If you consider the bread vs. beer debate from an energy standpoint, it makes a lot of sense that "beer" was first.
Bread requires milling the grain into flour, letting the bread rise for a specific amount of time, and then cooking for a specific amount of time. Not only does this require a lot of work (from a milling standpoint) but it also requires someone to be a dedicated baker.
Beer on the other hand consisted of combining barley (and maybe a few other ingredients) with water. After that you just let it sit for a few days and it turned into a weird, bubbly, highly nutritious porridge. Not only did it require little work but you could leave this in a safe place, go hunting/gathering for a few days, and have it ready to eat when you came back.
