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The Archaeology of Beer
cold fjord writes with an excerpt from The Atlantic's profile of Dr. Pat McGovern, a biomolecular archaeologist at the University of Pennsylvania Museum of Archaeology and Anthropology, who has what sounds like a fascinating job: decoding ancient clues about what (and how) humans in the distant past were brewing and drinking.
"'We always start with infrared spectrometry,' he says. 'That gives us an idea of what organic materials are preserved.' From there, it's on to tandem liquid chromatography–mass spectrometry, sometimes coupled with ion cyclotron resonance, and solid-phase micro-extraction gas chromatography–mass spectrometry. The end result? A beer recipe. Starting with a few porous clay shards or tiny bits of resin-like residue from a bronze cup, McGovern is able to determine what some ancient Norseman or Etruscan or Shang dynast was drinking." The article points out that McGovern has collaborated with the Dogfish Head brewery to reproduce in modern form six of these ancient recipes.
But will these 6 rediscovered recipes be "free as in beer"?
...or did Beer help to create Civilization?
Obligatory futurama quote: "Civilization is just an attempt to impress the opposite sex."
tfa claims that ancient beer used a wide variety of base ingredients. All that ended about 500 years ago when the German beer purity law came in and the ingredients were limited. pre-Godwin??
Don't knock this as Homer Simpson level work, beer has shaped history for thousands of years. From the Pilgrims landing at Plymouth Rock to the establishment of trade routes beer has always had it's place.
The idea of beer as somehow being sinful is a bit like the diamond ring, it's essentially a modern invention. Monks in Europe brewed beer for centuries as a bonafide way to make money for the monastery to live on. Any number of religions have brewed and used beer for their religious purposes all over the world, it is literally a mark of civilization. When water was historically often filthy and unfit to drink, it's use as a stock drink for the masses wasn't anything to mess about with. When the colonies were established beer was one of the first priorities for the colonists.
More like,
"Popular limited-supply microbrews are being re-sold by enterprising hoarders for as much as $7 a can instead of the $4.50 a can they sell for retail."
The woman in the article tried to resell 10 cases of a popular microbrew, so she ran afoul of local liquor laws. [She likely ran afoul of them when reselling ONE of them, but 120 of them put her on the VDLC's radar.]
I would say Beer did help create Civilization.
Fermentation was one of the earliest ways to preserve food.
Many locations were too wet to dehydrate your food. Grains would rot and get moldy and fill up with stuff that isn't good for human consumption.
Fermentation is a good way to preserve the calories so you can hold on to your food in times of famine. Allowing people to gather more than they need. Allowing for sharing, trading, creating rules to insure fair trading, having a large stock of food that can last seasons means people can stay in one location, build better stronger buildings, which then can give people time to figure out how to grow their own food, manage livestock. When then keep on adding up.
If something is so important that you feel the need to post it on the internet... It probably isn't that important.
Have tried all of DFH's "Ancient Ales" (except the Kvasir which hasn't showed up locally yet), and they were all interesting and surprisingly drinkable. Their "Theobroma", a cacao-based beer based on a Honduran recipe is one of their best products.
Dogfish beers aren't for everyone. But their slogan "Off-Centered Ales for Off-Centered people" should explain that...
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Quite true,
However there is some thing to say, about giving it a try to understand how your ancestors lived.
Finding something that was lost over time, a combination of ingredients we wouldn't think about trying.
But for the most part, I think we still have some early renaissance in us, where we fell the ancients had a better grasp on the world then what we do today.
If something is so important that you feel the need to post it on the internet... It probably isn't that important.
Saccromyces pastorianus (aka "effing lager yeast") IS a bottom-fermenting yeast. It was discovered by brewers who put their casks of beer in cold mountain caves, in the days before refrigeration.
Learn something on the subject, beer-snob wannabe.
lager yeast is "bottom fermenting"
Ale yeast is "Top fermenting"
and if you really believe that you can't make a good beer with lager yeast you are an idiot. But then you are on slashdot ranting about something you obviously know nothing about so idiot is a pretty likely diagnosis.
"In America, first you get the sugar, then you get the power, then you get the women..." -H. Simpson
Anthropologists are currently documenting another way it may have led to civilization: Tribes brewing batches of beer and, when it's ready, throwing beer parties and inviting the neighboring tribes (who reciprocate when THEIR beer is ready - or do some other valuable thing for the partygivers). This leads to alliances and good relations between polities.
Bantam Dominique roosters crow a four-note song. Once you've heard it as "Happy BIRTHday" you can't NOT hear it that way