Ancient Brewing Science

[FranklinNewhart]

Here is a thought I have often considered.
Beer has been made for a few Millenia now but we have only known about the science of yeast for like 200 years.
We have only had seal it tight under pressure bottles for like a little over a hundred years. A hundred years ago beer was stored in wooden kegs. But they always seem to have had a good head on that beer.

Has anybody ever tried taking the grain and malting it themselves and brewing it up in the kind of pot they would have used say 400 years ago. Not using yeast but letting it yeast itself. Not putting it in a sealed carboy to work but letting it brew covered but not sealed in a Wooden Barrel.

When the beer is done then taking it and storing it in a container that would have been used 400 years ago and some how charging it to have a nice head and some sparkle in your mouth.

This would be an interesting learning project for the devoted brewer. Anybody up to recreating the likes of the beer of 1600 AD.

 

[Paps]

There are definately threads on HBT here that do try to recreate how beers were done back then. I remember one of them, they burned hay to smoke the malts as "peasants" wouldn't have kilns to dry their barley, but used hay.
They would employ a greatly reduced boiling time (15 minutes or less, sometimes not even reaching a boil but past pasturisation temps),
extremely short fermentations (3-5 days tops) and then consume them very quikly as well. Also, some wouldn't use hops but instead different types of herbs.

I personally would love to get a hold of some Malted "Emmer Wheat" to make an acient Egyptian style of brew.:rockin:

 

[FranklinNewhart]

Over my years of brewing I have not always had hops available. But I did always have spruce cones. They make a great substitute. As for doing malt. I have done a bit of my own and I used peat to try to give it that scotch flavour. I have also used green malt. Just rub it to get the sprouts off and grind it up damp. That works too. I belong to a distilling forum as well and a lot of those guys malt their own corn. It seems they do it between two layers of burlap or canvas and then dry it on trays in a fish smoker.