Reviving the taste of an Iron Age beer [ancient Celtic malt beverage]

Science News ^ | Friday, January 14th, 2011 | Bruce Bower

[SunkenCiv]

At the Celtic site, barley was soaked in the specially constructed ditches until it sprouted, Stika proposes. Grains were then dried by lighting fires at the ends of the ditches, giving the malt a smoky taste and a darkened color. Lactic acid bacteria stimulated by slow drying of soaked grains, a well-known phenomenon, added sourness to the brew.

Unlike modern beers that are flavored with flowers of the hop plant, the Eberdingen-Hochdorf brew probably contained spices such as mugwort, carrot seeds or henbane, in Stika's opinion. Beer makers are known to have used these additives by medieval times. Excavations at the Celtic site have yielded a few seeds of henbane, a plant that also makes beer more intoxicating.

"These additives gave Celtic beer a completely different taste than what we're used to today," Stika says.

[mamelukesabre]

Henbane?!?

yeesh. Mix that with gruit and you got a doozy of a drink. Especially if you use unwashed heather. I found a recipe for gruit once and went to an herb store to round up the stuff and when I gave them a list of the stuff the lady looked at me like I was ted bundy and wanted to know why I need THAT stuff for. that’s when I started doing a little more research on the ingredients.

[magslinger]

Liquid bread to be more precise.

[wildbill]

I was just going to say that they’ve been brewing Iron Age beer in Pittsburgh for years—Iron City Beer.

[gleeaikin]

Could that be one reason for the Berserkers(sp?)

[ApplegateRanch]

The henbane and wormwood (artemisia/mugwort) might go a long way in that direction. The one is a psychedelic & poison; the other is first cousin to absinthe, with some of the same properties.

And the lactic acid rancid yoghurt taste (I first misread acetic acid) would be enough to drive anyone mad.

Then, at the end of the article:

Perhaps they’ll find out whether Roman emperor Julian, in a 1,600-year-old poem, correctly described Celtic beer as smelling “like a billy goat.”

My guess is it tasted worse than a billy goat, and the main reason the Vikings raided so savagely was in revenge for being served the stuff at their first meeting with the Celts.

[Lucius Cornelius Sulla]

So Julian the Apostate did one thing correctly?

[Bellflower]

The henbane and wormwood (artemisia/mugwort) might go a long way in that direction. The one is a psychedelic & poison; the other is first cousin to absinthe, with some of the same properties.

Wormwood is used today by naturalist to cure all kinds of things especially that have to do with parasites. It is also used against cancer. Maybe this stuff actually kept them healthy. I could imagine that people may have suffered from parasites back then and cancer is certainly no fun. Now a days you can get a purified, stronger version of the active ingredients in a supplement called artimisinin.

http://www.anamed.net/English_Home/anamed_artemisia_programme/Artemisia_and_cancer/artemisia_and_cancer.html

http://www.herbalextractsplus.com/artemisia.cfm

[SunkenCiv]

Probably all over, just don’t tell the Bureau of Ancient Celtic Beer, Cannibis, and Catapaults.

[Oztrich Boy]

Beer without sediment? What a wacky notion.

That's my drink.

[knews_hound]

Welcome to the most exclusive Ping List on FR !

[JEC]

Sitting here reading this, having a Sam Adams Revolutionary Rye Ale. Tastes great.

[SunkenCiv]

A lot of ideas with great staying power emerged because they had no electronic distractions. :’)

[worst-case scenario]

That is certainly what the ancient Egyptians thought. Weren’t the laborers paid partially in beer rations?

[Renfield]

Man, I discovered a really good beer last night. Plank Heller Weizenbock:

You should try some of this stuff. Delicious and packs quite a whack.

[spitter]

Your homebrewing sites are impressive! I have to spend more time there reading up, thanks for making them available.
My hubby is the chief brewer in the house but I do have one batch under my belt, (under his supervision of course) of pumpkin beer. It is darker than we prefer but looking forward to trying it.