OnTap Magazine

I f you’re an avid homebrewer, you might know that one of beer’s claims to fame is just how ancient a beverage it really is. Beer, along with mead, is the oldest of commercially produced alcoholic drinks, and has been around since the beginnings of civilisation. Evidence of barley-based beer dating back to around 3500 BC has been unearthed in what is now Iran, although recent findings suggest possible beer brewing going on for ritual purposes in caves near modern-day Israel that date back 13,000 years! Commercially, mead probably has beer beat, with the mercantile examples of the honey-based beverage hailing from China around 5000 BC So, if you’re a real beer nerd, it won’t be long before you start wondering if you can’t perhaps recreate some of these ancient beers. You are not alone. Many homebrewers (me included) have tried their hand at using historic brewing practices and recipes, and in this article, I'd like to show you how to get started. Just remember: like all aspects of homebrewing, the point is to have fun. And while it may be tempting to think that we can recreate ancient recipes or brewing practices exactly, the truth is that even professional historians speculate a lot about the details of ancient life. So, if you want to add Cascade hops to your ancient ale, go right ahead. Before we begin, it’s worth noting that many contemporary beer styles such as Saison, Rauchbier, and most of the Belgian styles are hardly modern. Some of them hail from the Middle Ages and even earlier. But for the sake of this article, I’m going to ignore these established styles and focus more on creating beers that are, for all intents and purposes, extinct. ANCIENT BEER: NOT YOUR AVERAGE HOMEBREW Thousands of years ago, brewers obviously didn’t have the conveniences of modern-day brewing technology. So, no high pressure gas burners, no stainless steel, no cultivated yeast, and no clinically-clean, sterile brewhouses. This lack of technology and modern brewing practices didn’t prevent them from brewing good beer, though. It’s just that ancient beer was a different kind of brew than modern brewers and beer-drinkers are used to. Therefore, to recreate historical beers you’ve got to stretch your definition (and tastes) to accommodate some pretty unusual flavours. For instance, the use of pale malts is a comparatively recent practice. Even in the 18th and 19th centuries, brewers seldom had the capacity to effectively produce well-converted pale malts, so most beers during this period (and before) were quite dark. That’s why beer styles like English pale ales aren’t really that pale. Hops are no different.. This lovely little flower only became widespread in brewing in Europe towards the end of the Middle Ages. So what was ancient beer made from? While barley has pretty much always been part of beer’s ingredient list, clever beer nerds known as archaeobotanists have unearthed evidence that ancient beers also contained grains such as spelt, millet, rye, sorghum, and now- extinct precursor grain species. Ancient brewers also tended to dry their malted grains over or near open fires, resulting in darker, smokier brews. To bitter out their beers, ancients used a smorgasbord of herbs and spices. Some of these are familiar to the modern homebrewer: sage, rosemary, juniper, ginger and cardamom for instance. But others are now almost exclusively found in health stores or tales by the Brothers Grim: wormwood, bog myrtle, alehoof, and witch hazel, to name a few. Ancient brewers definitely did not follow the Reinheitsgebot. It goes without saying that these ancient folks were unaware of the subtleties of microbiology, and they had no knowledge of the existence of yeast. Often, the wild yeasts that fermented their beers were trapped in the jars and amphoras used to store or serve the beer. This led to the belief that beer was fermented by the gods or by the magical properties of a particular brewing vessel or stirring stick. Armed with an understanding of ancient brewing ingredients and methods, we can now start to recreate these beers in the modern homebrewer’s kitchen. ANCIENT RECIPE FORMULATION Brewers who love recreating ancient beers tend to be of the studious kind. They can be found scouring the local university library’s shelf for old books on brewing, they subscribe to publications with gripping titles like Archaeological and Anthropological Sciences and are generally fond of reading history. Having said that, and being that very kind of nerd, you don’t have to go down that path quite as far as I have in order to try your hand at brewing an ancient beer. So, to illustrate how to go about creating one yourself, I’ll walk you through the conceptualisation and brewing of one of my favourites: the recreation of an ancient Celtic beer made around 2,500 years ago. In 2011, Professor Hans-Peter Stika, an archaeobotanist at the University of Hohenheim, unearthed ancient brewhouses used by the Celts near modern-day Stuttgart. Dating back to 600 BC, the sites revealed the use of (for the time) sophisticated malting processes and beer brewed at scale. Based on his research, we can start to formulate an ancient recipe. The Grain Bill While barley was the most-used grain for beer, ancient Celtic brewers didn’t process their grains in the same way as their modern counterparts. Malted barley was often dried over open fires, resulting in a far more roasted, smokier base grain. Almost by definition, this meant that the beers contained more roasted flavours. And because they had less sugars available for fermentation, ancient brewers often added adjuncts like honey to their brews. Another common component of ancient beers was non-barley grains such as oats and rye, which were cultivated alongside barley as a basic foodstuff. The modern homebrewer can recreate an ancient grain bill by using a greater percentage of roasted and kilned malts, such as Munich malts, roasted barley, and even crystal malts. Also, dialling back (or eliminating) the use of pale malts while including non- barley grains will help to create a more authentically ancient recipe. You can also walk in the footsteps of the ancients and smoke your own malt on the braai: start with your favourite pale malt (unmilled), spray with water, then place on a heat-resistant metal mesh (a sieve, pierced tin foil container, or colander will also work) and use indirect heat and some wood chips (apple, pecan, or cherry woods are all really good choices) to smoke the grains. You’ve got to keep your eye on the fire, shake the grains every now and again, and after about 20-30 minutes, you should have a noticeably smoky malt that will likely be pretty close to the ancient This led to the belief that beer was fermented by the gods HOMEBRU 50 | Spring 2020 | ontapmag.co.za