In my epic hero’s quest for homebrewing antiquity, I’ve found myself attempting to reconstruct the beverage of China’s ancient bronze age Shang (1700-1046 BC) or Zhou (1046-221 BC) dynasties. Ancient Shang texts name a handful of possible alcoholic beverages — the herbal chang, a potentially sweet and modest rice or millet-based li, and a big …
Tag Archives: ancient ale
I Am Gruit—Medieval Herbed Ale
FIRST BATCH Adapted from Mosher, Radical Brewing 241. Scaled down to Batch Volume of 1.5 gallons. 4 oz cherrywood smoked malt 1.4 oz Special B malt SRM 180 1 oz black patent malt SRM 500 2.8 lbs amber LME 1 bay laurel leaf 0.03 oz Rosemary 0.06 oz each of Bog Myrtle, Caraway, Mugwort Brewing …
Mongolian Airag (Kumis) – Champagne of the Steppe – A Fool’s Journey down the Silk Road
My inauthentic attempt at replicating 14th century Mongolian airag, a lightly fermented drink produced of mare’s milk. The neem honey is marvelously floral and a little bit spicy. Not spicy hot, but earthy spice. It’s absolutely remarkable and boldly stands out from standard honey. For the one I dared serve, scroll down to 2nd attempt. …
Circe’s Elixir – Ancient Greek Ale
“And she mixed them a potion with barley and cheese and pale honey added to Pramnian wine, but put into the mixture malignant drugs to make them forgetful of their own country. After she’d given them this and they’d drunk it down, next she struck them with her wand and drove them into her pig …
Dogfish Head Ancient Ales
Digging around in my blog, I just excavated this draft entry from July 2012. I say it’s high time this get published: In my relatively young quest for rediscovering ancient ales, I’ve come upon many articles about breweries and homebrewers trying to recreate the ancient recipes. Pat McGovern’s books Ancient Wine and Uncorking the Past …
Pharaoh Hop’n’khamun – Ancient Egyptian inspired beer
Inspired by the recipes of Ancient Egyptian beer and wine and taking a page form Egyptian mythology, Pharaoh Hop’n’khamun is a work in progress. The gist of it can be gleaned from this fun little video I put together: http://youtu.be/RPIGPXcP2gs As I say in episode 52 of my Ancient Art Podcast about Wine in Ancient …
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A Toast to Ninkasi: Sipping Sumerian Beer
A couple weeks ago, the wife and I visited the Oriental Institute at the University of Chicago for an evening of ancient Sumerian beer “exploration.” It was exceptionally informative on Sumerian texts, brewing, and archaeology and included a good discussion by Great Lakes Brewing on their partnership with the OI to replicate Sumerian beer. What …
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Ancient Egyptian inspired homebrew
Heavy emphasis on “inspired” with no claims at authenticity. Brewed with no hops, because that didn’t become the norm until the Middle Ages as there’s no evidence of hops from Ancient Egypt. Instead, I used rosemary and coriander, two herbs that are prevalent in the archaeological record of Ancient Egypt. It was a very rough …
Dogfish Head Theobroma, Mayan & Aztec Cacao Beer
After a couple months of it tempting me in the fridge, I finally cracked open my bottle of Dogfish Head Theobroma. This is an ancient-inspired beer with a kick. From the bottle: Theobroma, or “Food of the Gods,” is a recreation of the premiere chocolate beverage of the Americas, intended only for the gods, kings, …
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Ancient Egyptian Beer and Wine
I recently published a couple episodes of my Ancient Art Podcast exploring beer and wine in Ancient Egypt. While my Homebrew Blog resides in the same household as my Ancient Art Podcast, I nonetheless feel inclined to mention those episodes here. Check ’em out: Beer in Ancient Egypt http://www.ancientartpodcast.org/episode51 http://youtu.be/5mRpBCCO2g8 Wine in Ancient Egypt http://www.ancientartpodcast.org/episode52 …