Ancient Egyptian Brewer's Tomb Found

Rambo Tribble writes "Reminding us of beer's pivotal role in the civilization of humankind, the BBC comments on the discovery of an Ancient Egyptian tomb, belonging to the distinguished 'head of beer production' in the Pharaoh's court. From the article: 'Experts say the tomb's wall paintings are well preserved and depict daily life as well as religious rituals. Antiquities Minister Mohamed Ibrahim told the Egyptian al-Ahram newspaper that security had been tightened around the tomb until excavation works are complete.'"

Comments

Tetracycline ale.

[EmperorOfCanada]

Some Egyptian beer used a yeast that produced huge quantities of tetracycline; enough that it changed the colour of their bones. I wonder if any of the text will refer to the beer's medicinal properties.

Re:Tetracycline ale.

[Mal-2]

A bit of clarification -- it's not the yeast, it's contamination of the grain itself by streptomyces. It would have also led to (much lower) levels in unfermented products like bread or gruel, but fermentation let the production increase tremendously.

Linky.

Any yeast found ?

[perpenso]

Any yeast found? It would be interesting if his brew could be resurrected.

Re:Any yeast found ?

[gcore]

If there is a way, Dogfish Head will surely brew it. But they will probably brew it anyway ;)

Re:Any yeast found ?

[Anonymous Coward]

Probably not. The most likely sources of yeast would have been either spontaneous yeasting, letting natural occurring yeast "contaminate" the wort or by using residue from earlier brews. The yeast as such was not contained because it was unknown that this biological substance was required.
It probably is far more likely that this will shed some light on the common ingredients, which seeds were used for the malt, which additives were included (herbs, fruits, nuts) and what (if any) gruit was common. The yeast strains are most likely a reflection of what occurred naturally in that ecosystem. To find out what that could have been like, a paleo ecological study could shed some light on that.

Signed:
An archaeologist and beer fanatic (which seems to be a pleonasm)

Re:Any yeast found ?

[MrBingoBoingo]

Tetracycline family antibiotics are actually very popular for use in humans. Like any antibiotic though resistance is a concern as is making sure the antibiotic in question is effective on the pathogen casuing problems. Tetracyclines tend to be bacteriostatic antibiotics rather than bacteriocidal (so they require use with a functioning immune system to have maximum benefit) which along with their side effect profile makes their use a bit more targeted in practice generally than some other antibiotics.

Re:Any yeast found ?

[Ellis D. Tripp]

Have you seen the TV show "Brew Masters?". They did an episode where an expedition was mounted to Egypt, to examine some hieroglyphs at a tomb and capture wild yeast. It was then used to brew "Ta Henket", a limited release one-time brew by Dogfish Head brewery in DE.

The hieroglyphs showed what appeared to be loaves of bread involved in the brewing of beer. One theory is that the ancient brewers put loaves of bread into the wort, inadvertently pitching yeast in the process. The modern brewers attempted to recreate this by baking simple loaves of bread using emmer, a local grain of the time period, then adding the crumbled loaves to the fermenter.

Re:Any yeast found ?

[dasunt]

Just to add - it's also interesting to note that wild fermentation is an important way to preserve food and remove toxic organisms from it. Even the most common, non-alcoholic fermentation (lacto-fermentation), it tends to change the environment of the brew that toxic organisms can't survive. There's actually a history of what was called "small beer" in the west, which was a brew just alcoholic enough to kill off many pathogens. It was safer to drink than water in many areas.

Now consider this in the land of Egypt, where a large population living around one major water source (a river) without modern sewage treatment. It's probably safer to drink a fermented drink than the water directly.

Re:Any yeast found ?

[gstoddart]

One theory is that the ancient brewers put loaves of bread into the wort, inadvertently pitching yeast in the process.

I would venture to say it wasn't "inadvertent".

They may have not understood the microscopic level, but by this time humans would have been brewing beer for likely thousands of years already. They knew what would happen and what they expected.

We tend to forget there was likely many many thousands of years of pre-history during which brewing, baking, building, tool making would have been very well developed.

By this time, they had fairly sophisticated stone-buildings, agriculture, societies and concepts of astronomy -- beer and bread making is comparatively ancient to those things, and likely go back to when humans first started making settlements and farming.

Re:Any yeast found ?

[Ellis D. Tripp]

I agree. They knew that the bread was a necessary part of the process, so it was added.

They had no idea that the only part of the bread that was needed was a microscopic one-celled organism that also caused the bread to rise in the first place.

Would likely be explained as the "spirit of the bread" causing the brew to become beer, or similar pre-scientific explanation.

Re:Any yeast found ?

[Ellis D. Tripp]

When I watched the show, I was thinking the same thing regarding the baking temperatures killing off the yeast. Surely the presence of wild yeast in the air was critical to the process, even if the ancient brewers didn't know it. If the baking and brewing took place at the same location, there would be enough flour and grain dust in the air to help spread wild yeasts quite well, even without the addition of the finished bread.

"Brew Masters" aired on Discovery Channel a few years ago, and a total of 6 episodes were made, of which 5 actually aired. All 6 episodes are available on BitTorrent sites. Supposedly the show was killed when "Big Beer" threatened to pull their ads from the network, but who knows...

All episodes centered around Dogfish Head and their various projects. A good show, but tended to turn into an over-the-top promotional spot for DFH at points, rather than an exploration of the art of craft brewing in general. Well worth watching, though, especially with a beer or 2. :)

For the Egyptian ale project, the brewery worked with Dr. Pat McGovern, a molecular archaeologist from U. Penn. He analyzed residues from old pottery vessels to come up with some of the ingredients used. He also worked with them on a few other "Ancient Ale" projects that saw wider release, including "Midas Touch" and an interesting neolithic era Chinese inspired brew called "Chateau Jiahu", brewed with honey and hawthorne fruit.

Pyramidology

[kaoshin]

The ration for an pyramid labourer included a measure of beer although supervisors got to have jugs. The only reason the Giza pyramids were built is because everyone was totally blitzed. Interestingly enough, beer is often seen in modern pyramid structures.

Re:That Explains the Peace in Egypt

[Anonymous Coward]

Prohibition was in the 1920's, World War I was from 1914 to 1918. Please recompute theory.

Re:That Explains the Peace in Egypt

[gcore]

Please take into account that the beer made hundreds or thousands of years ago had very little alcohol. Things like enzymes, temperature rests, fermentable extract, FAN and sanitation was unheard of. Beer wasn't usually being drunk to get drunk. Beer was a more healthy alternative to water, since it contains a number of nutrients and energy, and also being harmless to drink since no known bacteria that's harmful to man can survive in beer.

Re:That Explains the Peace in Egypt

[HornWumpus]

Just that one Bavarian they've almost completely disowned.

Re:That Explains the Peace in Egypt

[HornWumpus]

Just wrong. Beer can go bad. The bacteria is killed when you boil the wort. Crack a bottle and let it sit out for a week, then report back.

Not enough alcohol in beer to make it an effective antiseptic. But enough alcohol in beer to get people drunk, even in ancient days.

Don't buy the neoprohibitionist narrative.

Re:That Explains the Peace in Egypt

[gcore]

"no known bacteria that's harmful to man can survive in beer" was what I wrote, and that's true. Infected beer contains no bacteria that's harmful to humans. It can contain plenty of other bacterias though, Beer contains alcohol, alfa-acids, very little to no oxygen and co2. The bacteria that likes it there has no reason to like being inside humans. "Enough alcohol", yes, but it wasn't easy brewing strong beer in those days. Especially considering the bad sanitation.

Re:That Explains the Peace in Egypt

[ClassicASP]

Well if it had very little alcohol, maybe they drank a whole lot of it, plus drank it while consuming other drugs and substances. When I look at that hieroglyph shown in the ad, I'm seeing on the bottom row 3rd from the left what appears to be a guy sporting a HUGE beer gut, plus he has a refer-smoking buddy across standing on the opposite side of the table in front of him. Plus I think those folks bottom right are playing music. Compared to today that matches up pretty accurately to typical college party life.

Re:That Explains the Peace in Egypt

[umafuckit]

Please take into account that the beer made hundreds or thousands of years ago had very little alcohol. Things like enzymes, temperature rests, fermentable extract, FAN and sanitation was unheard of.

This sounds like bollocks to me. For starters, we've been distilling for hundred of years (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Distilled_beverage#History_of_distillation). I'm sure people have been making strong (i.e. easy to get drunk with) beer and wine for centuries. The ancient Greeks reported as much (Google it). You don't need to know what an enzyme is to make an alcoholic beverage. You just need to have figured out the protocol by trial and error. e.g. It's only recently that we've understood what yeast is, but lack of that knowledge in earlier times didn't stop it being used inadvertently as a leavening agent or to produce alcohol. If you leave bread rising for too long it starts to smell of alcohol: none of this terribly difficult, you know.

mmm... beer

[Werrismys]

"beer's pivotal role in the civilization of humankind" I'll drink to that. Kippis.

Re:That Explains the Peace in Egypt

[angel'o'sphere]

Please take into account that the beer made hundreds or thousands of years ago had very little alcohol
That is complete nonsense.
Fermentation stops when the yeast can no longer live. Either due to lack of sugar or to an to high alcohol level.
So the alcohol level of old bear is mainly limited by the amount of malt/sugar they put into it.
There is no historical problem in making a 7% vol alcohol beer.

and also being harmless to drink since no known bacteria that's harmful to man can survive in beer.
That is nonsense as well. Beer is a perfect nutrition for many bacteria. If you can not keep it clear of them, they grow easy, as the typical alcohol level (5%) is much to low to prevent them from flourishing.

Re:That Explains the Peace in Egypt

[luckymutt]

The two greatest achievements of Austria are to have convinced the world that Hitler was German and that Beethoven was Viennese.

Re:That Explains the Peace in Egypt

[HornWumpus]

An open, flat bottle of beer contains plenty of oxygen. Beer prior to bottling and metal kegs contained plenty of oxygen.

The only way you make week beer is by starting with low sugar wort. Which is relatively difficult. Too little sugar and fermentation doesn't run right as the yeast is unhappy and gets out-competed. This is especially true for processes that use natural yeast.

The reason beer is relatively sanitary is you boil the wort. Wine at, 12% alcohol has useful antiseptic qualities.