2024-08-04 07:19:25
Mr Miller, creator of the YouTube podcast Tasting History, has created a video demonstrating how he brewed a 3,800-year-old Sumerian beer from the Mesopotamia region. Although he often relies on surviving historical recipes, he had to refer to a hymn to the goddess of beer to prepare this ancient drink — which meant a lot of guesswork — but he said following the hymn’s instructions made it less likely to go wrong.
“If you just do the basics, eventually you’ll end up with something that might work,” Miller said.
People around the world have been brewing beer in various forms for thousands of years. Archaeologists believe they have even found a 13,000-year-old brewery in Israel.
Since Mr. Miller is not an expert on vintage beer, he relied by archaeologist Tate Paulette’s research – to find out how to create a beer recipe from Anthem Ninkasi [Ninkasi buvo Mesopotamijos alaus ir aludarystės deivė], which dates back to around 1800. Ave. me – so he is 3800 years old.
Paulette found that most written sources and brewers’ recipes contained the same basic ingredients: barley malt, bapir, a mixture of raw and roasted grains, date syrup and flavorings. No one knows exactly what bapyrus is – but Paulette thinks it’s similar to bread leaven.
To make his version of the beer, Mr. Miller used water, barley, barley flour, yeast, coriander, cardamom, date syrup and brewer’s yeast.
Here’s his instructions on how to brew vintage beer:
1 day: pour a cup of barley with water and let it soak.
Day 2: for bapir, mix 1.5 cups of barley flour with 1.5 cups of yeast and 0.5 cups of water. Knead the dough for five minutes on a clean surface. Put the dough in a clean bowl, then cover it with a towel for a day to let the dough rise.
On the first day, strain the barley and put it in cheesecloth. Hang the gauze and let it hang for two or three days. Spray the gauze several times a day to prevent it from drying out.
Day 3: From the dough prepared on the second day, form a flat, round loaf. Leave it uncovered to dry for a day.
Day 4: Bake the dried loaf at a temperature of 150 degrees Celsius on a baking sheet lined with baking paper for no longer than 10 minutes.
Set the oven to 95 degrees Celsius and arrange the sprouted barley on an unlined baking sheet. Bake for two to three hours, then leave them uncovered to dry.
Day 5: grind the barley into flour. Pour ground barley with water and soak for two hours.
Crumble the dried bread into small pieces. Place them in a large jar along with the soaked barley and its liquid.
Then add the flavorings and 0.5 cup of date syrup. Pour four liters of water and mix. Cover the jar with cheesecloth and leave it in a dark place for two or three days.
Day 7 or 8: strain the beer through a sieve. The beer can already be drunk, but after two days it will start to deteriorate.
Exactly what Mesopotamian brewers used as flavorings is another mystery, but coriander, cardamom, fennel, and cumin can be used, as well as juniper berries, honey, figs, plums, and other fruits, herbs, and spices.
Mixing and matching these alternatives will give you different results. “One small change in what you add to a drink can make a big difference to the taste,” Miller said.
The time the ingredients are added can also affect the strength of the flavor. Adding date syrup early in the brewing process will increase the alcohol content, while adding it later will make the end result sweeter. Some experts aren’t sure if ancient beer was alcoholic at all.
Ancient beer is different from today’s beer
Don’t expect this homebrew brewed from an ancient recipe to be anything like what you can buy in a store. Beer made according to ancient recipes is usually cloudy and thick.
“It’s very different from what we think of as beer today,” Miller said.
According to him, this beer should be drunk through a straw, which should help avoid some grains or clumps of paper.
Advances in microbiology and technology (such as thermometers) have changed brewing methods over the past few centuries. Some ingredients have also changed – for example, the types of yeast used. There is also no evidence that ancient brewers used hops, a common ingredient (and natural preservative) today.
Miller’s top tip is to just try to cook your own version, because there’s really no wrong way to do it.
“Just be patient because these older products take more time,” he said.
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2024-08-04 07:19:25