How to make 3,000 year old beer

It's 88° here. If I was sitting where I am now 3000 years ago I don't know if I'd want a beer at room temperature.

 

I've been aware of Archival but haven't been in the area recently for a pub crawl. I'll have to give them a bit more priority.

 

No grains, just fruit and honey as fermentables + seasonings/herbs. That's a very broad definition of "beer" he's using.

Yeah, lot's of sources disputing the myth, which probably was true in certain areas.
Drinking In Colonial America: Stay Away From the Water, Right?
The myth of Medieval Small Beer

 

He apparently did start with grains: "For base grains, he chose purple Egyptian barley and emmer wheat." Then he added the aforementioned er... adjuncts.

 

Archival Brewing is exactly the kind of brewery that I find most appealing: the brewers study the history of beer, appreciating it in its many varieties, and reproduce it using small scale methods (amphorae, for example). If we must use the term "craft beer" it would be most appropriate in this context. I certainly wish there were more breweries like this in the US, and it sure would be nice to find one here in the Denver area.

 

A 3000 year old beer is perfect for Celluary.

 

Simple, make a beer and then wait 3000 years

 

If I wanted 3,000-year-old beer, I'd just go to Total Wine and buy it.

 

I love the idea of historic beers, especially when there is possibility to use the same yeast, and ingredients at least faithfully recreated, to do it. I tried only one, the DFH one, Midas Touch, and enjoyed it, but really wish to try them all, so interesting.

And re: the myth about beer being consumed instead of water for health, may I add this? It was true both that the water could get you sick, and that drinking beer didn't give you the same sickness. Both of these truths are certain to have been noticed as "things" by some cultures These are people who already knew many medicinal and toxic things in their lives and surroundings. I have no historic references to cite, just common sense

 

I've never quite understood the "beer instead of water because the water is contaminated" thing. Isn't beer a diuretic? It takes more water out of the system than it puts in. So how do you survive by drinking it?

 

I mean survive by drinking only beer, of course. But only beer means you're perpetually woozy and dehydrated.

 

Had a 3,000 year old Bigfoot last night. Excedrine cannot abolish this hangover

 

Oops - guess I shouldn't have stopped reading at "black cumin and frankincense".

"I think it's 3000 years old, but the damn "Bottled on" date is in Roman numerals!"

 

Or just drink a mass-produced beer, I am sure they taste the same

 

I have had dysentery and comparing the liquid lost from dysentery to the peeing I do from beer drinking is like comparing emptying out a pool to spilling a bit of extra water from a bucket. I suggest folks were smart enough back then to notice that the water got them sick and sometimes killed them, and it is reasonable to think they also noticed things they could drink that didn't get them sick and sometimes kill them. I mean, beer drinking hardly needs more incentive than it tastes good and makes you buzzed, but if it also is safer to drink than pond water? Just sayin'

 

Most of the beer consumed 'back in the day' were low alcohol beers (sometimes referred to as Small Beer). I can't recall where the specific 'break point' is but somewhere around 2.x% ABV the beer would not have a diuretic effect.

Cheers!

 

There is an old saying which we brewers often say: brewers make wort, yeast makes beer!

Below is a related video which provides more details about the yeast they found and isolated/propagated from the archeological dig at Tel Tzafit, from the pottery beer jug.

Cheers!