Just don’t tell me that the French invented beer. I’d be heartbroke..
Based on my research during culinary school (yes, I got credit for studying zymurgy), I would say that beer or something similar, ie... malted barley steeped in water and fermented to produce a drink/slurry, was probably invented near Mesopotamia or somewhere in the Fertile Cresent, where the ancestor of barley first appeared.
So, no, the french didn't invent it. But the Belgian monks made it dangerous. ;)
/johnny