What did people think of yeast before germ theory?

[Penis Drager]

Our ancestors knew very well that yeast was a thing. They were brewing beer and wine before recorded history. And I'm sure they encountered yeast infections on occasion. So what did they make of this odd white sludge that was converting simple carbs into alcohol, was growing over time, and had pathogenic capabilities?
I feel like yeast alone should have prompted early versions of germ theory long, long before we actually came up with it.

 

[Str8Bustah]

Probably they thought yeast germs were like little faeries or spirits that made bread dough rise and really liked beer. Maybe they didn't really care and just took it at face value.

 

[Penis Drager]

Probably they thought yeast germs were like little faeries or spirits that made bread dough rise and really liked beer. Maybe they didn't really care and just took it at face value.

There were scientific minds in antiquity though. Sure, they were working with limited data. But I find it rather hard to believe that a substance that people have been working with for about as long as people have been people would go unstudied for thousands of years. And atheists did exist in ancient times. So the explanations couldn't all have been of a mystical nature.

 

[Str8Bustah]

'fae' and 'spirits' are likely colloquial terms for what we would call things like 'particles'. After all, when you really think about it they serve broadly the same function in this context, the only difference is that you can attach a story and sentience to spirits which makes the process easy to memorize for even your average layman, and with particles all you get is gay modernist tripe with no story to it that only dumb autists with no taste find interesting.