Ancient Beer In Honor of Egypt

This post is in honor of the Egyptians struggling to bring democracy to their country. The sons and daughters of a great civilization, they are peacefully protesting the tyranny to which they are being subjected.

Beer played an important role in the lives of ancient Egyptians. They believed that their god, Osiris, taught them how to brew beer. People from all segments of Egyptian society drank beer, including children. Sometimes wages were paid in beer and beer was used as offerings to the the gods.

A few weeks ago, I watched a television show about some brewers from  the Dogfish Head Craft Brewery in Delaware who decided to reproduce ancient Egyptian Beer. They traveled to Egypt with an archaeologist to research the techniques and ancient ingredients. They made a beer with Emmer wheat, loaves of hearth baked bread, and yeast from a native Egyptian strain and flavoring with dom-palm fruit, chamomile, and zatar. They called their concoction Ta Henket. Heket is the name of beer found in hieroglyphics.

These modern brewers were pretty true to the ancient procedure. Evidence shows that the ancient Egyptians used barley to make malt and emmer wheat in the place of hops. Crumbled bread may have been added. They heated the mixture, then added yeast and fresh malt, then allowed it to ferment.  Without hops in the beer, it most likely tasted less bitter and more fruity than modern beer. Some people believe that ancient Egyptian beer was not very intoxicating because it was such a staple, however there is evidence of people being intoxicated from it during festivals. 

So I looked around Austin for this reproduction of ancient Egyptian beer, but I couldn't find it anywhere. However, I found another concoction from Dogfish Head Craft Brewery. It was called Midas Touch and it was the result of the group reproducing an ancient Turkish beer recipe from 2700 year old drinking vessels from the tomb of King Midas. This ancient ale was made with barley, honey, white muscat grapes and saffron. Not exactly the Egyptian recipe, but ancient none-the-less. 

So, as you can see, the Midas Touch is truly golden. It has a nice taste, described as somewhere between wine and mead. They tasting notes are described as honey, saffron, papaya, melon, biscuity, can succulent. I didn't really pick up the papaya and melon taste, but it was sweet and biscuity.

So, although I did not taste Egyptian beer, I tasted an ancient beer in honor of Egypt. It is a proud and complex country whose people deserve to live in freedom.