Kirin Recreates Ancient Egyptian Beer

[beans]

In a Kyodo article today (I cannot locate a linkable story ) announced Kirin Brewery Co.'s creation of the New Kingdom of ancient Egypt beer!

How cool is that?

They employed an experimental archaeological technique interpreting the wall paintings that illustrated beer-making in the New Kingdom (1570-1070 BC!!) working with a Waseda University, Japanese professor and director of Egyptology Research.

This special beer is going to be served to approximately 200 people, via a lottery like drawing and will take place late February, as a part of the ancient Egyptian beer fair from January 18 until March 28.

I wonder how such a beer would taste?!

[Mayhaw Man]

This beer (or one very similar to it) has been made in the recent past. It was served for the final dinner at the 98 (I think, it was in Phoenix anyway. Memories of beer conferences tend to be unclear, especially after so many conferences in so many years ) Association of Brewers Conference. It was in huge bottles with straw like devices attached that were designed for communal drinking. I believe that it was brewed at Anchor, but that many brewers were involved in the development of the recipe.

I can't find anything in google, but I will go research some old copies of "The New Brewer" and see what I can find. My memory of it is that it was pretty good to drink, although kind of flat and underattenuated (but I think that is what they were going for).

[Carolyn Tillie]

This beer (or one very similar to it) has been made in the recent past. It was served for the final dinner at the 98 (I think, it was in Phoenix anyway. Memories of beer conferences tend to be unclear, especially after so many conferences in so many years ) Association of Brewers Conference. It was in huge bottles with straw like devices attached that were designed for communal drinking. I believe that it was brewed at Anchor, but that many brewers were involved in the development of the recipe.

I can't find anything in google, but I will go research some old copies of "The New Brewer" and see what I can find. My memory of it is that it was pretty good to drink, although kind of flat and underattenuated (but I think that is what they were going for).

Maybe you were looking for this: Egyptian Beer Experiment.

Here's the Japanese Story.

And through this company, Pharaoh's Brew, you can reserve a bottle...

[beerguyjim]

This beer (or one very similar to it) has been made in the recent past. It was served for the final dinner at the 98 (I think, it was in Phoenix anyway. Memories of beer conferences tend to be unclear, especially after so many conferences in so many years ) Association of Brewers Conference. It was in huge bottles with straw like devices attached that were designed for communal drinking. I believe that it was brewed at Anchor, but that many brewers were involved in the development of the recipe.

I can't find anything in google, but I will go research some old copies of "The New Brewer" and see what I can find. My memory of it is that it was pretty good to drink, although kind of flat and underattenuated (but I think that is what they were going for).

Here's some refresher info on Anchor's Ninkasi brew:

http://www.findarticles.com/cf_dls/m3469/1...cle.jhtml?term=

If the link doesn't work, just google on ninkasi and you'll find it.

[Taboni]

I believe this same "experiment" was done several (10 maybe?) years ago by Newcastle breweries in England and sold in a limited production through Harrods.

Actually I know it was done since I have one of the bottles and a certificate describing the exact same process/details. It was a gift, but looks pretty neat in its nice presentation box.

[theakston]

Dogfish head brewery did the same thing a few years ago in connection with the university of pennsylvania.

That beer - "Midas Touch" is still made and widely available in the mid atlantic region.

link to the dogfish head web page

[Andrew Fenton]

Dogfish head brewery did the same thing a few years ago in connection with the university of pennsylvania.

That beer - "Midas Touch" is still made and widely available in the mid atlantic region.

And it's not bad, either: sort of like a barley wine in consistency, a little sweet and spicy, from what I remember.

I have to say that I'm a big fan of these Jurassic Park-style brews. Bring 'em back from the dead, I say; then we can argue not only about which countries brew the best beer, but which dead civilizations do. (My money's on the Lydians. All the way, baby!)

[budrichard]

This beer (or one very similar to it) has been made in the recent past. It was served for the final dinner at the 98 (I think, it was in Phoenix anyway. Memories of beer conferences tend to be unclear, especially after so many conferences in so many years ) Association of Brewers Conference. It was in huge bottles with straw like devices attached that were designed for communal drinking. I believe that it was brewed at Anchor, but that many brewers were involved in the development of the recipe.

I can't find anything in google, but I will go research some old copies of "The New Brewer" and see what I can find. My memory of it is that it was pretty good to drink, although kind of flat and underattenuated (but I think that is what they were going for).

Maybe you were looking for this: Egyptian Beer Experiment.

Here's the Japanese Story.

And through this company, Pharaoh's Brew, you can reserve a bottle...

Before anyone orders a $250 bottle of beer, let me post what i know since i live in the area of the distributer. The Gold Pyramid is a large structure built by a contracter many years ago and there are or used to be tours, I have never gone. Wadworth, Illinois is not known for its water used in brewing. The whole thing looks like hype to me.

Reminds me of a fellow I knew in High School who tried to ferment alcohol by using suger, yeast and grape juice! Completely undrinkable. -Dick

Edited January 11, 2004 by budrichard (log)

[Mayhaw Man]

I guess I didn't make it clear in my goofy post above.

I had the stuff from Anchor when it was debuted at the Microbrewer's Conference (as it was known then) and it was interesting in that they had gone to so much trouble and time to make it, but beyond that I would not go out of my way to get it. It was underattenuated (it depended wholly, I believe, on wild yeast) and tasted a bit like a poorly made barley wine with no hops (lots of body, but too sweet for my taste) and contained no hops for flavoring (as hops were a fairly modern innovation, initially used as a method to extend the life of the beer and not so much for flavoring, although that was a happy result of their use).

[beerguyjim]

It was underattenuated (it depended wholly, I believe, on wild yeast)

I would have to check to be sure, but I believe a yeast culture was used.

[Mayhaw Man]

I really need to find the New Brewer article and find out, as my interest is piqued (and my memory is unclear, beer conferences will do that to you. That is why they always have tapes for sale )

I know that the Egyptians were certainly not culturing yeast. They were basically pouring water onto stale bread and leaving it out in the yard with a towel on top to keep out the bugs . That is what the straws were all about. They allowed aincent thirsty Egyptians a way to avoid chunks and bugs .

I will call the Association of Brewers Monday and and out what issue the brewing specs were in. I have every issue (only beer thing I regularly save) and can probably find it, or maybe they could email me a copy.

[QuinaQuen]

Didn't the Mesopotamians start brewing beer before the Egyptians?

This is where the history geeks beat me down. Whee!

[beans]

You know, I thought so too.

Perhaps a written or recorded recipe/procedure wasn't until the Egyptians?

[Katherine]

I seem to recall that the method used by the ancient Egyptians was not the fermentation of stale bread, which would make an inferior beer indeed.

What they did was to sprout the barley (malting, to form sugars), mash it, form it into cakes and dry these or roast them lightly. When you steep them, the sugar goes into the wort, and is now free to be fermented.

I understand this method was still used in Colonial times.

Alcoholic beverages in Egypt were considered food, and this was just their method of processing barley to get the greatest food value out of it. But they also fermented anything that was sweet, so your beer might have dates in it, though we probably wouldn't class that as "beer", according to our modern definition of the beverage.

[Mayhaw Man]

I suppose if there is a modern difinition of beer it would probably involve two things

1) The use of hops as a preservative (although it quickly became a prefferred flavoring ingrediant as well).

Good hop history info here

2) The isolation of a single strain of yeast to use in brewing as opposed to just throwing open the windows and letting in the wild yeasts that are pretty much ever present in the air.

Excellent yeast info from Wyeast.The Premier Purveyors of Yeast in North America