombs during the New Kingdom (ca. 1550-1075 BC). Since beer is made from fermented wheat and other grains, the ever industrious Egyptians would often make bread and beer at the same time and location. <ref> Lucas and Harris, pg. 13</ref>

Wine and beer were consumed by all classes of ancient Egyptians for leisure and pleasure in a number of different settings. Wine was favored by the royals for its taste, as well as its intoxicating effects. The prime wine -growing regions of ancient Egypt were actually not in the Nile Valley itself, but hundreds of miles to the west in the oases of the Sahara Desert with the Kharga and Bahriya Oases being the most renowned. Modern scholars believe that wine production probably began even before Egypt was a unified state around 3100 BC. Still, but by the Old Kingdom (ca. 2686-2181 BC) , there was a full-fledged wine industry in Egypt. <ref> Kemp, Barry J. “Old Kingdom, Middle Kingdom , and Second Intermediate Period.” In <i>Ancient Egypt: A Social History.</i> Edited by Bruce G. Trigger, Barry J. Kemp, David O’Connor, and Alan B. Lloyd. (Cambridge, United Kingdom: Cambridge University Press, 2004), p. 120</ref>

Religious festivals were important during all periods of pharaonic history, but by the New Kingdom they had become public spectacles. During these festivals, the priests would go to the local temple and take the statue of the temple’s primary god – which the Egyptians believed contained the spirit of the god and was therefore the god himself – and parade it around in public before bringing it back to the temple. Peasants and workers would be relieved from their work duties during the entirety of the festival in order to spectate and participate, which for them meant drinking heavy massive amounts of alcohol and socializing with their neighbors. An inscription on a pottery fragment from the New Kingdom workers’ village of Deir el-Medina relates how the community spent the festival that celebrated the deified status of King Amenhotep I (ca. 1525-1504 BC): “The gang rejoiced before him for four solid days of drinking together with their children and wives.” <ref> McDowell, A.G., ed. and trans. <i>Village Life in Ancient Egypt.</i> (Oxford: Oxford University Press, 2001), p. 96</ref> Clearly, inebriation was an accepted, if not encouraged part of ancient Egyptian culture; alcohol also played an important essential role in the Egyptian diet.

Modern scholars believe that beer played a much bigger more significant role in the Egyptian diet than it does today in most countries. Because milk was scarce and the water from the Nile River was for the most part not potable, even in ancient times, beer was the primary drink of most ancient Egyptians. Besides the intoxicating effects it had when consumed in large amounts, studies show that it was also high in nutritional value. <ref> Shaw, Ian and Paul Nicholson. <i>The Dictionary of Ancient Egypt.</i> (New York: Harry N. Abrams, 1995), p. 22</ref> Because of the role it played in the standard Egyptian diet, and because Egypt lacked coinage until the Persian Period, beer was often used as a form of payment to men who worked on the tombs and temples. <ref> Lehner, Mark. <i>The Complete Pyramids: Solving the Ancient Mysteries.</i> (London: Thames and Hudson, 2001), p. 202</ref> Alcohol surely undoubtedly played a role in the daily lives of all Egyptians, but perhaps even more important was the part it played in their religion.

The beer ochre mixture was then poured across the earth for Sekhmet to drink. Thinking that the beverage was more human blood, Sekhmet drank the beer but became drunk and forgot about her killing spree. She was than then transformed from Sekhmet to the benign and benevolent house cat goddess, Bastet.

“When the goddess came in the morning she found them flooded, and her gaze was pleased by it. She drank , and it pleased her heart. She returned drunk without having perceived mankindhumankind.” <ref> Lichtheim, p. 199</ref>

Alcohol clearly played a positive role in <i>The Destruction of Mankind</i>, but its importance is even more apparent when one considers the many rituals associated with ancient Egyptian religion. Several ancient Egyptian religious rituals concerned a deceased person’s transition into the afterlife, which was perhaps the most important aspect of their religion. The earliest ancient Egyptian texts that concern the afterlife are a series of spells, referred to as “Utterances,” known collectively as <i>The Pyramid Texts</i>. The Utterances of the <i>The Pyramid Texts</i>, which were inscribed on the walls and ceilings of kings’ pyramids from the Fifth through the Eighth Dynasties of the Old Kingdom, were intended to make sure that the king not only transitioned safely into the afterlife, but that he was unified, depending on the Utterance, with the sun-god or Osiris, the god of the dead. Central to a Utterance being effective was often an offering of beer or wine to the gods. Some spells read, “O Osiris the King, take the ferment which issued from you – beer!” <ref> Faulkner, Richard O, trans. <i>The Ancient Egyptian Pyramid Texts.</i> (Stilwell, Kansas: Digireads.com Publishing, 2007), Utterances 49, 50, 95, 148, 149, 150</ref> In other Utterances, beer is equated to the “Eye of Hours, for little is that which Seth has eaten of it – 2 bowls of strong ale.” <ref> Faulkner, Utterance 145</ref> Offering alcohol to the gods was not restricted to the Old Kingdom, or even the nobles, though, because throughout all periods of pharaonic history , alcohol was seen as one of the most appropriate, if not required, commodities a pious person could offer to the gods.