The first branch of the ape family that was able to control the production of alcohol became humans. Indeed, all apes and most animals like alcohol. In fact, they all look for it and are willing to take risks to get it. You certainly have heard of the wild elephants destroying microbreweries in India, dogs and goats drinking beer in Belgian pubs, and about the wild animals in Southern Africa going for sugar-rich fruits, that fell from the trees and wherein the sugars fermented into alcohol. The sight of drunken animals (apes, zebras, giraffes, elephants, buffalo, gazelle…) is very common in the season.

Recently I heard an agricultural expert on the drunken baboon problem in and around coffee plantations in Kenya. The coffee bean sits in a cherry like fruit. When this sugar rich fruit falls from the tree, it ferments very fast and contains a nice amount of alcohol. The baboon goes after it at any price, and a drunken baboon is very dangerous.
We might believe that the first group of apes that tried to reproduce this fermentation away from the tree, and thus understood the basics (sugar, moist fruit, and exposure to the air) has become our human ancestors. A few million years later, it was again alcohol that changed our way of life from wanderers and gatherers to settlers: the cultivation of grain to make beer, forced people to create a homestead and protect their crop.