Reproducing an Ancient New World Beer

The Edible Geography blog has an amusing piece about Patrick McGovern, the "Indiana Jones of Ancient Ales, Wines, and Extreme Beverages," and his role in the production of a 3,400-year-old Mesoamerican beer recreated from a chemical analysis of pottery fragments. "McGovern describes his collaboration with Dogfish Head craft brewers ... to create a beer based on the core ingredients of early New World alcohol: chocolate beans (in nib form, as the cacao pods are too perishable to transport from Honduras to Delaware), honey, corn, ancho chillis, and annatto. ... The result? Cloudy and quite strong (9% A.B.V.), but more refreshing than you would think: the chocolate is savoury rather than sweet, and the chilli is just a very subtle, almost herbal, aftertaste. There is almost no head."

Comments

Re:Not beer.

[techno-vampire]

If there's no grain in it, it's not beer. Since the primary carbohydrate source in it is honey, it's mean - honey wine.

I realize that this is Slashdot, but did you even RTFS? Right up there, the list of ingredients includes corn.

Re:Midas Touch

[OrwellianLurker]

Yeah, what a reliable source for the study--- an internet survey. America does produce lots of crappy beer, but we also produce some of the best beer. It's simple economics. The crap beer is cheap and more in demand.