Ancient Egyptian beer using bread?

[RPh_Guy]

consumed relatively early in fermentation, when alcohol content was low and souring would not have proceeded very far.

I agree:
HYPOTHETICALLY, IF the ancients pitched only minimal sour mixed culture and then consumed the beer the same day, it possibly wouldn't be sour -- mainly because it would be so sweet.

However:
Acidity is beneficial in mixed fermentations because it prevents growth of a variety of pathogenic and foul tasting bacteria, especially before the yeast can produce enough alcohol to kill sensitive microbes.
In other words, acid has a strong preservative effect and it's easy to introduce quickly.
Why wouldn't they have used this to their advantage??

For example they could have added some of yesterday's remaining sour beer at the end of the mash both to help it cool faster and to drop the pH to prevent spoilage.

You cannot arrive at any kind of definitive conclusion about sourness just because they seem to have brewed so frequently.

 

[Robert65]

True. What we need are first hand descriptions at the very least. I'm sure a beer loving culture left poetic descriptions of beer in praise of it. But even then, taste descriptors are culturally calibrated. Perhaps the best we can do is compare the many folk beers, toddies, chicha, etc., that still exist. Not that I have a lot of experience here, but most of the descriptions I've heard from travelers are of mildly sweetish beverages (perhaps as you suggest because of a lot of unfermented sugars.) Some acidity could be, as you point out, potentially beneficial. Certainly acidity is a feature of any beer we make today. But that isn't the same as outright sourness, and with cultured beer yeasts, the yeast itself is capable of rapidly dropping pH to a level that inhibits infection without the immediate aid of bacteria. It seems to me that the additional benefit of mixed fermentation (like hopping) accrues mainly to beers that are intended for longer keeping, which don't seem to have existed before the middle ages at least. That doesn't mean that the same organisms at play in mixed fermentation weren't present, but they may not have had a chance to make a significant contribution to the character of the beer. (In building a sourdough culture, the yeasts always seem to outpace the bacteria in the early days.) I still imagine that the ancient beers tasted more like an unfermented cereal soup (maybe with just a sparkle on the tongue) than like any fermented beverage we might recognize. But that's just my imagination.

 

[RPh_Guy]

I'm not a historian but I do know sour beer and wild fermentation.

To replicate historical Egyptian beer based on what you've said:
The culture should be mixed yeast/bacteria and phenolic.
The beer should be only partially fermented and sweet.
Single malt.
The beer will be served will be warm and uncarbonated, the same day it's brewed.

I've read many thoughts that most historical beer would also be smoky.

Why anyone would want to try to replicate this, I don't know.

I'm sure a beer loving culture left poetic descriptions of beer in praise of it.

I'd love to read some of your beer poetry

 

[Robert65]

Why anyone would want to try to replicate this, I don't know.

When you read about ancient people getting massively, raging drunk, you do have to admire their perseverance. ;D

 

[Robert65]

From a poem of the XIX Dynasty, in praise of the products available at the city of Per-Ramses in the Delta; tr. in Pritchard, Ancient Near Eastern Texts..., Princeton, 1969:

"The ale of 'Great of Victories' is sweet; the beer of Kode from the harbor, and wine of the vineyards. The ointment of the Segbeyen waters is sweet, and the garlands of the garden."

Notes:

1) "Great of Victories" is an epithetic name for the city of Per-Ramses.

2) Kode is on the north Phoenician coast.

Thoughts:

All in all, this seems to me to suggest that a) beer was called "sweet" in a sense that could be applied to wine, perfume, and garlands of flowers, and b) that there was in fact imported (from Kode via the harbor) beer, necessarily of some age, that was also called sweet in this same sense.

That's all I've got to add tonight. I need a beer.

 

[RPh_Guy]

In my experience, wild cultures tend to only attenuate around 50%, even with today's highly modified malts and low degree of caramelization.

It's not surprising ancient beer was sweet, even though there was probably a significant acidic component.

 

[TheMadKing]

https://www.archaeology.org/issues/359-1911/trenches/8100-trenches-egypt-ancient-yeast

 

[Robert65]

Very cool! I only wish they hadn't left us hanging... ending by saying "I could smell it was going to be fantastic" and then not describing further... [emoji35]

 

[dmtaylor]

I've brewed Chris Colby's Ancient Sumerian beer recipe that was based on the old Hymn to Ninkasi. I used wild yeast. It turned out really well, and very clean, even with wild yeast. Sour yes. It was partially boiled, partially not. I always said "tastes like sour fruity bacon". It really did. It won a gold medal in competition in the weird Specialty Category 23 (at the time). If you're a BYO online member you can pick up the full recipe details at the following link, otherwise I'll share a few details with you anyway, if memory serves:

https://byo.com/recipe/really-old-style-ancient-sumerian-beer/

1) It all started with a date wine, which served as the yeast starter. The dates and maybe my own body were the source of the wild yeast. Essentially I had several pounds of dates in a gallon or so of water in a 5-gallon bucket... I washed my hands and arms as best as I could, then reached in and crushed up all the dates in the water with my hands until it formed a nice date-water slurry. Then I simply let that sit for several days, covered, until it was foaming like mad from all the wild yeast.

2) Meanwhile, I ground several pounds of malt and torrified wheat to flour in my blender, including some smoked malt, then baked "bappir" bread out of this smoked barley flour. Honey and water were added to the flour to form a stiff dough consistency (and maybe some more dates)? This was formed into a round flat (2-2.5 inch thick?) bread shape and baked in the oven until crisp, then sliced and toasted for even more toasty goodness. Keep in mind there was zero leavening in this bread, it was really just baked and toasted flour paste. A bit like hard-tack maybe if you know what that is.

3) A few days later then, it was the real "brew day". A mash was made of the crushed bappir bread along with some fresh "normal" modern crushed malt. This was all mashed together pretty much like the standard modern method, except that there was bread in it. It was even sparged and boiled using modern techniques. As to the exact temperatures... who cares! The Sumerians' results probably varied, so just take a guess! To be fair I think I aimed for about 156 F. This resulted in a fairly standard light bodied beery beverage later on. So anyway, after running off and boiling like "normal", then cooling, this wort was added to the date-wine yeast starter, and allowed to ferment like normal. I think some more honey was also added at this point as well. No hops. No herbs.

During fermentation, there was a lot of sulfur produced. However this was short lived, maybe a week or two, but then was gone, leaving just a clean, sour, smoky beer. It was NOT a sweet beer, it all fully attenuated. I bottled it up and carbonated it in modern fashion. It turned out clear as well, no haze.

I don't think I will brew this again. The beer while clean and tasty, and won a gold medal, was not a favorite of mine. If I ever brew it again, I will not use any smoked malt. It took me a few years to realize that I in fact hate smoked malt. Personal preference. If forced, I would limit the amount of smoked malt to no more than say 7-8% of the total "grist" for a very mild effect.

So that's some experience from somebody who's actually meddled with the ancient Sumerian recipe (not Egyptian, sorry). Hope you all gain something from it, or were at least entertained. Cheers all.

 

[Antie B]

Hi everyone...I’m brand new to all of this but has anyone remembered that the Egyptians could have used Spelt grain as it was predominate all over that area?

 

[Scout]

Now that you mention it, I seem to remember there being a rather unpleasant tasting drink made in russia from break soaked in water... googling... Kvass - that might get you close to a traditional recipe given that this technique is probably quite ancient

I was thinking of that too. I haven't had a chance to try it, but I do have a how to video.watch

 

[The_Professor]

x
Hmmm, can't get all pics to show.

 

[The_Professor]

Foolishly tried adding pics a second time.