Einkorn Beer Tasting

Emmer/Einkorn Beer Overview Malting Emmer in Antiquity Brewday #1 (emmer – unsuccessful) Emmer in Brewing Brewday #2 (einkorn – success!; emmer – unsuccessful) It’s judgement day for our home-malted einkorn beer. The beer fermented for two weeks with a bread yeast and attenuated quite well. The final gravity was 0.999, resulting in a beer with nearly 3.5%…

Meadowsweet in Archaeology

Relatively speaking, there is a significant amount of archaeological evidence for the use of meadowsweet (Filipendula ulmaria) in ancient fermented beverages. Much of this evidence is from Bronze Age sites (mostly 2nd millennium BCE), but there are some Iron Age sites (contemporary with classical Greece and Rome) where meadowsweet residues were found. This chronological distribution…

Strabo, Geographica 4.6.2

κατοικοῦσι δὲ Λίγυες ζῶντες ἀπὸ θρεμμάτων τὸ πλέον καὶ γάλακτος καὶ κριθίνου πόματος, νεμόμενοι τά τε πρὸς θαλάττῃ χωρία καὶ τὸ πλέον τὰ ὄρη. [. . .] ταῦτά τε δὴ κατάγουσιν εἰς τὸ ἐμπόριον τὴν Γένουαν καὶ θρέμματα καὶ δέρματα καὶ μέλι, ἀντιφορτίζονται δὲ ἔλαιον καὶ οἶνον τὸν ἐκ τῆς Ἰταλίας: ὁ δὲ παρ᾽ αὐτοῖς…

Julian the Apostate, Epigram 1

εἰς οἶνον ἀπὸ κριθῆς. τίς πόθεν εἶς Διόνυσε; μὰ γὰρ τὸν ἀληθέα Βάκχον, οὔ σ’ἐπιγιγνώσκω. τὸν Διὸς οἶδα μόνον. κεῖνος νέκταρ ὄδωδε. σύ δὲ τράγον. ἦ ῥά σε Κελτοὶ τῇ πενίῃ Βοτρύων τεῦξαν ἀπ’ ἀσταχύων; τῷ σε χρὴ καλέειν Δημήτριον, οὐ Διόνυσον, πυρογενῆ μᾶλλον καὶ Βρόμον, οὐ Βρόμιον. On barley-wine (beer). Who and from where…

Hecataeus, in Athenaeus 10.12-13

Αἰγυπτίους δὲ Ἑκαταῖος ἀρτοφάγους φησὶν εἶναι κυλλήστιας ἐσθίοντας, τὰς δὲ κριθὰς εἰς ποτὸν καταλέοντας. Hecataeus says that the Egyptians are bread-eaters, eating kullestas, an Egyptian bread, and grinding grain into a drink. Background This excerpt is part of a discussion about over-eating. It places the Egyptians against Lydians and Thracians who are(were?) notorious gluttons. Commentary This is the…