We brewed an ancient Graeco-Roman beer and here’s how it tastes

Ancient Origins

Matt Gibbs /The Conversation

Beer is the most consumed alcoholic beverage in the world; it is also the most popular drink after water and tea . In the modern world, however, little consideration is typically given to how beer developed with respect to taste. Even less is given to why beer is thought of in the way that it is.

But today, Canada is in the middle of a beer renaissance. A relative explosion of craft breweries has led to a renewed interest in different methods of brewing and in different types of beer recipes.

In turn, this has driven interest into historical methods of brewing. It is a rather romantic idea: That very old brewing processes are somehow superior to those of the modern world. While almost all of the beer on the market today is quantitatively and qualitatively better than that produced in the ancient world, attempts made by both historians and breweries recently have had some good results.

For example, the collaboration between University of Pennsylvania archaeologist Patrick McGovern and Dogfish Head Brewery that resulted in their “Midas Touch”, based on the sediment found in vessels discovered in the Tomb of Midas in central Turkey, and the Sleepy Giant Brewing Company’s ancient beers created as part of Lakehead University’s Research and Innovation Week.

Beer made an old-fashioned way is shown at Barn Hammer Brewing Company in Winnipeg in March 2018. THE CANADIAN PRESS/David Lipnowski

Why re-create ancient beer and mead?
From an academic point of view, researchers have realized eating and drinking are important social, economic and even political activities. In the ancient world, food, drink and their consumption were important indicators of culture, ethnicity and class. Romans were set apart from non-Romans in several ways: Those living in cities versus those who didn’t, those who farmed in one place versus those who moved around, and so on.

One of the other ways in which this distinction was made was in the different foods people ate and in the liquids they drank. This is clear in the ancient Graeco-Roman debate surrounding those who drank wine and those who drank beer.

Although the saying “you are what you eat” is a fact in terms of physiology, the Romans also believed that “you are what you drink.” So Romans drank wine, non-Romans drank beer.

These indicators (real or not) even exist today: The English drink tea, Americans drink coffee; Canadians drink rye, the Scottish drink scotch.

So the re-creation of ancient beer and mead (an alcoholic beverage made by fermenting honey and other liquids) allows us to examine many things. Among them are these cultural and ethnic considerations, but there are other important and interesting questions that can be answered. How has the brewing process transformed? How have our palates changed?

Mead beaker. Matt Gibbs, Author provided (No reuse)

The “Roman” recipes and their recreation
The Romans left us a variety of different recipes for food and drink. Two of them form the basis of an ongoing research project between the co-owners of Barn Hammer Brewing Company — Tyler Birch and Brian Westcott — and myself that attempts to answer some of these questions.

 The first is a recipe for beer that dates to the fourth century Common Era (CE). It appears in the work of Zosimus, an alchemist, who lived in Panopolis, Egypt, when it was part of the Roman empire. The second is a recipe for a mead probably from Italy and dating to the first century CE, written by a Roman senator called Columella.

Beer mash. Matt Gibbs, Author provided (No reuse)

Both recipes are quite clear concerning ingredients, with the exception of yeast. Yeast, or more appropriately a yeast culture, was often made from dough saved from a day’s baking. Alternatively, one could simply leave mixtures out in the open. But the processes and measurements in them are more difficult to recreate.

The brewing of the beer, for instance, required the use of barley bread made with a sourdough culture: Basically a lump of sourdough bread left uncovered. To keep the culture alive while being baked required a long, slow baking process at a low temperature for 18 hours.

Zosimus never specified how much water or bread was needed for a single batch; this was left open to the brewers’ interpretation. A mix of three parts water to one part bread was brewed and left to ferment for nearly three weeks.

The brewing of the mead was a much easier process. Closely following Columella’s recipe, we mixed honey and wine must . The recipe in this case provided some measurements, and from there we were able to extrapolate a workable mix of roughly three parts must to one part honey.

We then added wine yeast and sealed the containers. These were placed in Barn Hammer’s furnace room for 31 days in an attempt to imitate the conditions of a Roman loft.

What did we learn?
First of all, it’s worth noting that the principles of brewing have not changed significantly; fundamentally, the process of brewing both beer and mead is arguably the same now as it was 2,000 years ago. But as true as that may be, even now the production of Zosimus’ beer — particularly the baking of the bread — was labour-intensive.

Mead decanting. (Author provided)

This led to another question: Did the link between baking and brewing depicted so clearly in ancient Egyptian material culture and archaeology persist even centuries later?

 Second, we recreated beer and mead from the Roman Empire as faithfully as we were able. The data all suggest that the beer is a beer, and the mead is a mead, right down to the pH level: The beer, for instance, stands at pH 4.3 which is what one would expect from a beer after fermentation.

Third, as the photos here make clear, the mead looked like red wine, the beer was quite pale but cloudy. Neither case was particularly surprising, but what was interesting was the difference between the first tasting of the beer and the second 10 days later.

In the former, the beer looked like a sourdough milkshake; in the latter, the beer looked like a pale craft ale, and one that would not be out of place in the modern craft beer market.

Fourth, with respect to taste, the beer was sour but quite smooth, and had a relatively low ABV - Alcohol By Volume: the measurement that tells you what percentage of beer or mead is alcohol — around three to four per cent. The sour taste resulted in diverse opinions: Some people liked it; others hated it. The mead was incredibly sweet; it smelled like a fortified wine due to presence of Fusel alcohols , and had an ABV upwards of 12 per cent.

While general tastes may have changed, there are modern palates that appreciate ancient beer and mead. Is this a physiological question? Perhaps, but what seems clear is that ancient indicators based on what people drank are likely more indicative not only of the Romans’ beliefs and opinions about non-Romans, but also their prejudices against them.

Ultimately, what the project suggests so far is that while the brewing process may not have changed that much, in some ways neither have we.

Top image: Left to right- Barn Hammer Brewing Company Head Brewer Brian Westcott, Matt Gibbs of the University of Winnipeg and Barn Hammer owner Tyler Birch teamed up to re-create an ancient beer. THE CANADIAN PRESS/David Lipnowski/ The Conversation

 The article ‘ We brewed an ancient Graeco-Roman beer and here’s how it tastes ’ by Matt Gibbs was originally published on The Conversation and has been republished under a Creative Commons license.

The History Of Mead And The Lindisfarne Mead

Recipereminiscing

If you’ve read mythology, you’ve undoubtedly run across mead, this drink of heroes, gods, lovers and kings.

The god Odin gave an eye to drink mead and gain wisdom. The hero Beowulf drank it and bragged about his valiant deeds. It was drunk in Ancient Greece and Medieval Europe, where spiced mead was a favourite of the English kings.

Lindisfarne – The Holy Island

Mead is one of the oldest alcoholic drinks, a drink brewed from honey, water and yeast and quite appropriate for a God, or even your best friend. That’s right, mead is still made today by St Aidan’s Winery. Its name is Lindisfarne Mead and is a great, unique gift for a favourite family member or even newlyweds.

You might be scratching your head right now, wondering why newlyweds would want mead. In pre-Christian Europe, mead was one of the traditional wedding gifts. When a couple was married family and friends would supply them with enough mead for a month to ensure that they would be happy and fertile through their marriage. Hence, we still call the first month after marriage Honeymoon even though few newlyweds nowadays drink mead.

Many people mistakenly believe that mead is a historical myth or that the recipe and skill to make it has been long lost, but the magical elixir is ready for order from this unusual winery on Holy Island in Northumberland.

St Aidan’s Winery offers a wide variety of ales, fruit wines and spirits and – of course – mead, and also serves as an outlet for Celtic jewellery and other local crafts.

You may wonder how an island called Holy Island could possibly be the home to liquor or mead. The answer is simple: in Medieval times mead was usually made by monks as they were the ones to keep bees on a large scale. They also believed that mead was a cure for many illnesses and restored their body while God watched their soul.

Lindisfarne’s monks are long gone, but their recipe for mead has been preserved on the island and is still used to produce the delightful pale-gold beverage in the same fashion as they did in yesteryear. Therefore, you get the same good taste that Friar Tuck might have enjoyed.

Lindisfarne Mead is available directly on the island from the winery shop – where you can taste before you buy – but can also be bought online. Alongside full-size and half bottles, St Aidan’s Winery also offer a Mead Miniature Bottle that holds just 5 centilitres.

This is for those who want to test the mead before committing to buy a large size, or those who just want a conversation piece to set on the shelf. The prices are very reasonable, so you can afford to try the largest available without breaking the bank. Imagine your next get together where, instead of champagne you break out the mead, for medicinal purposes, of course.

How Were Anglo-Saxon Marriage Ceremonies Different From Modern Weddings?

Made From History

BY CRAIG BESSELL

Weddings, for the people of Dark Age Britain, were more business arrangements than declarations of love. There were several formal customs to adhere to, mainly regarding money, before the marriage could be sealed.

 Marriage Was Like a Business Transaction The contract of marriage was settled on between the prospective groom and the father of the bride. Terms would be discussed in the presence of witnesses from both sides before an agreement could be reached, upon which both groom and the bride’s father would shake hands, officially sealing the contract.

The men of both families would meet first to discuss the terms of the marriage contract.

 The three financial parts of the contract were:

 Morning Gift
 A set amount agreed by the groom and father-in-law that the former must pay to his wife the morning after the wedding. This gift of money was to ensure the financial security of the bride and provide some independence. This sum was the woman’s to keep indefinitely and would help to support her and any children if anything were to happen to her husband.

 Handgeld
 Another gift of money was given to the family of the bride. This monetary exchange showed that the groom was able to look after his future wife financially and it also acted as an act of compensation for the bride’s family because she was leaving them. Essentially the groom would buy his wife.

 The groom had to spend quite a lot just to have the wedding agreed upon, however the bride’s family also had to present some money.

 Bride’s Dowry
 This was paid by her family to her. It was similar to the Morning Gift in that the money was the bride’s to do with what she would and in theory would support her in the event that anything happened to her husband.

The various financial agreements could be paid in coins, a certain amount of raw precious metal, or even in land and livestock.

 This businesslike agreement may seem strange, but these were uncertain times. Death could be lurking behind any bush, hill or tree in the shape of a marauding Viking, another Saxon war-band, the Welsh or, even more likely, disease. The above financial agreement would ensure the bride was cared for in the likely event that her husband should die.

 A Ceremony of Ritual and Religion
The actual wedding was much less businesslike, though there were many traditions to be adhered to. A wedding was usually the time for a wash; a unique event in these times, most people washing only twice a year at most. Both bride and groom would bathe separately the night before the wedding and would not be allowed to see each other until the day of the ceremony.

 On the day, both would be dressed in their best clothes and the groom would be wearing his ancestral sword. The bride would arrive preceded by a member of her family carrying a new sword to be presented to the groom. A priest or Weofodthegn would officiate the ceremony. A Weofodthegn was a priest of the Old Saxon religion, with gods like Woden and Thunor.

The priest would first bless the union, calling on the gods to look favourably upon the couple. Frige, the mother of the gods, would be the deity most called upon, as she was the goddess of love, fertility and marriage.

 Next there would be the official exchange of swords. The groom would receive the new blade, provided by the bride’s family, and the bride would receive the groom’s family’s ancestral sword to one day pass on to their eldest son and heir.

Found in Abingdon, Oxfordshire this hilt, and what is left of the blade, is a good exmple of the Saxon swords exchanged during the ceremony.

 Then another exchange would take place, one more familiar to a modern audience — the exchange of rings. The groom would also present the keys to his house to his new wife. This represented him bestowing upon her governance of the household, just as the sword he received earlier represented his protection of that home.

 Finally, the Weofodthegn would pronounce them wedded and at last everyone could celebrate.

 Eat, Drink and Be Married

When the solemn ceremony was over and the marriage contract sealed, the Saxons woud feast and celebrate.

 A reception would be held after the wedding, similar to a modern one. The couple and their families would eat, drink and make merry, all the while toasting the gods and asking for blessings for the marriage.

 For a month after the wedding the couple would drink mead every day. Mead is an alcoholic beverage made from honey, quite popular at the time. This month was called the hunigmonap, or honeymoon, for this reason.

No One Questions that Vikings Drank; But Did They Make Wine?

Ancient Origins

Further evidence that the Vikings weren’t just beer-swilling, raping, and pillaging savages comes out of Denmark with the discovery of two grape seeds that may indicate the Norsemen didn’t just drink but may have even produced that most sophisticated beverage: wine.

It seems not everyone in Viking society was allowed to drink the more refined beverage, but many of them did enjoy their tippling of whatever kind of alcohol they could get. The lower echelons drank beer, which was easier to produce in the northern climate. The higher strata of society apparently enjoyed wine - when they could get it.

Viking drinking horns. (Mararie/ CC BY SA 2.0)

The question is, was the wine produced locally, or was it imported from France or other parts south? An article on Videnskab.dk explores these questions with interviews of archaeologists involved in the research of the two tiny grape seeds. Botanical archaeologist Peter Steen Henriksen, a curator at Denmark’s National Museum who found the two tiny seeds said:

 "This is the first discovery and evidence of viticulture in Denmark, and all that it entails in terms of status and power. We do not know how they used the grapes. Was it just has to put a great bunch of grapes on a table, for example? But it is reasonable to believe that they made the wine."

Dr. Henriksen found the seeds in soil at a distance from each other of about 600 meters (1968.5 ft.), and they grew between 100 and 200 years apart. He mixed the sand and dirt from the settlement of Tissø with water and found plant material, including the grape seeds. The remnants of the settlement are in Zealand.

An analysis of the strontium content in the two seeds proved one of the seeds was grown in Denmark, according to National Museum Professor Karin Margarita Frei. As Professor Frei says:

"We can safely say that it has a local strontium isotope signature, suggesting that it could be a grape grown in Zealand. This means that the first time we can say that they may have produced wine in Denmark. Before we had only conjecture, now we can see that they actually had grapes, and thus potential to make it themselves. Suddenly it becomes much more real.”

Harvesting grapes for wine. (Public Domain)

 The speculation that elites enjoyed wine may be confirmed by the nature of the settlement of Tissø, which the article calls “one of our richest sites from the Viking Age in Denmark. It is an example of how a royal family—or at least something resembling—has manifested itself in the same place for a very long period. It stretches from the late Iron Age to the end of the Viking Age, from 550 to 1050 AD.”

The settlement of Tissø, which was rich and may have been the seat of a Viking monarch, was near this large lake, which is connected to the sea by a river. (Vastgoten/CC BY SA 3.0)

Sandie Holst, a co-author of the article explaining the results of the research, published in the Danish Journal of Archaeology, says the wine may have set the elites apart from ordinary people in Viking society. It was like saying, “I can drink wine, and you can only drink beer,” she tells Videnskab.dk.

Top image: Drinking from a Viking drinking horn. (CC BY SA 3.0) Oak wine barrels. (Sanjay Acharya/ CC BY SA 3.0)

By Mark Miller

Viking diet was better than in many parts of the Medieval world

Ancient Origins

The Vikings are famous for their great feasting halls, in which an image of a rowdy bunch of beer-drinking men gnawing on meaty bones comes to mind.  But what did they really consume besides beer and mead in their dining rooms? It turns out they had a rich and varied diet of both domestic and wild animals, grains and fruits, fish, fowl and other menu items they could grow, hunt or gather from nature.
Vikings apparently ate better than their medieval counterparts in Britain, says a story on the Viking diet on History.com. One thing archaeologists know from studying medieval literature and examining the contents of ancient cesspits and sewers is that while most Vikings ate meat, they also unfortunately had intestinal worms and ingested some seeds in their bread from weeds that are poisonous to humans.

One of the primary ways of cooking meat among Vikings was to boil it in a stew called skause, perhaps in a cauldron this Gundestrup Cauldron from the National Museum of Denmark, Copenhagen. (Wikimedia Commons)

The Viking era lasted from 800 to 1066 AD. They were based in Scandinavia but spread their conquests and settlements over much of Europe and into Russia and the British Isles.
The Viking Answer Lady has a long blog detailing the rich and varied Viking diet. One interesting fact she points out is that beached whales were an important part of their diet. She said scholars have investigated midden or garbage heaps to find what types of animals bones were in them, analyzed bogs and lake bottoms for pollens to see what kinds of plants they consumed and also read the eddas and sagas for hints into their diet and culinary activities. She excerpts a passage from Egils saga Skallagrimssonar:

Skallagrim was also a great shipwright. There was plenty of driftwood to be had west of Myrar, so he built and ran another farm at Alftaness and from there his men went out fishing and seal-hunting, and collecting the eggs of wild fowl, for there was plenty of everything. They also fetched in his driftwood. Whales often got stranded, and you could shoot anything you wanted, for none of the wildlife was used to man and just stood around quietly. His third farm he built by the sea in the west part of Myrar. From there it was even easier to get the driftwood. He started sowing there and called the place Akrar (cornfields). There are some islands lying offshore where a whale had been washed up, so they called them the Hvals Isles (whale islands). Skallagrim also had his men go up the rivers looking for salmon, and settled Odd the Lone-dweller at the Gljufur River to look after the salmon-fishing.

The Vikings apparently didn’t roast or fry their meat but rather boiled it. Some of the meat was game, but especially in the lower latitudes they ate domesticated cattle, horses, sheep and goats and pork. The most important kind of livestock, she writes, was cattle, which is known from bone remains. Also wooden remnants of holding pen partitions indicate some farms held up to 80 to 100 head.
Vikings also kept ducks, geese and chickens for meat and eggs.
In the northlands the Vikings hunted more and took elk, deer, reindeer, bear, boar, squirrels, hare and wildfowl more than their southern cousins, but they still hunted in the south too.

These goods from a Swedish grave included Viking vessels. (Photo by Berig/Wikimedia Commons)

Vikings fished the Atlantic Ocean and Baltic Sea for cod, haddock, herring, mackerel and other fish. They fished rivers for salmon and took shellfish from fresh- and saltwater. They hunted seals and porpoises but usually ate beached whales instead of hunting them.
They preserved meat by smoking, salting, fermenting, pickling and drying it. In the far North they could freeze it all year. But the most common preservation method, writes the Viking Answer Lady, was drying because this way it could be kept for year.
Dairy, vegetables and fruits, which were much wilder then than now; and seeds for oil were a big part of the Viking diet. They ate various types of berries, apples, sloes and plums and preserved them by drying them. They grew in gardens and gathered in the wild vegetables such as carrots, turnips, parsnips, spinach, celery, cabbage, fava beans, peas and radishes. They also ate leeks, seaweed, mushrooms and onions.
While they ate oats, barley and rye and made flatbread from the barley, most of it was used to make beer, the Viking Answer Lady writes. They prepared gruel, porridge and bread too.
All of this food sounds delicious and wonderful, but they apparently made it even tastier by adding herbs and spices.
“Dill, coriander and hops are known from Jorvík and the Danelaw,” she writes. “There is evidence from Dublin for poppyseed, black mustard, and fennel. The Oseberg burial included watercress, cumin, mustard, and horseradish. Other spices included lovage, parsley, mint, thyme, marjoram, wild caraway, juniper berries, and garlic. By the Middle Ages, Scandinavia had access to exotic spices obtained by trading. These included cumin, pepper, saffron, ginger, cardamom, grains of paradise, cloves, nutmeg, mace, cinnamon, anise-seed, and bay leaves. Vinegar was used as a flavoring in foods, as was honey.”

Viking drinking horns (Photo by Mararie/Wikimedia Commons)

But what’s a hungry Viking to wash it all down with?

“Alcoholic drinks were heartily consumed, this being one way to preserve carbohydrate calories for winter consumption, and consisted usually of ale. Hops and bog myrtle were used to flavor ale,” she writes.

They also drank mead, milk, whey, and water.
The Viking Answer Lady details some of the food-preparation methods and gives some recipes that speculate about how they prepared their food.
Featured image: Fermented shark, hákarl, is an example of a culinary tradition that has continued from the settlement of Iceland in the 9th century to this day. (public domain)
By: Mark Miller