Brewing Mesopotamian Beer - 4,000 Years Old

[@TastingHistory]

This video wraps up 2022. 🍻 Let me know what you want to see in 2023 Pre-order the TASTING HISTORY COOKBOOK: amzn.to/3NKTSaM

[@lairdcummings9092]

Time travel via recipe!

[@julietsmith5925]

Caudle.

[@sonipitts]

One note about the sweetness - the yeast will continue to eat sugar and make alcohol until they either run out of sugar to eat or make so much alcohol they kill themselves off (yet another species that didn't learn the lesson of Enki's foibles). So if you want a sweeter beer (or mead, or cider) you generally have to "back-sweeten" the brew when you're ready to drink. But this will refeed the yeasties and create even more alcohol if allowed to sit. So do this at the point of serving unless you, too, wish to wake up one day to find you've given away all the gifts of civilization to a sneaky family member.

[@medb1996]

How 'bout comanche Roasted Grasshoppers?

[@cosh5]

Hindle wakes?

[@lugal_pcz]

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

[@itsyaboi6628]

That sounds really cool! Are there any particular things you noticed?

[@thecursed01]

Fancy way of saying you got drunk in a bar on vacation XD

[@aceroadholder2185]

I guess the Pabst Blue Ribbon bas-relief on the wall was a dead give away.

[@alfatejpblind6498]

Bless you iraqi archeologists, I can’t imagine how difficult and hard it must be to see so many of your country’s invaluable artefacts and treasures be destroyed after the american invasion

[@thecursed01]

@@alfatejpblind6498 don't forget the stuff Isis blew up intentionally

[@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

[@TastingHistory]

Right!?

[@lairdcummings9092]

Dogfish Head Brewery makes "Midas Touch" beer, based on archaeological discovery from said Monarch's palace. That's right: King Midas's beer lives on, thanks to academic delving!

[@godsowndrunk1118]

I'll drink to that...🍺

[@davidreynolds8865]

look up the writer Mark Forsyth, he has a book called "a short history or drunkenness".

[@ab-ul1yz]

@@lairdcummings9092 But the cereals used back then still exist today? They didn't evolve or something?

[@antonv7329]

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!

[@TastingHistory]

Thanks for the reco Anton

[@neclark08]

...may I pose you a question re; Ancient Brewskies, Anton ? How do the quantities- & qualities of the proteins & other nutrients of ancient 'Liquid Breads' compare to their oven-baked competitors ?

[@Fuchsia_tude]

@@neclark08 Also, how much of the calories of ancient people came from beer? Does it seem true that most people derived most of their daily energy from (barely alcoholic) beer and beer porridge rather than solid baked bread?

[@derekfrost8991]

@@neclark08 you also have different sugars like dextrin which sourdough can ferment because it is a wild culture but modern yeasts can't. There are many factors.. 🙂

[@chadkline4268]

I can say that I did a 6 week experiment drinking 1L of unfiltered unbottled homebrew right out of the primary every morning and 1L at night. And no other food. And other than sleeping a bit more, I felt fine, and even gained weight. I think we don't have the full facts on the nutrition of natural unprocessed brews. It is possible to literally live off the stuff for extended periods of time.

[@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!

[@adambarron4015]

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".

[@khuntasaurus88]

Wow good to have a professional perspective. I also thought that Max veered a bit off the recipe by following archaeological leads over the written part. Thanks for the insight!

[@petergray7576]

Pulque is a nice idea. But you can't do that episode without mentioning the myth of Quetzalcoatl and his..... unfortunate indiscretion.... with his sister..... after getting inebriated on pulque. So maybe somewhat NSFW?

[@eddavanleemputten9232]

Fellow mead, (fruit)wines and cider maker here with equally limited beer making experience. I was thinking along the same lines. 😊

[@melmoomlem7321]

@@petergray7576 implied incest can be ignored, ancient Egyptians married their siblings and no one shies away from mentioning that.

[@vatiti9573]

Homebrewer of BEERS here (well, I have done only six batches to this day, but I have now a bit of experience on it, my first one was too light even for a light beer and visibly got infected by lactobacillus, but the next five came out frankly good and had no infections) ! I must admit that you pretty much said everything, that Ninkasi's hymn says much more than Max thought to an experienced homebrewer (no criticism against him though, he did great especially given the fact it was probably the first time he brewed beer).

[@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.

[@TastingHistory]

Better late than never 😅

[@julietsmith5925]

Makes sense given beer's only competition was mead and potentially hard cider.

[@FrikInCasualMode]

@@TastingHistory Eh, I don't begrudge you taking your time. Together with my dad, we are making wine at home every each year. Even with all the guides, ready yeast strains and special equipment it's still a hit-or-miss process. Never tried to make beer, but I would fully expect my attempts to produce even patchier results that wine does. As for the straining process used by Sumerians, it is quite possible they used to place another filter inside that bowl with big holes. It could be something as simple as folded linen cloth, or maybe special, tightly woven reed basket? Since it would be made from organic material, it simply would not survive to our times.

[@darthplagueis13]

@@julietsmith5925 Well, there's probably always been *some* kind of wine. After all, it pretty much makes itself if you just let some sweet juice ferment. Hard cider is essentially just apple wine which is consumed before it has fully fermented so it's still sweet and slightly effervescent. Odds are that beer was more popular early on because the people at the time appreciated fruit primarily as a sweet treat, so they would probably would have been hesitant to let perfectly good fruit go off, not to mention that wine is a bit of an acquired taste and the first people to make it might just have dumped it because it was so sour and they thought they could get ill from drinking it (mind you, they well could. It's not unusual to upset your stomach with young wine and whilst catching a bit of diarrhea from an upset stomach today is rather inconvenient, to ancient peoples it would have been much more severe). My personal guess is that wine started becoming truly popular when people started using fruit juice as a sweetener and became more accustomed to having it go off.

[@joselopez-kx3sm]

beer and bread are the two earliest inventions of the ancient world.

[@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.

[@cademcclure2147]

Bro where have you been, it’s been 10 months please come back to us

[@cdreid9999]

they had complex pottery. And remember we only find what survived thousands of years in places we happened to dog. They may have used reeds or twine or cloth to seal jars

[@wirelessone2986]

They may have stirred it with straws and used the stuff at the bottom and at the top as caloric intake..beer soup..I heard that the Germans take in 1/3 of their calories from beer,maybe so did the poeple who drank this recipe.

[@jakeg3733]

Didn't they add urine to their beers? I doubt any of these ancient brews were particularly palatable

[@grantbishop1961]

​@@jakeg3733they added silver and silver coins because they have as an antimicrobial, antibacterial and antiviral properties.

[@irwintatyana9066]

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!

[@kirstenpaff8946]

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.

[@TheWinjin]

That's a very important note! I think we get a lot of this in "family passed recipes" where every recipe is like hand-written and more so, eyeballed! Like, a lot of Slavic families have their own ways of preparing Borscht or Pelmeni or well anything really. It's rarely "half a cup of this and 243 grams of that" it's always more like eyeball it, eyeball that, you should feel it in your heart how much of this or that you need. And it comes more from preparing something with your parents for years even before you grew up, I think.

[@grantbishop1961]

Except the Annunaki had more advanced technology then we even use today and most of our technology was reversed engineered from Elder tech. How do you think we progressed so much in under 100 years from 1950's to 2023. Why the navy have Hybrid Ariel Underwater Crafts capable of interplanetary travel? Google it, HAUCs, Navy Patent.

[@deusvult6920]

It's important to note, standardized measurements are older than Rome

[@whattheheck8979]

​@@grantbishop1961 Please research instead of spreading misinformation, especially on videos relating to history. The expired patent in question is made by Salvatore Pais: "Starting in 2015, he began filing patent applications on behalf of his employers with futuristic-sounding names suggesting potential military and energy-producing applications. No working prototype of any of these concepts was ever developed. These attracted attention, as well as speculation that they may be disinformation intended to mislead the United States' strategic adversaries about the direction of United States defense research." These projects, like the Army's "Stargate Project" (about gathering intelligence via out-of-body experiences) are similar, meant to mislead foreign intelligence agencies that may be spying by mixing in legitimate documents with ones like these. Funnily enough, the Navy-created private TOR browser uses this exact method to conceal information. Basically, legitimate military documents are the needles in the haysack full of illegitimate documents, it's the best way for anonymity and security.

[@jimfortnite7810]

@@grantbishop1961take your meds

[@mounamounayer4818]

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.

[@danigeschwindelt1795]

Is the latin word abusus, which has still the same meaning in the English word abuse originating from this root, too?

[@Andyhagablaga]

The word "abyss" comes from Greek meaning without bottom, "a-byssos." The name Abzu appears from a quick check to be water + deep, "ab-zu." The words are made from different things It is an extremely fun coincidence though

[@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!

[@TastingHistory]

Episode 1! Thank you for the near 3 years of me babbling. Good luck on your studies 😄

[@dannygarland6366]

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.

[@jhutfre4855]

yep, sugar is a big disease and a problem of today... It numbs all other tastes in reality, when you give up sugar (as I did :)) all other food, for instance, vegetabiles and bread, start to taste better, also fruit and we see here, beer.

[@tulipalll]

Agreed. I don't know why our bread here in the u.s. has to be so airy and full of sugar

[@armintor2826]

Isnt american bread by technicality not considered bread by certain European standards? I recall being told that Subway bread is not legally bread in Ireland due to it's sugar content

[@chloeedmund4350]

I started cutting back on sugar a few years ago and now the sweetness in vegetables like carrots stand out to me.

[@jhutfre4855]

@@chloeedmund4350 Don't want to go to far here, but acnes will also eventually disappear, and teeth remain healthy.

[@miketacos9034]

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

[@Yolo_Swagins]

Yep, hes werry dedicated to bring quality content to us.

[@marcuswillbrandt5901]

And it's still fermenting.

[@schleybailey]

and it still aint done lol

[@kingofsomething3250]

until the end of time

[@rebjorn79]

He didn't actually do that. Max isn't thousands of years old.

[@mattlevault5140]

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!

[@dnoname8108]

I brew beer currently and I was just about to say the same thing. If you add sugar, yeast will eat it all unless the alcohol content gets too high to kill the yeast, unless you add invert sugar or kill all the yeast and backsweeten. And yes, the yeast are still doing their thing in this concoction so they are still making co2, so it is kinda carbonated just very very lightly. to my knowledge, almost all beer was bottle or keg conditioned to make it carbonated in the past. This means that the still living yeast are given a little more food and sealed in an airtight container, which means the co2 produced had nowhere to go but back into the beer, making it carbonated.

[@ragnkja]

@@dnoname8108 A sealed container is necessary if you want full-on carbonation rather than just a hint of effervescence, because you need something that can contain the pressure.

[@dnoname8108]

@@ragnkja Didn't I say "airtight container"?

[@Chevsilverado]

@@dnoname8108 Even if it’s not in a sealed container and even if the yeast is dead the liquid can hold a certain amount of dissolved co2 which is why wine makers tend to degass the wine by stirring. It’s not necessarily caused by still alive yeast. Also, brewing yeasts can be made to “leave a bit of sugar on the table” so even if you don’t run them to death it’ll not be totally dry. Still pretty dry but not entirely.

[@dnoname8108]

@@Chevsilverado Sure, but I was talking about how they used to carbonate it to a point we would recognize as a carbonation, so for like 400 years of bottle conditioning. I would love to see something about the dissolved co2 such as how long after all the yeast are dead and how much co2. and in this case, he had live yeast in this vessel. Sure, if you use less alcohol tolerant yeast and you make it high enough proof, you can have it go a bit more sweet. You can also kill or deactivate the yeast through heat, cold or chemicals. Though I haven't seen that in the beer homebrew scene. It tends to be wine makers from what I have seen and usually a lot of places backsweeten after they have killed off the yeast because it is easier to add the right amount of sugar back in after all the yeast is dead. unless you use undigestable sugars for the yeast, as to not restart their lifecycle.

[@susanapplegate9758]

Anyone who makes me laugh out loud as often as you do, Max, is pretty awesome in my book. Another fun one, hope you and yours have a lovely New Years!

[@TastingHistory]

Back at ya Susan 🎉

[@bigred9428]

I gave him a thumbs up the second I saw that graphic in the beginning.

[@didisinclair3605]

I always get a couple of big out loud laughs from Max... so delightful!!!

[@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.

[@Mysterialic]

Man discovered beer and made the entire civilisation revolve around it.

[@TastingHistory]

A man of culture 🍺

[@scaper8]

No joke, most anthropologists are pretty sure that agriculture developed not to have reliable sources of grain for bread, but reliable sources of grain for beer. Civilization was literally founded so that we could more consistently get sloshed.

[@kaitlyn__L]

@@scaper8 makes sense. I mean, given food was actually fairly plentiful (albeit seasonal) for most nomadic peoples, and it involved less hard labour, “come on and you can replace your venison with monotonous food slabs” isn’t a particularly compelling reason to settle down. But given alcohol would’ve been hard to come by (albeit not impossible, plenty of nomadic cultures had alcohol like the Mongolians’ alcoholic milk, but it was still rare) reliably, “come on and you can get drunk EVERY night” may very well have been appealing enough!

[@LAkadian]

​@@TastingHistory I hear the beer was quite cultured as well.

[@whatabouttheearth]

If you think about it, alcohol was invented first (apx 6,500 bc) than humans invented the wheel (4000 bc) and writing (earliest known writing apx 3400 bc). But findings at Gobleki Tepe have pottery that they think held beer around 7000 bc.

[@giraffelord94]

I love that story of Inanna and Enki with the drinking contest and hangover, because it shows on deep yet simple level people have always been the same.

[@unnecessarilyepic1107]

Fellow OSP fan?

[@lairdcummings9092]

Beer is proof that Zoroaster loves us, and wants us to be happy.

[@DrIgnacious]

You misspelled Arceus

[@nickking8994]

Truth!

[@WowUrFcknHxC]

You misspelled Ahriman 😀 the dark chaos loves us. 😈

[@typo4859]

*Ahuramazda

[@lainecolley1414]

🧡

[@stephaniewilson3955]

Bread and beer are basically the same, using grain and yeast. It is just that one is dry and the other liquid. The women were usually responsible for preparing both. They usually did it daily as it did go off in a couple of days. One reason hops got used later was as a preservative that enabled you to keep the beer longer. In Medieval times there was beer (the first brewing) that was given to the men then small beer (a second brewing from the same wort) that was for women and children. Remember! Water could be polluted so beer was safer well into the 19th Century.

[@BetterWorse-ge6ci]

No. Look up actual 'beer', gruit. It didn't contain hops, hops are estrogenic and are exceedingly unhealthy.

[@Tesalir]

@@BetterWorse-ge6ci Hops are for preserving the beer so it's not spoiling in a few days. Many things are estrogenic, like soy beans for example. By saying that hops is estrogenic and unhealthy is like saying women is bad for you and I think you are gay saying something like that xD I brew beer myself and hops are not needed if drinked in a few days after brewing/fermented :) The body regulates itself after what you consume. offcourse refined sugars is bad for everyone whatever the gender

[@jbone3777]

@@BetterWorse-ge6ciit’s funny that your PFP accurately describes yourself.

[@BetterWorse-ge6ci]

@@Tesalir No, it's not like saying women are bad at you. You er not worth talking to with that idioic pilpul. Seed oils are INSANELY unhealthy for you, carbs, fruits etc. Food pyramid is flipped upside down. Eat more animal flesh.

[@estanislaukalashnikov2306]

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.

[@lesslighter]

It could also be that you can add mollasses when baking dark rye bread the bread in Kvass is not necessarily baked dark but yeah

[@JohnLeePettimoreIII]

this vi-jay-o about making Kvass was recently released by another cooking channel i watch. kzbin.info/www/bejne/oqGVlIdtbbmUe68

[@annalieff-saxby568]

Just FYI, Harry Flashman described kvass as "It's thick, it's black, and it makes you drunk".

[@TrueMentorGuidingMoonlight]

I love to have kvass and shashlik in the summer

[@gregorypkampwirth8852]

Na zdrowie panu!! 🇵🇱🍻🍺

[@nextcaesargaming5469]

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

[@professornuke7562]

I thought the same thing.

[@Giganfan2k1]

I love K'vass.

[@DonnaBarrHerself]

Love Klass. I make a light, effervescent version, with sultanas.

[@varangjar1544]

I grew up in homemade kvass. Considering what a history nerd I am, this is an obvious transition to make))

[@strawberryhellcat4738]

Big kvass fan here too! My favorite is a sweet beet version I found on the Peter's Food Adventures channel.

[@jabberman3000]

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

[@MrSagaTeller]

Thank you. Not all of heroes wear capes.

[@thebeardedjohn]

And before this make your own sourdough bread

[@jacobluco7076]

It makes me mad that he spent all that time malting the barley, and didn't even mash in with hot water! Why malt it if you don't want to convert it to sugar?

[@Sneakyboson]

You forgot the day where you pray to ninkasi.

[@theotherohlourdespadua1131]

​@@jacobluco7076 The Hymn of Ninkasi didn't say anything about that...

[@DummyWhisper245]

"I can't see anything, I'll open this one!"

[@maryveselka91]

haha

[@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.

[@TakeWalker]

oh my god, I need to play a beer cleric now :D

[@fedra76it]

How cool is that?! Being a Pathfinder and 5e-DnD player, it's nice to "meet" one of the source material authors.

[@DoomedPaladin]

@@TakeWalker you can find the domain in the Midgard Campaign Setting book (for Pathfinder) and the World Book (for 5e).

[@DoomedPaladin]

@@fedra76it Kobold Press authors are especially easy to interact with online. We're _very_ engaged with our community, although, it IS mostly on Facebook.

[@lonelystrategos]

Beer domain cleric? As a German, I can attest to the historical accuracy of that. The oldest monastery in Germany is home to what may be the oldest brewery in the world still in operation.

[@kkleparek01]

Thanks for the birthday present! I'm a homebrewer and my wife and I are big fans of the show; we always look forward to new episodes on Tuesday evenings. Last night was also my birthday and the beer theme was perfect. Thanks again!

[@dannylo5875]

You should make Sumerian whisky

[@zarahandrahilde9554]

Dude thats super wholesome, i want that life! Cheers to you and your wife and a late happy bday to you!

[@lumikkihusu7259]

The time you take in the malt roasting process (the bit with the oven) and the exact temperature you use will affect the taste hugely! Make good notes on this if you want to try to replicate the same result later. Of course, the variety of barley is a factor, too. In modern brewing, The basic malts are fairly simple just as described here. Such lighter malt also "has a high diastatic value" meaning that the grain itself contains the enzymes needed to unlock the goodness within for the yeast to transform into alcohol. Many beer recipes require several different types of malt. The ones that have been roasted for longer and/or hotter will give different aromas but be less efficient in the conversion. Therefore: Use the light stuff as a base to give off the extra enzymes needed to catch the full value of the smaller amount of those darker roasted flavour goodies. Also: If you accidentally roast your grain too much, expect problems in the fermentation phase. This would have happened to the Sumerians as well. Adding a lot of syrup will help save the brew but might actually result in a braggot instead. (Malt flavouread mead, that is.)

[@WabacControl]

Spot on. We need active enzymes from the malt in order to break the starches from the barley flour and the 'bread' into fermentable and non-fermentable sugars for both alcohol and body / flavour.

[@xmuzel]

Thanks for mentioning that!

[@matthewcox431]

Take notes from The Boys of Sumer. 😁

[@cosmicman621]

...might not take up,home-brewing,after all 😳

[@GeckoHiker]

@@cosmicman621 Kits are a very good place to start homebrewing. If you want to experiment with malting you can always try that later. I stick to kits because it's fun to brew my own IPAs and mostly foolproof. You can get grain kits or extract kits. My neighbor and I enjoy brewing with all grain kits because we use the spent grains to bake bread and feed the chickens. The best part of homebrewing is to drink a beer while taking turns stirring the cauldron.

[@Team_Tennant]

Max your sense of humour is amazing! Please never stop this channel. I’ve been bingeing all your episodes and it’s so comforting, informative and hilarious. I love your nerdiness sprinkled throughout too - represent!

[@TastingHistory]

Nerds unite!

[@Team_Tennant]

@@TastingHistory Awwww you actually replied to this, and from an old video! You’re just the best, hands down. I love your and Jose’s love btw. You two seem like perfect kindred spirits 🫶. Safe travels Max, and I can’t wait to catch your new content! ☺️

[@evilcow666]

I love how max constantly tries to assure us that he is not an alcoholic.

[@TastingHistory]

Promise 🤞

[@kittypost3929]

I can’t believe this guy has been brewing this beer for 4,000 years that’s dedication

[@TastingHistory]

I am very tired 🥱🍻

[@nyarparablepsis872]

It's my birthday and I'm a Sumerologist. I'll take this as a wonderful present and thank you for it! Just recently dug into the Presargonic beer "recipes", particularly into dark beers created with torrefied malt. As for "the more I read about beer in ancient Mesopotamia, the less I knew about beer in ancient Mesopotamia": I think that's intended. At least I felt exactly like that as well.

[@maplebones]

If someone wants to read about, and understand beer making in Mesopotamia or anywhere else, they need a basic understanding of what beer is, as a reference. The failure to comprehend was not a conspiracy .

[@Michalosnup]

Have you tried to make some beer yourself? If so, how did it turn out?

[@BlackCatRedScarf]

You know things got serious when Max begins to rap in mesopotamian. 😂

[@narveenaryaputri9759]

😅

[@paveantelic7876]

ud reaaa moment

[@Nikki-tx6kh]

I know this music band from Moldova, and I swear to you that could pass for one of their songs, easily. I could actually see them perform it.

[@horrorspirit]

@@Nikki-tx6kh what band?

[@Nikki-tx6kh]

@@horrorspirit Zdob si Zdub. I know them because they've the Moldovan entry in Eurovision three times

[@benjamindavenport1857]

You may already know this, but Dogfish Head has a series called 'ancient ales', of which Midas Touch is the most famous/popular, based on ancient beer recipes (with the advice of archaeologists). Could be a fun episode to explore a few of those - bonus points if you could somehow got them to do a series with you!

[@tomseaman1108]

Love your channel. I am a retired history teacher. As a student, and later a teacher, I was always curious about the lives of common people. You give great insights that are very rare. Keep up the good work!

[@cdreid9999]

there are several historians on youtube who covers this. it has always annoyed me hoe historians only seemed to care about the elite. im far more interested in the commoners lives

[@MyName-tb9oz]

@@cdreid9999, it's really not so much that historians only care about the elites. It's more that there is so little information about the lives of the common people that learning anything is exceedingly difficult. The commoners weren't writing books, were they? They didn't have the time or, likely, inclination. The nobility wrote and they wrote about the things that concerned them: The nobility. The peasants were just peasants and, as long as they kept working, no one cared how they lived. Don't blame a lack of interest on the part of modern historians for the lack of information about the lives of the common people. Blame the lack of sources of information. Read some history and you'll find that modern historians are at least as annoyed about the lack of information about the lives of the common people as you are.

[@slaapliedje]

The great thing about the Sumerians, and why we know so much about the commoners is that they had great percentage of literacy, and many stone tablets or cylinders were found detailing more minor things in society, such as land deeds, contracts, receipts, etc.

[@4.0.4]

Love the comparison of learning to make a cake from a children's song. It also raises the question of how many recipes change, emerge, and fall out of fashion in the centuries between one and another artifact.

[@gamerjorts]

Brewer here, anyone who says it's sour had an infected batch filled with bacteria. Considering the fact that there is no sanitization I'm surprised yours wasn't infected too. The fact that it was ever so slightly fizzy tells me that it wasn't completely done fermenting either.

[@malleus30]

I was just thinking that the date syrup was for a secondary fermentation, like a sparkling wine

[@slome815]

Have you ever drank lambic or geuze? It's a beer from brussels that gets it's yeast from the air (it's still allowed to be cooled in open coolships for this reason) it's always exceedingly sour compared to other beers. It's sometimes called the champagne of beers, it's too bad it's so expensive, because it's a great summer beer.

[@Eueueyw]

This seems quite similar to kvass, which doesn’t involve sterilisation and is meant to be sour. It’s just Lactobacillus right?

[@demetriusjohnson6969]

Max has the God of Pokemon in a jar. I love it 😂😂😂

[@crickett3536]

Arceus, it is you who handles the dough 🤣

[@GardenData61371]

Oh no... *gets PTSD*

[@coldtoast7426]

@@GardenData61371 nonononononononnononononno (but i thought the same thing

[@JTSquirrel]

@@GardenData61371 POT. IT'S IN A POT 😭

[@ST62382]

Ahh, that’s who that is. I was looking for Pikachu again

[@hanadia2053]

The way Habesha (Eritrean and Ethiopian people) brew traditional beer might hold a few clues if you're interested. We have something called Ye Tella Kitta, Tella being the beer, Kitta meaning flatbread, it's similar in appearance and purpose as Bappir. And for aromatics we use Gesho, which is plant from the Rhamnus spp., it makes the beer slightly bitter like hops.

[@mrsean1999]

Are these beers ever bottled ? Or only made at home? Now I want to go to a good Ethiopian restaurant to try this!

[@hanadia2053]

@@mrsean1999 Usually home brew, so there are loads of variations. There is some cottage industry selling them for immediate consumption and that beer is strong on alcohol and maltiness. Wedding l or religious festivity brews, laced with honey or pure, are where it's at. Enjoy if you find a restaurant that sells the good stuff

[@Tlou-l7o]

Our mqombothi is still prepared the same way by using sorghum as a fermenting agent .To complete the process it's mixed with well cooked starchy powdered grains...this formula is popular all over the african continent 😂

[@fudge1770able]

As a history and anthropology student, your channel is perfection! I love that it's not just historical food, but that you also consider the culture that that specific food comes from and even how it has evolved with the times. Max, you're awesome.

[@bigcheesedump490]

Jamie was clearly the star of this episode.

[@mikeconroe3328]

😂

[@alexissjc409]

I love how the sumerians would just drink beer from a large vase and just drink it through giant reed bendy straws. I just love that.

[@TastingHistory]

Crazy straws when

[@CrizzyEyes]

It's like a hookah but with drinking beer.

[@lairdcummings9092]

Sippy cups for beer...

[@MikeHesk742]

@@CrizzyEyes that was my first thought too

[@danielbrunner5878]

If you take to long to drink it could serve well in your garden compost

[@aluhans2636]

As a german I am very proud of your pronunciation of the word ''Hefeweizen''! I'm in a dark spot of my life currently, but this cheered me up. Thanks

[@erzsebetkovacs2527]

Wishing the best to you, whatever it is that you are currently experiencing.

[@aluhans2636]

@@erzsebetkovacs2527 thank you!

[@redtobertshateshandles]

You are just thinking the wurst.

[@GanarfGeorgie]

Just remember that, no matter what you are going through, you are loved, my friend.

[@pegmay7209]

I hope things are better for you, two months on. I too went through a dark period within the past few months and I wish there was more I could do to help. All I can do is say you’re not alone.

[@lynngrant1318]

Many years ago Readers Digest had an article that spoke of the ancient beer recipe. A professional brewer was at an archeology conference and realized what it was. He went on to make the beer and documented his journey. It’s worth a read.

[@dougneon9550]

When the ancient sumerian demon is actually pretty chill and he even knows how to make a good brew

[@AdamRossD]

I'm a pro brewer and history buff and have been watching your channel since nearly the beginning and the one week I take off KZbin you decide to brew beer! Great job on the video and major kudos for doing your own malting. The current beer history rabbit hole I'm in is American Weissbier. It has less to do with Hefeweizen and more to do with Berlinerweiss or Belgian Witbier. Low ABV and brewed with the cheapest barley and corn you could get your hands on, it was drunk while still fermenting. It was looked down on as fit for only the poorest people, with late 19th century books basically saying "the less said about that style of beer, the better". I have to imagine that "need" for cheap and quick booze that must be drank quickly lest it spoils goes as far back as human history.

[@laerethian1]

Great video! From a brewer and (ex) archaeologist point of view, I really appreciated this! I would add that since ancient ovens for baking malt were wood ovens, there is almost the certainty that the beers were "smoked" in flavor, and probably on the darkish side of color (since it was very hard to keep a steady temperature during the malting process, so most grains would get more torrified than expected). This is at least what used to happen in pre-industrial beers, so the guess is that it also applied to ancient ones.

[@Cethinn]

Being sour or not is mostly just down to the yeast. If you used a wild yeast (whatever was in the environment) then there's a chance it comes out sour, which is sometimes desired. If you added a store bought yeast to it it almost certainly won't be. Yeast is really important to the flavor of beer, and the way this was controlled before we knew really what yeast was is they used the same wooden stirring utensils which would have the yeast from the previous batch on it. Protecting that was important, and it'd make for another good video to see how that was done throughout history, as beer brewing is one of the most important and common things humans do.

[@comradewindowsill4253]

could well be on the vats too. That's how it works for soy sauces, which are also fermented products, with their own specific yeast lines. The sauce is made in the same vat for centuries, and the yeast lives on the vat walls.

[@sizer99]

Very fun video, especially the poems - a couple things: 1) a lot of brewers use mostly wet yeast, but dry yeast cake was common in a lot of places too up to the last century, like Scandinavia where the kveik might be stored wet or dry. Wet is better if you brew a lot, dry stores better over long times. But a lot of it is just 'this is how my granddad did it'. 2) The date syrup didn't make your beer sweet because the yeast turns (almost) any sugar into alcohol, and it's voracious. Like you said you could add it just before drinking, or add a ton more up front (which will also make it a lot more alcoholic). 3) It's not sour because you didn't get any lactobacillus in there. Sour (as opposed to bitter) beers come from wild yeasts or bacteria, or adding sour fruit. 4) For modern beers we generally ferment 2-3 weeks (longer for hugely strong ones), and as long as your yeast is still bubbling you can let it keep fermenting. But we ferment at lower temperatures than you were here, which makes it take longer. And of course we add hops, which help preserve the beer - your beer didn't have that, which is why it needs to be drunk fairly soon before bacteria goes to town on it. Back in colonial US times, it was often the job of the wife to make house beer, and she would make it like this: Take some bread, crumble it in a jug. Add one raw egg. Flavor as desired. Add a little yeast. Fill the jug to near the top with water. Stir. Cover with cloth. Let it sit for 2 days and 'it will be fyne'. The stuff you made here is luxurious in comparison, but I guess the best beer is whatever beer you have!

[@rogerkulpnik]

When soaking (mashing) the slightly roasted ground grain, barley has the most enzymes present which convert starches into sugars. So wheat beer for for example always includes some barley. Dried fruit is a common ingredient in mead even to modern day, because it accelerates the growth of yeast, has yeast on it, and also has sugar of course. In northern europe, fermenting beer was stirred occasionally with deer horns or brooms made of pine trees. Pine could impart a flavor, but yeast would stick to it, and when dried, the stirring device, could be reused to inoculate the next batch of beer with yeast. Always wondered if the pine cones and the mysterious ancient hand-bags were actually hopps and a bucket of beer.

[@kylenyce8198]

i’m not even in to cooking, but i love history. this channel became my fav out of nowhere after a few videos, and i love the cooking parts too. not just the history.

[@gandalf8216]

I tried brewing beer using wild yeast many times, and it's very random how it ends up. Sourdough makes sense. My favorite yeast for brewing comes from orchards, from the skin of apples just about to "rot". They are great at breaking down fructose, and produce very little unwanted waste products. Yeast collecting is incredibly fascinating and interesting in the context of baking and brewing.

[@lairdcummings9092]

Now that you've teased us, make a vid series on the collecting of yeast! I'd watch that.

[@gandalf8216]

@@lairdcummings9092 It's not much to it. You collect samples from places, you put them in vials, you grow sample populations at home from these vials,then going through a sequence of tests. This is the expensive part, it's difficult to analyze byproduct amounts and of which kind, so you hire a company that does chemical analysis. If a species/strain is interesting, but with minor flaws or issues, you can try to breed it out of them. Then you keep them dormant, before using them as starters. For consistency in a brewery, you use one starter per recipe, and you stick with that starter for every batch of beer. A video would have a duration of about 40seconds of nothing interesting happening.

[@royalladybug30]

Your username is perfect for that conversation!

[@randoanon4785]

So that’s why there’s the belief from back in ye olden dayse that bread dough would rise faster and better if left under an apple tree. The dough would get a yeast boost from the apples!

[@erzsebetkovacs2527]

Thank you for the apple tip. Do you have experience with using grapes or raisins for the purpose?

[@kuruczdaniel919]

I made this in preparation for making Tuh'u to throw the ultimate Sumerian feast with friends. I went the extra mile to be as authentic as this recipe can be, used bio barley to make my own malt AND crushed the same barley with mortar and pestle to make my own barley flour for the bappir. I used the same aromatics as you did but left it to ferment for 5 days. What I got was a pleasantly sour, flat and pretty alcoholy (didnt do any measurments or calculations, but by taste I'd say around 3-4% ABV) BEER-LIKE beverage. Verdict: was nice but I honestly still prefer modern beer (though if it had been cold and carbonated it could have passed as a craft sour ale). I wouldn't make it again though (certainly not the way I did), I'll probably make some kvass next instead. (Maybe an idea for a new episode?) Anyhow, our Sumerian feast was a success, so thank you, Max ❤

[@TastingHistory]

Thank you! Glad you tried it.

[@verdecillo9940]

I tried to make this recipe and I cannot overstate the importance of the guard dog- I thought I would be ok without it, but those damn potentates came and stole all my barley!

[@joshuakuehn]

🤣🤣🤣

[@danf4447]

the guard dog drank all my beer :( by Enki i will have my revenge!

[@TheWolfsnack]

I have no fear....I have three large standard poodles....potentates tend to stay away from anything smarter than themselves....

[@WaxyJo]

hahahaha

[@ThirrinDiamond]

rip enki, can't escape his shame even thousands of years later

[@Aparna2119]

Oh this one is priceless! Had me laughing out loud alone on my workshop!!!the Sumerian Rap Ballad really was the cherry on top! Thank you so much! Wish you, Jose and the kittens a very very Happy New Year!

[@ExtraThiccc]

I love how the stronger the beer is, the objectively better it gets. Wonder what they would call wine, "excellent beer"?

[@NigelHatcherN]

You can make beer/wine to the same strength, it depends on the yeast.

[@mattpowell06]

Once again I am lured away from my tasks by the Tasting History notification. Like a historical siren song of entertainment but in a good way😅

[@TastingHistory]

Come and seeeee 🧜‍♂️

[@julietsmith5925]

Tasting History is definitely the highlight of my Tuesdays.

[@mattpowell06]

@@julietsmith5925 indisputable fact🙌

[@JoanZak]

You hit the nail on the head with that comment!!

[@ragnkja]

A siren song, but at a safe distance from both Scylla and Charybdis.

[@zypity]

I'm sure you know, but regarding sweetness, you have to keep in mind that we are used to incredibly sweet foods in comparison to them. So that may skew our perception of "sweet" in relation to the foods and drinks of those days.

[@alexnoman1498]

Have you tried date sirup? It's so sweet, a half teaspoon is enough to sweeten a whole cup of milk. They knew how to distill something to way above 60% sugar.

[@toastedt140]

@alexnoman1498 yes but their taste buds were still less accustomed to sugar. Everything in America, South America, Parts of Europe and Asia is made with added sugar. We add raw sugar to our bread, drinks, dairy, snack foods. If you eat raw fruit/vegetables and lean meat for a while then try anything processed it's way too sweet.

[@mimiisrofl]

@@toastedt140 “processed” lol Ancient Mesopotamian beer is “processed,” that’s a meaningless woo term.

[@MrArthoz]

@@alexnoman1498 maybe they added the sweetener afterwards because the distillation process itself is basically turning "sugar" into alcohol. So if we want to sweeten the drink, best add sugar just before drinking it so that it have no time to be further fermented. Adding before or during the distillation process would only serve to increase the alcohol content making it a "very good" beer.

[@theodorekorehonen]

Yeah the only way to have a sweet alcoholic beverage is to either add a sugar yeast doesn't break down, sweeten it after fermentation, or stop fermentation before the yeast goes through all the sugar

[@ndb_1982]

Thanks for being amazing, Max! My son, Aaron, is in 6th grade and they were just learning about Mesopotamia before Christmas break. He loves all of your videos. History and food are his two favorite things. Even though this is a drink, he will enjoy it. He was wondering if something from the 7 years war would be a possibility? Blessings to you and yours in the new year! We love you! ❤️

[@conradnelson5283]

I love the story of Sumeria. There may have been other civilizations first, but this is the first one that we have written histories of. Their mythology is fascinating. Familiar yet alien. Great video.

[@Dr.Yalex.]

Hemp was used a lot in all Sumer and also as an aromatic. Thank you for another great research video, Max! Happy Holidays🎄

[@debbiegilmour6171]

I think Hello Fresh should write their recipes in ancient Sumarian from now on.

[@TonyJack74]

Sumerian*

[@noelmajers6369]

After this, a Hello Fresh Sumerian beer recipe is surely called for.

[@obban12]

ancient Sumarian verse!

[@hakanolausson1367]

The lack of sweetness from the date syrup may be due to the sugar having been fermented into alcohol. If one adds, for example, raspberries to a batch of beer that is fermenting then the resulting beer gets more sour (level of sourness depending on the amount of berries, but a good sourness) because the sugars are fermented but the sourness of the raspberries is still intact.

[@acgorrell]

I've often wondered why food and culinary history isn't more popular among academics, especially when we have people like you absolutely killing it in the genre. Also, I'm totally "stealing" some of your videos for my world history class.

[@safetinspector2]

Low-key best Mesopotamian beer content I've bumped into on KZbin. Thanks!

[@TastingHistory]

Glad you enjoy it!

[@mishikirita]

I enjoy watching even the sponsor part! You make everything fun!! Thanks for all you do!

[@veridico84]

As a beer maker, this is really cool to watch. You should cook your mash at 60°C odd, to extract the sugars for fermentation.

[@theotherohlourdespadua1131]

That process wouldn't be widespread until the New Kingdom of Egypt era with their own brewing industry. Until then, what you see in the video is how the first beer was made...

[@veridico84]

@@theotherohlourdespadua1131 Thank you, I never knew that.

[@Johannes4233]

The beer being given to workers was also common in Finland in the 1950s and earlier. The beer drank during the hot summer days on the field was very low alcohol and it was referred to as "after-beer", since it was made from grains that had already been spent on the primary beer making so there was only small amount of fermentable sugars remaining. It still had a lot of flavour though and was considered a nice treat for the people working on the fields.

[@jelkel25]

Always wondered about the ancient beer drunk through the big straw's, they always look like they're having a great old time of it in the little pictures. Now I know why!!!!

[@C-Hirsuta]

I've been waiting for this one for so long, and it didn't disappoint! I might actually try brewing this.

[@TuckerSP2011]

Tasting History is much more than an ancient cooking show. It's a total submersive experience! I enjoyed the song, the poetry and enthusiasm. Thank you Max, Happy New Year 🍺

[@TastingHistory]

Glad you enjoyed it! 🍻

[@chicobicalho5621]

Considering Sumarians themselves probably never made beer exactly like each other, and there were probably endless variations 4,000 years ago, this beer you made is likely to be similar to a version or another from the past.

[@jjandorliadul]

Try the Riedenburger Emmer Bier. It's a German beer and they use ancient emmer wheat to make. It's very tasty. A guy on Beer advocate posts "Pours an unfiltered nut brown color with a smaller, yet stable head. Smell is of scented wood, molasses and spicy licorice, wrapped into melted caramel. Has a light body, with a very pronounced, metallic carbonation, making this appear almost like sparkling water, as far as the refreshment in this goes. Tastes of toasty caramel malt, roasted grain, hazelnut and honey. Takes a sweeter turn then, with more honey and an extra layer of toffee cutting through. Finishes light and refreshing, with a rustic, well working malt foundation, which produces a light earthiness. Quite nice, with a special, malty twist."

[@redtobertshateshandles]

I think the Belgian Abbey lambic brews are worth a taste.

[@danielsantiagourtado3430]

Incredible content as always! Beer has such a great history and it's a pleasure to experience parts of it through you Max!

[@TastingHistory]

Thanks for the support Daniel

[@danielsantiagourtado3430]

@@TastingHistory Always happy to!

[@kurtlindner]

8:32 Jamie: "...I don't know what potentates are. That's what they serve in school cafeterias, right?" This episode would've been a perfect collaboration with How To Make Everything (I'm pretty sure Andy passed this milestone since the reset).

[@mary-janereallynotsarah684]

Potentate famine ravaged Ireland.

[@jakeaurod]

Boil 'em, mash 'em, stick 'em in a stew, Po-Ten-Tates!

[@Adam-antem]

I'm so glad I found this channel.

[@TastingHistory]

Thank you! It’s good to be found 😁

[@ghiman206]

Just brewing tips in general, sourness is from brettmyceous, you've done a great job keeping it clean. Adding more syrup will only kick off the yeast fermentation again and start up another colony =). If you wanted to make it sweet, the filtration of most of the yeast before adding in syrup then drink before it undergoes a secondary fermentation, or just adding in flavors right before you drink it

[@matthewanipen2418]

This is VERY similar to what Korean alcohol "Maccoli" looks like once it is filtered. Just instead of barley/wheat etc sediment at the bottom, it's rice powder. You actually need to shake the maccoli bottle before pouring to get the sediment mixed in with the rest of the liquid. And you typically want to shake it again every time you serve more. I am not a Mesopotamian expert at all, but perhaps those straws were also meant to STIR the batch as you continue to drink to keep the barley sediment mixed in with the rest of the liquid. I'm curious if that would make it taste overall differently as you drank it.

[@kaeten838]

You've outdone yourself Max, thank you! History, beer, humour, a humorous graph, a song about beer, gods, beer, gods quarrelling about beer, this one has it all. I wish I could give a Like for the re-watch.

[@joshuabradshaw9120]

It's amazing how much ancient peoples knew about so many subjects, and how much information was lost, then rediscovered, then lost again, then rediscovered again.

[@xanoks1116]

Love your content, has really made me appreciate cuisine and history together, Thank you Max

[@TastingHistory]

Glad you enjoy it!🍺

[@catherinemontrose2102]

The rap about the vats and the jars was the kind of content I stay with this channel for. Happy New Year, Max and Jose!

[@amboots14]

Awesome episode! Been subscribed for a while and knew this one was coming one day. Ive been, as a pastime, studying sumerian history so this was exciting. Did not disappoint! I also thought, at the beginning of the episode, "I'll make Max's version cuz he's going to explain it simply" then I saw all the steps... oh boy, I'm going to have to get my wife's permission to dedicate this much time spread over a week on this! But it shall be made!!!

[@colebeans3145]

The top scholar you got ur info from is my history professor haha so cool! He never showed us this but we learned about how important beer was in ancient Mesopotamian culture

[@Bunniesan]

Oh man this just unlocked memories. One of my friends was the research assistant of the archaeobotanist professor while we were at university and they spent the semester running experiments trying to perfect this recipe. By the end of the semester, he gave us a few bottles to try and they were indeed incredibly sour, but I liked it. I think definitely got the batch without the date syrup 😂

[@vigilantcosmicpenguin8721]

I'm imagining them coming to a party that's BYOB, and showing up with an ancient clay vessel.

[@pizzzaeater1425]

@@vigilantcosmicpenguin8721 idk about anyone else but someone showing up to a party with clay pots of old-world-style alcohol would would get me SO hyped lol

[@erzsebetkovacs2527]

Which university was this again?

[@Finkeren]

The main function of the date syrup was almost certainly not to actually sweeten the brew but to boost the production of alcohol. From what I have read of translated Sumerian texts, they had a slightly different use of the word "sweet" more equating to "good" or "pleasant" rather than specifically denoting a sweet taste. For instance, they refered to drinkabke fresh water as "sweet water" and to salt water as "bitter water". "Sweet beer" might simply mean "good beer" read: beer with a high alcohol content.

[@bacicinvatteneaca]

Wouldn't be uncommon.

[@Anesthesia069]

The bappir/yeast issue has long confused me as well. I settled on the beer being a kind of kvass, where the bappir is a hard, twice-baked bread and the yeast comes from the wine they mention Ninkasi adding (much like a bottle-conditioned modern beer). But I like this take as well. Did Tate mention any preference for the yeast source? I can confirm natural yeast can come from dates. I have created a recipe for ancient Egyptian bread where, based on discussion in a few papers, I used date yeast water as a leaven.

[@poorasslawstudent]

Max, you can use the left over grain to filter the beer. this technique is still used in modern beer making albeit at an earlier stage. it's not the holes in the pot that do the filtering but the left over solids.

[@morganalori]

I love your humor. it makes everything so enjoyable. Thank you. Have a great new year Max and Jose. I look forward to the new year and new episodes

[@chitoryu12]

It’s likely that the bappir was not actually raw inside to use as the yeast starter, as there’s records of it being stored in warehouses. The yeast would probably come from the solid remnants of fermentation left over from a previous batch. A lot of bad reenactor recipes leave the dough too raw and make it sour.

[@-jank-willson]

So what do you think bappir is?

[@HappyBeezerStudios]

@@-jank-willson Maybe something like modern store bought yeast. Which comes either as dry flakes or in some sort of concentrated dough. Maybe collecting the small pieces that are stuck on fingers and in pots when making bread, collected, dried, used for beer later.

[@Zzyzzyzzs]

@@-jank-willson As they say, the solid remnants of fermentation left over from a previous batch, which I imagine could just be transferred from vat to vat if you have an established industrial brewing facility, or be dried and baked into a cake for transport further afield. Barm, the yeasty foam that forms on top of beer during fermentation, is also a possibility. Many alemakers still use that.

[@HoJu1989]

I once made some Neolithic-inspired beer for a course on experimental archaeology in college. We failed to malt our own grain (couldn't get it to sprout because we bought it pre-toasted by mistake), so we visited a local brewery and they kindly gave as some malt (and a tour!). Instead of date syrup, we used honey to stimulate alcohol production, based on remains found in Spanish Neolithic sites. The accuracy of the procedure and our data collection were scientifically spotty, but it turned out fairly drinkable and we got to drink beer in class. For science!

[@andreagriffiths3512]

For Science! 🍻

[@dankpepe2110]

Science bich! 🍻

[@mikkoleinonen9846]

I have to say that many small breweries gladly give tours to people. I've been learning to make some some Sahti, an ancient Finnish beer, and went to a local brewery that sold the right kind of malts and all. They gave me a tour and gave me tips on what kind of equipment to buy (turns out I would have gotten way too expensive equipment for a beer that you can basically make with a pot and a bucket :D)

[@HappyBeezerStudios]

I could totally see honey being used. And pretty wild yeasts from whatever fruit and/or grains you throw in there. From berries to barley, einkorn, emmer, grapes

[@msx94]

It's not neolithic it's antique

[@awildsnakgert8422]

I love the little arceus hangging out in the jar at 7:12

[@Beryllahawk]

I dunno, I liked your rendition of the song!! Very nicely done, and once more I am impressed and very appreciative of the diligent effort you show in making these. The history is fascinating just as much as the process you're exploring! Great job! Looking forward to next year!

[@ikarus2h]

How did they know that alcohol and the liver have a relationship

[@ashtonjones9503]

Makes you wonder. How many times as humans we've discovered, lost and rediscovered our collective knowledge. Especially the amount of knowledge lost at the Great Library of Alexandria. I have this odd hunch that that Library held the key to unlocking so many mysteries.

[@Matteus733]

@@ashtonjones9503 spot on… also how much is contained in the papal library away from the world

[@kalinmir]

they didn't...do not read your current awareness into ancient cultures expressions

[@gdgyhgrd]

@@ashtonjones9503 The Library of Alexandria had largely declined into scholarly insignificance by the time of its destruction and most of the important documents that had been stored there had long since been removed to other libraries or copied.

[@Matteus733]

@@gdgyhgrd exactly and the no 1 contender for the left overs? Papacy

[@Bonus_Bananas]

This is the greatest YT channel. I swear. I literally pump my fists in the air when I see an episode I haven't seen. Thank you so much Max Miller for all the work you do...

[@dicedoomkid]

These videos are just so chill, dude got smarts and food. Very nice 👌🏼

[@DrIgnacious]

Beer episode! Praise Arceus

[@TastingHistory]

🙌🏻

[@lauraosswald5812]

Thank you so much for your videos, they are so interesting and you are truly such an amazing person and you bring so much joy every week !

[@maplesyrup76]

Great ep. More brewing ep's please. A Viking blood mead (berry mead) would be cool. They are pretty drinkable at about 8 weeks. Happy Hollidays to you and yours.