What beers and other drinks did Native Indians brew in the Americas prior to the arrival of Europeans, with Christopher Columbus in 1492? The fact that alcohol was unknown in the Americas is only a myth.
What sort of alcohol drinks existed in the New World prior to Columbus' voyage of discovery in 1492?
From 'Indians of North America' by Harold Driver.
The distribution of alcoholic beverages falls almost wholly within the bounds of horticulture. However, there was a sizeable area in Northeast Mexico which was without agriculture and where wine was made from wild plants. For the world as a whole, there is a definite correlation between alcoholic beverages and agriculture, although negative instances can also be found in the Old World. The explanation is a simple one--the liquors were made principally from domesticated plants. It is commonly assumed either that knowledge of the fermenting of these plants spread with the plants or that the making of the liquor from the plant could spread only as far as the plant was known.
e.g. Agave and Dasylirion -- Two distinct plants were widely used in the Southwest, Meso-America, and Northeast Mexico for the production of alcoholic beverages. They were even more widely used as food. It has been conjectured that before the time when agriculture was common, say, in the second or third millennium BC these plants were a staple food or even the staple food of a large part of the region. In the Southwest, the wine was usually made from the cooked juice of the agave, not from the fresh juice as in Meso-America.
So from this I'm going to infer that technologically most native tribes who knew of fermentation would have been restricted to that form of alcohol production, and so wine would be the only form of alcohol available pre-European contact. It's also safe to say that wine production only occurred within cultures that had ferment-able produce available to them.
Prior to 1492 Native Americans actually brewed various alcoholic drinks.
Prior to contact with colonists, alcohol use and production was mainly concentrated in the southwestern United States. Some tribes produced weak beers, wine and other fermented beverages, but they had low alcohol concentrations (8%-14%) and were to be used only for ceremonial purposes. The distillation technique required to make stronger, potent forms of alcohol were unknown. It was well documented that Mexican Native Americans prepared over forty different alcoholic beverages from a variety of plant substances, such as honey, palm sap, wild plum, and pineapple. In the Southwestern U.S., the Papago, Piman, Apache and Maricopa all used the saguaro cactus to produce a wine, sometimes called haren a pitahaya. The Coahuiltecan in Texas combined mountain laurel with the Agave plant to create an alcoholic drink, and the Pueblos and Zunis were believed to have made fermented beverages from aloe, maguey, corn, prickly pear, pitahaya and even grapes. To the east, the Creek of Georgia and Cherokee of the Carolinas used berries and other fruits to make alcoholic beverages, and in the Northeast, there is some evidence that the Huron made a mild beer made from corn. In addition, despite the fact that they had little to no agriculture, both the Aleuts and Yuit of Alaska were believed to have made alcoholic drinks from fermented berries. - Alcohol and Native Americans (Wikipedia)
Various Indian culture brewed different drinks according to what was available in the local areas.
In Mexico, some believe Native Americans used a corn precursor to make a brewed drink; they note: “the ancestral grass of modern maize, teosinte, was well suited for making beer – but was much less so for making corn flour.” In addition, it is well established that Mexican Native Americans prepared “over forty different alcoholic beverages [from] . . . a variety of plant substances, such as honey, palm sap, wild plum, and pineapple.”
In the Southwestern U.S., the Papago, Piman, Apache and Maricopa all used the saguaro cactus to produce a wine, sometimes called haren a pitahaya. Similarly, the Apache fermented corn to make tiswin (also called tulpi and tulapai) and the yucca plant to make a different alcoholic beverage.
The Coahuiltecan in Texas combined mountain laurel with the Agave plant to create an alcoholic drink, and the Pueblos and Zunis were believed to have made fermented beverages from aloe, maguey, corn, prickly pear, pitahaya and even grapes.
To the east, the Creek of Georgia and Cherokee of the Carolinas used berries and other fruits to make alcoholic beverages, and in the Northeast, “there is some evidence that the Huron made a mild beer made from corn.” In addition, despite the fact that they had little to no agriculture, both the Aleuts and Yuit of Alaska were believed to have made alcoholic drinks from fermented berries.
It should be noted, however, that most of these beverages were relatively weak, presumably no stronger than wine (which typically runs from 8-14% ABV). Whiskey, on the other hand, is usually 60% ABV, and grain alcohol (e.g., moonshine) is often 95% ABV. As a result, when Europeans introduced these stronger drinks, Native Americans were in for a shock. - Native Americans Were Not Introduced to Alcohol By Europeans
The Pueblo Indians actually brewed their own brand of corn beer.
Ancient Pueblo Indians brewed their own brand of corn beer, a new study suggests, contradicting claims that the group remained dry until their first meeting with the Europeans.
Archaeologists recently found that 800-year-old potsherds belonging to the Pueblos of the American Southwest contained bits of fermented residue typical in beer production.
Before the discovery, historians thought a pocket of Pueblos in New Mexico did not have alcohol at all, despite being surrounded by other beer-making tribes, until the Spanish arrived with grapes and wine in the 16th century.
A thousand years ago, traditional Native American farming villages were already scattered across parts of New Mexico, Arizona and northern Mexico, divided among several tribes including the Apache, Pueblo, Navajo and the Tarahumara.
Many of the tribes living in Mexico and some in Arizona are known to have produced a weak beer called tiswin, made by fermenting kernels of corn, but no evidence has ever been found that the same thing happened in New Mexico. - Beer Brewed Long Ago by Native Americans
If you include Central and South America, there is a beverage that is still made today called Chicha
In South and Central America, chicha is a fermented or non-fermented beverage usually derived from maize.1[need quotation to verify] Chicha includes corn beer known as chicha de jora and non-alcoholic beverages such as chicha morada. Archaeobotanists have found evidence for chicha made from maize, the fruit of Schinus molle and Prosopis pods.2 Chichas can also be made from quinoa, kañiwa, peanut, manioc root (also called yuca or cassava), palm fruit, potato, Oxalis tuberosa, chañar or various other fruits.2 While chicha is most commonly associated with maize, the word is used in the Andes for almost any homemade fermented drink, and many unfermented drinks.[3] Many different maize landraces, grains or fruits have been and can be used to make chicha in different regions.2 The way in which chicha is made and defined is likely to change depending on the region[4]
There is a native Brazilian drink called Cauim made from Manioc root:
Cauim preparation (like other cooking tasks) is strictly a women's job, with no involvement from the men. Manioc roots are sliced thin, boiled until tender, and allowed to cool down. Then women and girls gather around the pot; each repeatedly takes a mouthful of manioc, chews it, and puts it into a second pot (depending on the culture). Enzymes in the saliva then convert the starch into fermentable sugars. (Men firmly believe that if they were to chew the paste, the resulting beverage would not taste as good; and anyway they consider that work as inappropriate for them as spinning yarn would be for European men.) The chewed root paste is put back on the fire and stirred with a wooden spoon until completely cooked. The paste is then allowed to ferment in large earthenware pots ("half as big as a Burgundy wine barrel").
There are more, but these are probably the most well known from South America.
