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Reproducing an Ancient New World Beer

Posted by kdawson on from the mmm-ancho dept.

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."

12 of 175 comments (clear)

  1. Excellent! by sv_libertarian · · Score: 5, Funny

    Just the thing to toast the arrival of 2012 with

  2. Midas Touch by robbievienna · · Score: 5, Interesting

    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.

    1. Re:Midas Touch by morgan_greywolf · · Score: 5, Interesting

      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.

      --
      My blog
    2. Re:Midas Touch by Psyborgue · · Score: 5, Informative

      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.

    3. Re:Midas Touch by jd · · Score: 5, Interesting

      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.

      --
      It's a small world and it smells funny; I'd buy another if it wasn't for the money; Take back what I paid (SoM)
    4. Re:Midas Touch by Patch86 · · Score: 5, Informative

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

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

  3. Almost no head by FShort · · Score: 5, Funny

    welcome to my marriage

  4. History of Alcohol by geoffrobinson · · Score: 5, Interesting

    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.

    --
    Except for ending slavery, the Nazis, communism, & securing American independence, war has never solved anything.
    1. Re:History of Alcohol by spatley · · Score: 5, Funny

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

  5. Pottery fragments? by PatPending · · Score: 5, Funny
    "...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?

    --
    What one fool can do, another can. (Ancient Simian Proverb)
    1. Re:Pottery fragments? by WinstonWolfIT · · Score: 5, Funny

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

  6. The wrong yeast? by haggholm · · Score: 5, Informative

    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”.