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

Excellent!

[sv_libertarian]

Just the thing to toast the arrival of 2012 with

Midas Touch

[robbievienna]

Dogfish Head is also well known here in Delaware for recreating the mead found in King Midas' tomb, based on studies done by UPenn archaeologists in Turkey. The beverage is called Midas Touch and is frickin' amazing.

Re:Midas Touch

[morgan_greywolf]

Dogfish Head is also well known here in Delaware for recreating the mead found in King Midas' tomb, based on studies done by UPenn archaeologists in Turkey. The beverage is called Midas Touch and is frickin' amazing.

Even better, you can make it yourself. The recipe is posted here. Mead making is very, very easy. Combine the honey, water and other ingredients in a big plastic bucket, add some wine (or champagne) yeast, yeast nutrient and yeast energizer, and wait. Siphon out into a carboy when fermentation stops. Yummy.

Re:Midas Touch

[Psyborgue]

It's well known in a lot of places thanks to the documentary "Beer Wars". In the DC area where I live there are several Dogfish Head alehouses and the local Wegmans stocks several of their beers as well. I don't normally like beer but Dogfish Head makes excellent products with variety and eccentricity that actually taste good.

Re:Midas Touch

[Phanatic1a]

Dogfish and McGovern also collaborated on: Jiahu, based on chemanalysis of 9000-year-old pottery fragments from China; Sah'tea, based on 9th-century Finnish sahti; and Pangaea, which is more gimmicky than most of Dogfish head's gimmicks, and includes an ingredient from every continent.

Re:Midas Touch

[jd]

It's not really a mead, as it is not primarily honey, but it is good. I like the fact that Dogfish are doing this right. The Japanese brewery that recreated Old Kingdom beer (to the point of reconstructing the original brewing vessels) only did so for one season and distribution was limited. A Californian brewery that recreated one of the 27 known Sumerian beers likewise only did a limited edition. Not all places that sell Dogfish's beers sell Midas Touch though.

Ultimately, there's a huge range of ancient brews that might be very popular but next-to-zero research on the subject and absolutely zero interest from the stores and bars. That has to be fixed before any of this goes anywhere.

For mead, I've produced my own GPLed mead recipe (GPL version 2) which has proven very popular with those who have tried it.

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.

Re:Midas Touch

[Patch86]

On the subject, you actually can't copyright a recipe. Probably.

http://smallbusiness.findlaw.com/copyright/copyright-realworld/recipe-copyrighting.html

Almost no head

[FShort]

welcome to my marriage

The Indiana Jones of Alcohol

[pushing-robot]

Okay, that is officially the best job description ever.

Re:The Indiana Jones of Alcohol

[pushing-robot]

THIS BELONGS IN MY STOMACH!

FInally a good story

[plopez]

There's been a drought of good stories on Slashdot lately, leaving me parched for more. This is a great way to pop open some new discussion, jump in, and drink deeply of the conversation. Did anyone find the actual recipe? I'm thirsty for more knowledge.

Re:FInally a good story

[mortonda]

The puns are just bubbling from you aren't they? Got any more brewing?

Sorry, had to head that one off at the pass.

Re:FInally a good story

[value_added]

Got any more brewing

Consider the following as a barley funny rough draught.

My approach for whatever ales me when reading Slashot is to reduce the problem to pint-sized portions, then with stout determination engage in vigorous physical activity to ferment a solution, ideally, starting with a bending of the elbow. When possible, I leave it to the barmaid to determine whether the glass is half-empty or half-full.

Cheers.

Missing from the article...

[Foobar of Borg]

The writer didn't mention his discovery of an ancient tablet written in an ancient Mayan language. The tablet describes the method of brewing this beer and declares that beer is "the cause, and solution, to all of life's problems!"

Beer Wars

[futuresheep]

I love Dogfish Head. As much for the passion they have for producing great beers as for the great beers they produce. Everyone should watch the documentary Beer Wars to see what I mean. http://beerwarsmovie.com/

Re:Want to buy

[Grygus]

It goes on retail every July, according to their schedule. Here is a map of the retail locations, all in Delaware.

Re:Want to buy

[Aranykai]

I followed a few links and discovered Dogfish Head originally published this beer in June of 2008. Its called "Theobroma".

http://www.dogfish.com/brews-spirits/the-brews/occassional-rarities/theobroma.htm

The blog article in question was just written in May, so I'm assuming he either got an old bottle or the brewers did another production run. I'm going to ask my local dogfish head distributor about it next time I go in and hopefully he can track some down for me.

Inhaling Beer?

[carlzum]

The head on a Guinness stout has nothing on this beer...

It was apparently served with a thick head of foam, in vessels designed so that “one had the option to inhale the foam or drink directly from the mouth of the vessel.”

Heroin users call that chasing the dragon :)

Re:Inhaling Beer?

[xonar]

Equating the responsible enjoyment of a truly interesting, historical, fine craft beer with illegal drug abuse is not funny. Not even when you put a :) after it.

"Ethanol is one of the oldest recreational drugs."
-Wikipedia

History of Alcohol

[geoffrobinson]

Dogish Head also makes Chateau Jihau, which is based on a 9000 year old Chinese recipe. Based on the ingredients of all their historical recreation beers, I can safely say that the ancients just took whatever around them was fermentable, founds some good spices and herbs, and made themselves an alcoholic drink.

Re:History of Alcohol

[spatley]

Sounds like the ancients were wise and resourceful people with a keen sense of priority.

Re:History of Alcohol

[fuzzyfuzzyfungus]

They were also achingly poor and forever desperate to numb the agonizing grind of their squalid lives.

Luckily, when it comes to developing a culinary tradition of booze, those two statements are essentially synonymous....

Homebrew

[camg188]

Go to any homebrewing forum and you can find recipes that were taken from ancient Egyptian hieroglyphics.

The result? Cloudy and quite strong (9% A.B.V.)

[PatPending]

"The result? Cloudy and quite strong (9% A.B.V.)" --like my urine.

AC had a few.

[tivoKlr]

"They also have other ancient ales and everyone beer they make I just plan awesome."

Really? How many Ancient Ales did you have tonight?

Re:Want to buy

[Nikker]

If you have the recipe then just goto a microbrewery. You can get a batch made quite easily, you do have to make a bit to make it worth while maybe split the cost with a couple of buddies. Sounds like I might do the same.

That's not Mayan language, it's Homeric verse.

[xmark]

Season 8, 18th episode, to be precise.

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.

Pottery fragments?

[PatPending]

"...a 3400-year-old Mesoamerican beer recreated from a chemical analysis of pottery fragments."

How do we know the pottery fragments weren't from a piss pot?

Re:Pottery fragments?

[WinstonWolfIT]

Because the brew didn't come out tasting like Old Milwaukee.

hmm...

[frnic]

Problem is that after a pint you have an uncontrollable urge to declare your independence, and write a constitution...

3,400 years old? Meh

[nofx_3]

How about beer produced with 45 MILLION year old yeast (Saccharomyces cerevisiae (aka brewer’s yeast)) cultivated from a piece of amber. I've tried it and it's damn good too: http://www.wired.com/wiredscience/2009/07/brewery/

The wrong yeast?

[haggholm]

I haven’t had this particular beer, but I did have the Midas Touch (another Dogfish brand reconstruction), and I rather enjoyed it. It wasn’t nearly as weird or “special” as one might expect; nothing spectacular, but pretty tasty.

However, one thing makes me doubt that either beverage comes anywhere near the original flavour. As per the article, “The fermentation was carried out with a German ale yeast, which is not obtrusive and brings out the flavours of the other ingredients.” The Midas touch certainly tasted like that was the case there, too. However, that long ago there was no such thing as cultivated strains of brewer’s yeast—fermentation was done with wild yeasts (leave the vats open, let naturally occurring yeast spores drift in on the breeze, gaze in wonder as the brew transforms for no reason discernible without a microscope). As anyone who has had a Lambic beer (still made with spontaneous fermentation) can attest, spontaneously fermented beers taste vastly different from beers fermented with cultivated yeast: Wikipedia calls it “bracingly sour”.

Re:The wrong yeast?

[Guido von Guido]

While you have a good point, I don't think it's likely that this was a sour beer. The first thing to keep in mind is that this is a strong beer--9% ABV. Most sour beers (including lambics) are in the range of 3-5% ABV because the lactic acid bacteria can't handle the higher levels of alcohol.

Secondly, lambics are aged for at least a year or two (and in reality lambics probably get most of the bacteria that make them interesting from the oak barrels in which they're aged). If this beer was drunk when it was younger, wild bacteria wouldn't have the chance to make as much of a contribution to the flavor. It's hard to say how long it would have been aged before drinking, but the odds are good it would have been drunk within the first 6-9 months. A beer made with malted barley and hops at this ABV would have historically been ready to drink in 6-12 months, but the hops are a factor in that.

So while I suspect you're right in that bacteria may have made contributions to the flavor profile, I don't think this was a sour beer.

Re:The wrong yeast?

[VShael]

Indeed. There are many spontaneously fermented beers on sale in Belgium. They do taste quite different.

Try making your own ...

[Anonymous Coward]

Making your own (good) beer at home is straight-forward. From there, the sky's the limit -- it's easy to add fruit, cocoa nibs (really, really freaking good to add when fermentation is done -- about a quarter pound per 5 gallons), honey, spices, you name it. You just need about one hundred dollars' worth of equipment, patience, a bottle of bleach, and some empties.

Calagione even has a beginner's book to extreme brewing, http://www.amazon.com/Extreme-Brewing-Enthusiasts-Guide-Craft/dp/1592532934/ref=sr_1_3?ie=UTF8&s=books&qid=1275228402&sr=8-3 complete with recipes from DFH.

From there, Charlie Papazian has a more detailed book, http://www.amazon.com/Complete-Homebrewing-Third-Harperresource-Book/dp/0060531053/ref=sr_1_1?ie=UTF8&s=books&qid=1275228649&sr=1-1 that serves as a primer to more advanced brewing techniques.

Honestly, for about $1500 (less if you're good at DIY), you can make any damn beer you want, from French saison to a classic Pilsn to a west coast hop bomb. And the results are almost always better than what you can get from your local supermarket. No, seriously -- it's true. Most beers don't age well (we're talking about flavours going south in a couple months -- faster if the beer is subjected to temperature swings).

FWIW, I'd recommend every beer lover to try making their own a couple times. It's easy enough to do, and it'll give you a deeper appreciation of what actually goes into beer. Homemade wine is almost always plonk because you're using stale, condensed juice; beer is different because brewers the world over use the same, commodity ingredients (water, malt, hops, yeast), all of which are also available to homebrewers. Even if you don't want to shell out the $$$ for the equipment, most cities have homebrewing clubs that have "brew with a newb" days.

Dogfish Head

[porky_pig_jr]

BTW, Dogfish Head IPA is truly outstanding brew. Give it a try. You won't be sorry.

Re:That's what you think...

[blitziod]

I'm a beer snob and although I enjoy many a trapist ale, I'll put some of the best American beers up against any in the world right now. Anchor brewing company's Liberty IPA may be the best beer in the world. If it's not then Real Ale company's Full Moon Pale Rye Ale is. Also Pike's Kilt Lifter Scottish style is very drinkable.