9,000-Year-Old Beer Re-Created From Chinese Recipe

[emad]

John Roach
for National Geographic News


A Delaware brewer with a penchant for exotic drinks recently concocted a beer similar to one brewed in China some 9,000 years ago.

Sam Calagione of the Dogfish Head brewery in Rehoboth Beach, Delaware, used a recipe that included rice, honey, and grape and hawthorn fruits. He got the formula from archaeologists who derived it from the residues of pottery jars found in the late Stone Age village of Jiahu in northern China.

The residues are the earliest direct evidence of brewed beverages in ancient China.

"We can't prove that an alcoholic beverage was definitely produced in the jars—the alcohol is gone—but it's not that difficult to infer," said Patrick McGovern, an archaeochemist at the University of Pennsylvania's Museum of Archaeology and Anthropology in Philadelphia.

http://news.nationalgeographic.com/news/2005/07/0718_050718_ancientbeer.html

[Ron Mexico]

1. See, now THIS is news!!!!

I'd love to try this. :)

[starroute]

2. Great story -- here's some background on it

I've been keeping an eye on how many "civilized" advances really go back to the early Neolithic -- and the story of early wine and beer-making is one of the more interesting. There's even a theory that farming and pottery-making were both prompted in part by a desire to regularize access to mind-altering substances.

Here's a piece on McGovern's researches in China:
http://www.eurekalert.org/pub_releases/2004-12/uop-9ho120204.php

And here's one about his earlier work on the domestication of grapes in Neolithic Turkey:
http://www.awasvancouver.com/winehistory.html

[emad]

5. 'Domestication of grapes' - like taming of lions? Maybe it should

have been 'grapes of wrath'....teheheh....

[derby378]

7. The Sumerians had Ninkasi, goddess of beer

In fact, here's an ancient hymn to Ninkasi, along with a very basic recipe for beer:

http://www.piney.com/BabNinkasi.html

[LynneSin]

3. Dogfish is some mighty fine beer from Delaware

I'll probably be bringing a case of it when I go to DC for the protest

[tigereye]

4. we had their ancient mead one time

it was interesting, but intense. I love the Dogfish people. I buy their brew all the time!

[wideopen]

6. Dogfish Head Midas Touch

one of my favorites! I don't buy it much though, $12 a 4-pack here.

[tigereye]

9. I love that they research that stuff and make it

they are the archaeologists of beer!

[Squatch]

8. Sam Calagione (Dogfish's founder) is a modern pioneer

in craft brewing. I would go on record and saying that his venture, Dogfish Head Brewing Co in Milton, DE, is the best brewery in this country. Absolutely phenomenal, and daring beers.

[tigereye]

10. yes they have a fascinating approach!

:thumbsup:

[XemaSab]

11. Can you get it anywhere else?

Or do you have to go to Delaware?

[Squatch]

13. Probably not in CA.

We get it out here in the Mid-Atlantic states from NJ to VA

[XemaSab]

14. heinous

I am going to new england next month, so I'm probably SOL there too...

[RedCloud]

12. This is even from before Adam and Eve

So it must have a lot of involution in it! Cheers.