Brewing Mesopotamian Beer - 4,000 Years Old

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Subtitles: Jose Mendoza | IG @worldagainstjose

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#tastinghistory #mesopotamia #beer

[TastingHistory]

This video wraps up 2022. 🍻 Let me know what you want to see in 2023

[lugal_pcz]

As part of the team that just discovered a Sumerian tavern in southern Iraq, I love this video. Thanks so much!

[antonv]

I'm an archaeologist (who is currently drinking some beer) and I wrote my undergraduate thesis on alcohol in Neolithic Europe. If you haven't read an of Dr. Patrick McGovern's work, I highly suggest "Uncorking the Past"! He covers a great breadth of ancient brews and brewing technologies. Love your videos, excited to check out your other brewing adventures!

[adambarron]

A mead homebrewer here, with minor beer experience: the poem is a stupidly detailed recipe, if you can read it.
Mix grains, aromatics, and excess sugar. Bake dry at malting temperatures. Rehydrate with the guarding dogs (aka yeast to stop corrupting bacteria (potentate)) at a warm temperature for one day. The mash is thus spread to cool and dry on mats. Mix into a vat which makes a pleasant sound (aka thin walled container to transfer the desert heat) with a wort of fruit juice and honey (aka melomel).
Using modern methods, the fermentation would proceed for 2 weeks before being poured off the yeast and sediment into a collector vat (aka secondary fermentation).
The statement of the onrush of the Tigris and Euphrates could refer to blending different batches for a consistent flavor or diluting a strong beer into water.

Regardless of my accuracy, please, let the next Fermenting History be a Pulque recipe. Pulque is a unique alcoholic beverage that uses agave nectar as the primary fermenting sugar and often Lactobaccilus to produce a sour "beer".

[irwintatyana]

hi i'm originally from Caucasus we do make that Bear the Best ever So The bappir bread is ( suharry) yeast dour bread baked in Oven until golden brown ! Most important Water should not have chlorine, If you put YEAST it will eat all sweet of all Dates ! yeast east sugar all the time !Syrups are add before drinking and use Distilled water if you do not have Natural alps waters so, know more if you are interested!

[CipherVoheim]

The fact there is an archeologist out there who's sole motivation in his field is learning about beer makes my alcoholic brain very happy

[thethoughtemporium]

In terms of the date syrup, they likely would have added way more as you realized near the end. I'm always surprised by just how much sugar goes into making alcohol. No matter how many brews I've done, it's always more than it seems like it needs, yet that's just the math of the yeasts metabolism.
The fizz is because it's still fermenting. If you bottle it the pressure builds up and it'll be actually properly carbonated when served, but I don't think the Sumerians had vessels that could take that sort of pressure, least not ones that were readily available, so they almost certainly wouldn't have done that.
When making beer even today, you'd typically decant the upper liquid once it's had a bit to settle which will remove most of the crud at the bottom. The flavor changes a lot based on how well you remove the junk at the bottom as it's the source of a lot of "off" tastes.
Anyway, great video! loved the history.

[kirstenpaff]

We inhabit a world of standardized weights, machine tooling, and 3D printing. It is easy to forget that in the past, there was little to no standardization and every person had their own way of making things. Every family in ancient Mesopotamia probably had their own way of making beer. The types of beer were more general categories than standard recipes. Depending on region and time period, the same name could possibly even refer to different beers.

[dannygarland]

One reason it may not seem "sweet" is because sugar is so ubiquitous in our modern cooking that our palates become numb to it. Back during those times, they probably would pick up on a sweetness level that we wouldn't notice. I know whenever I go to Europe and come back home, regular American bread seems like cake.

[FrikInCasualMode]

Hell yeah! I was waiting for this episode for ages! Beer was huge thing in early civilizations. You can't read five sentences translated from ancient languages without someone mentioning beer. Workers were paid in beer for work done. Soldiers were given beer as part of food rations. Entire villages were founded to produce beer for a temple or palace. And yes, they paid taxes in beer. And gave beer as offering to gods.
Only when wine-making really took off, it managed to overcome the beer in importance.

[mounamounayer]

Enki and Ishtar getting drunk in the Abzu has to be my favourite part of this story, not least because the word Abzu is still in use today almost unchanged–the abyss. It tickles my fancy that Sumerian words are still floating around in our languages 5000 years later. Thank you Max for rounding off the year with yet another corker of a video! Happy New Year to you and yours.

[nextcaesargaming]

This beer is actually very similar to kvass. Given how much I enjoy kvass, I think I'll enjoy Mesopotamian beer.

[John_Fugazzi]

I think Max is one of the few people who could say, "I know a lot of people who make this" when talking about a 5, 000 year old Sumerian beer recipe.

[estanislaukalashnikov]

Using bread in the beer reminds me Slavic kwas. In kwas the yeast is added separately, as the bread is toasted until really dark (so no live yeast there), but I could picture backtracking all the way to Mesopotamian beer, just like barszcz vs. tuh'u.

[LenaVoices]

Hey Max I know you might not see it but I want to say how grateful I am for the show! I'm taking a lot of Greek/Roman classes in Uni right now and learning a bit here also makes me smile. I've been watching the show since EP 1 and I'm so happy to see how it's grown. It makes me feel a little less alone, thank you Max!

[miketacos]

Can’t believe Max has been fermenting this beer for thousands of years straight.

[ShinLarc]

This guy is so professional and full of knowledge. This could have been a show on the food network 20 years ago. What a time to be alive!

[mattlevault]

Terrific content and well researched, as always! I used to brew beer. You didn't get the sweetness of the date syrup because the yeast consumed the sugar enzymes to create the alcohol and carbon dioxide (and vitamin B12). That's also why you got that hint of effervescence. I was expecting the hardtack clip among all the bread information... That never gets old! Happy New Year!

[DoomedPaladin]

I had the pleasure of writing the 'Beer' cleric domain (Pathfinder 1e, since converted to 5e DnD) for Kobold Press' Midgard campaign setting and its Beer Goddess Ninkash. I'd always wondered where that Goddess's name came from, but thanks to you Max, now I know. Beautiful.

[jabberman]

Day 1: Soak 1 cup of barley

Day 2: mix together 3 cups flour, 1 cup water and 1 tablespoon of yeast. Mix into dough and cover. Drain barley, wrap in cheese cloth and hang for 2-3 days. Spraying with water as needed to keep slightly moist

Day 3: shape dough and leave it to dry out

Day 4: bake barley at 200f for 2-3 hours until nicely brown and aromatic

Day 5: crush barely into a powder, cover with water and let soak for 1-2 hours. Meanwhile break up the bread and let dry out. Afterwards put the bread in a large container with the barely mixture. Put in spices and syrup. Stir mixture then pour in water. Cover with a cheese cloth and leave it in a dark place for 2 days