ancient Egyptian beer

[GerritT]

History doesn't have to be boring.

Beer was a result of the Agricultural Revolution (c. 10,000 BC), as fermentation was an accidental by-product of the gathering of wild grain. It’s said that beer was not invented but discovered, yet the manufacturing of beer was an active choice and the ancient Egyptians produced and consumed it in huge volumes.

When I began this project, like many of my contemporaries I believed that ancient Egyptian beer would be revolting. I expected a thick, tasteless, gruel-like mixture that was mildly alcoholic. But the brewers on the team thought otherwise – quite rightly they argued there was no way the Egyptians would be making beer in such quantities if it was not good. But to all of our surprise, it didn’t just work, but it was absolutely delicious!

https://blog.britishmuseum.org/a-sip-of-history-ancient-egyptian-beer/

 

[Lawrence22]

Very interesting. Would love to be able to taste it.

 

[GerritT]

Not a recipe mentioned in the article, but here's a bit of info on brews from that era: https://byo.com/article/tutankhamun-ale-story/

 

[LarryF]

"This process allows modern brewers to utilise up to 80–85% of the fermentable sugars. In our ancient Egyptian beer, because there was no boil, all of the starches were converted into sugars and the maximum end amount of alcohol was produced, making it 100% efficient."

Interesting point that not boiling gave them 100% effientcy, I'm presuming they were using bittering herbs. As they were in Europe before they started using hops for bittering.

 

[GerritT]

"This process allows modern brewers to utilise up to 80–85% of the fermentable sugars. In our ancient Egyptian beer, because there was no boil, all of the starches were converted into sugars and the maximum end amount of alcohol was produced, making it 100% efficient."

Interesting point that not boiling gave them 100% effientcy, I'm presuming they were using bittering herbs. As they were in Europe before they started using hops for bittering.

Gruit all the way. But they had juniper and coriander, and zests as well: there was taste!