What was beer called in the Middle Ages ? PerfectDraft answers this question

Before the word beer appeared, in the kingdom of France, this drink had many other names: gruit, cervoise, sikaru or barley wine.

It was in 1435 that the word bière first appeared. At the time, an ordinance issued by King Charles VII referred to the drink in this way in order to regulate its trade.

At the time, the word "bière" was used to refer to beer.

To return to one of the earliest names, sikaru comes from Akkadian, an ancient Asian language. It is thought to date back to 8000 BC and refers to the origin of the first beer. It can be translated as liquid bread. This drink is said to have been "invented" as a result of forgetting a dry loaf of bread in water, a liquid which was then transformed into beer.

Furthermore, etymology explains the birth of this current term, used in France. Two origins are recorded: one from an ancient Germanic language, with the term bera. The second comes from the Dutch bier, derived from the Latin biber or from a Germanic language (beuza for effervescence).