On their second homeland Indo-Europeans were not familiar with wine-making and did not know wine, living far from the places where climatic conditions allow people to engage in viticulture and winemaking. They had met with wine already during their migration to the south and south-west. Not so with the brewing. Hop needed for the production of beer grew in their places of settlement, at least could be cultivated. Consonant words for the hops are widespread in many Indo-European and Finno-Ugric languages (Slav. *x(ŭ)melǐ, Rus. khmel’, Bulg. khmel’, Ukr. khmіl', Pol chmiel, Cz, Slvk. chmel, NGmc humli, humall, OE hymele, MLG homele, MLat. Humulus, MGr. χουμελι, Fin. humala, Hung. komló, Mansi kumli). F. Kluge refers to these words, and Ger Hopfen “hops”. Scientists believe that the way of spreading the name of hops are very complicated and time of their appearance in different languages is different, but they agree that there should be a common source of borrowing. Some see it in the language of the Bulgars (see Chuv xămla “hops”), others doubt the possibility of penetration of the Bulgarish word Bulgar far in Europe. Of course, the reason for doubt is given by the idea of the late appearance of the Bulgars in Europe. However, existed close adjacency of the Bulgars with the Indo-European and later with the Finno-Ugric peoples could explain the origin of the names of both hops and some weak alcoholic beverages in many modern European languages.
Many scientists have long believed that Slavic word braga for home-brewed beer was borrowed from Celtic (cf. Irl. braich “malt”, Cymr. brag “the same”, bragod “mixed beer and honey malt”).
M. Vasmer never seen such a possibility, and connected the Slavic word with the Chuvash pεraGa “pomace” (formerly “half-beer, liquid beer") having matches to the names of the weak liquor boza/buza in other Turkic languages (VASMER MAX, 1964: 205). In fact the Old Bulgarish *bĕraga could be got by the Celtic language, directly or through Illyrian, which area shared the habitats of the Bulgars and Celts for some time (see the map of the second Indoeuropean Urheimat). The Illyrian language has not survived, but a similar word could have. Thus, it is possible that the initial hypothesis of borrowing the Slavic word braga from Celtic must seem fair, although it is possible that the Slavs borrowed it directly from the Bulgars, when entered into contact with them.
You can look at some similarity of the Turkic words not only with Slavic names of the braga, but also with the Germanic names of beer (cf. NGmc. bjorr, Ger. Bier, Eng. beer), which origin is still unclear. Germanic tribes in the II thousand BC. populated the habitats of Illyrians and Italics, and thus come into contact with the Bulgars, what is evidenced by place names in the Western Ukraine, and in the Chuvash-German lexical correspondences. Germans have learned from the Bulgars to brew beer and with beer they borrowed its name. Taking into account the effect of the rotatcism in Turkic languages, the proto-form of words for the name of alcohol beverages at the Turks had to sound like a *borz-, which gives an explanation of the North Germanic form of the word, which must preserve most ancient form of Germanic borrowing (the correspondence rz – rr- is known in other languages).
It is clear the Bulgars had another weak alcoholic drink, which technology was different from the technology of brewing, because there is a Chuv kărchama "home-brewed beer" and Tat. kärchemä “sour katyk” (the national drink). The word was got by Slavic languages and adopted another, but the closest sense (Rus, Ukr., Blr. korchma, Bulg. krъchma, Pol karczma, Cz, Slvk. krčma and other "public house"). But this happened only later, when the Slavs were Bulgarians neighbors after the departure of the main part of the Germans in the west. Indeed, the absence of such words in the Germanic languages provides a reason to say that this drink came later. If beer needs hops, the receipt of home brew can be made with dairy products, as occurs in the making of koumiss. The last drink was not common in the Indo-Europeans, perhaps because the horse did not play a big role at them. As follows from our studies, the view of Indo-European affiliation of the tribes of Corded Ware, rapid expanded across Europe due using horses, is wrong.
It is known that in Eastern Europe existed also another name for beer, traces of which are available in Germanic and Iranian languages (Eng ale, NGmc. öl, Osset äluton and others “beer”). This word has Indo-European origin and dates back to the root *alu-, which is part of words meaning 1.“bitter”, “sour” and 2. “magic”. However, similar names are absent in other Indo-European languages (Lithuanian borrowed it from from some Germanic), so that its appearance should enjoy a later time.
