Brewing is the production of alcoholic beverages and alcohol fuel through fermentation. The term is used for the production of beer, although the word "brewing" is also used to describe the fermentation process used to create wine and mead. It can also refer to the process of producing sake and soy sauce. "Brewing" is also sometimes used to refer to any chemical mixing process.
Brewing specifically refers to the process of steeping, such as with tea and water, and extraction, usually through heat. Wine and cider technically aren't brewed, rather vinted, as the entire fruit is pressed, and then the liquid extracted. Mead isn't technically brewed, as heating often isn't used in the mixing process, and the honey is used entirely, as opposed to being heated with water, and then discarded, as are hops and barley in beer, and or tea leaves for tea, and coffee beans for coffee. Spices could technically be brewed into a mead though.
Brewing has a very long history, and archeological evidence suggests that this technique was used in ancient Egypt. Descriptions of various beer recipes can be found in Sumerian writings, some of the oldest known writing of any sort.
The brewing industry is part of most western economies. (Full article...)