What Did Beer Taste Like 3,000 Years Ago? Egyptian Beer Recipe Brewed Using Ancient Yeast

Ancient Origins ^ | 07/06/2026 | RamseyHardin

[Adder]

A recent quirky project is challenging the taste buds of modern beer drinkers. Can a beer be made from yeast that’s nearly 3,000 years old, in combination with a 3,500-year-old Egyptian papyrus? The man behind this historic brew is Dylan McDonnell, a homebrewer and nonprofit operations manager. He holds a Master’s in Middle Eastern studies. During the pandemic, McDonnell heard about a man who was using a 4,500-year-old yeast strain to bake sourdough bread.

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TOPICS: History
KEYWORDS: ancientbeer; beer; dietandcuisine; godsgravesglyphs; oenology; zymurgy

[Adder]

"In the end, McDonnell produced a beer similar to a gose, a German-style beer with a tart, slightly salty taste. The gose produced is around 5% alcohol by volume and even features notes of apricot, with a floral aftertaste. The flavor tastes more like mead or cider than beer because it doesn’t contain any hops, the green, pinecone-shaped flowers that contribute bitterness."

"Mmmm...beer"

[ComputerGuy]

Beer without hops.

[equaviator]

Hints of sand with an earthy vibe.

[tired&retired]

Beer is proof that God Loves us.

A good beer is one that you like.

Occasionally, I enjoy a Belgian Farmhouse Ale, a Lambic with the special notes of wild yeast strains.

Most Americans only enjoy the sweet sugary lambics like Lindemans Framboise or Kriek. I also enjoy the complex sours at the other end of the spectrum, my favorite being La Cantillon. These beers are like fine wine getting better with age.

I would love to taste the old Egyptian beer recipe.

[tired&retired]

Per the article:

There were eight items shared in the majority of recipes: Egyptian balsam fruit (desert dates), Yemeni Sidr honey, sycamore figs, black cumin, juniper berries, Israeli golden raisins, carob fruit, and frankincense.

Sure doesn’t follow the German Beer Purity Laws.

[Tench_Coxe]

There is sahti, a beer brewed by filtering the wort through juniper (Boston Brewing Company had a version for a few years), and heather ales (Fraoch is a good example).

[Sirius Lee]

McDonnell heard about a man who was using a 4,500-year-old yeast strain to bake sourdough bread.

And immediately thought “why would you waste time making bread when you can make beer?” Good man!

[Tench_Coxe]

I like saisons. But some of the lambics I have tried have an aftertaste this is reminiscent of a post puke. No thanks on those.

Oddly enough, it doesn't surprise me about a 4500 year old yeast producing something like a gose.

[Tench_Coxe]

That’s why you have abbeys today that still are known for beer, like Kloster Andechs. See, it was a work around about that food business during periods of fasting.

[Texas Eagle]

Bud Light.

[Skwor]

FTA

"Egyptian balsam fruit (desert dates), Yemeni Sidr honey, sycamore figs, black cumin, juniper berries, Israeli golden raisins, carob fruit, and frankincense, Egyptian barley and emmer wheat. Also strain of yeast which had originally been taken from a piece of pottery in Israel. The set strain of yeast dates to 850 BC, but what makes this find particularly fascinating is that the Philistines likely used the same yeast to make beer."

Basically, liquid bread, keeps the workers pumped full of calories and a little tipsy, makes them easier to manage :)

[ComputerGuy]

Liquid bread. I’m going to remember that.

[Wilderness Conservative]

As a homebrewer since the 80s I never got into the Gen X fruity candy flavored crap the man bun generation loves today. Reading this article I’d bet this brew tastes like roadkill marinated in piss.

[chajin]

There were eight items shared in the majority of recipes...and frankincense

That explains the Magi's gift.

"Frankincense to offer have I,
Brewing beer for Deity high..."

[Steven Tyler]

...imagine the refinement through trial and error to settle on the final recipe....

[chajin]

A good beer is one that you like.

Since alcohol doesn't mix with medicines, I finally found a non-alco beer with a desirable flavor: Asahi dry 0%. But I don't say everyone should choose it, since I'm not a fascist.

[tired&retired]

There are so many variables in making beer, temperature, water quality, minerals in the water, yeast, fermentables, roast, additives....

While I love a good bourbon barrel Russian stout, I also like a crisp clean wheat beer.

Two brewmaster friends of mine in Belgium made a beer with green spruce tips. They over did it and the first batch tasted like pine floor cleaner!

The most important is water quality.

[tired&retired]

I could not drink Asahi. It’s a Japanese rice lager and for some reason unknown to me, the phenolic compounds in fermented rice gives me a severe headache every time, even in small quantities.

The trick to making a dry beer is to add Beano (alpha-galactosidase enzyme) so the polysaccharides are divided down to monosaccharides that are fermentable by yeast.

[SunkenCiv]

Thanks! This is the kind of pyramid scheme many people find untroubling.

• Study confirms Egyptians drank hallucinogenic cocktails in ancient rituals [11/16/2024]
• 5,000-Year-Old Wine Unearthed in Egyptian Queen's Tomb [11/10/2023]
• Archaeologists discover 5,000-year-old wine at the tomb of Meret-Neith in Abydos [10/15/2023]
• 2,300-year-old shipwreck -- filled with wine jars -- found off Egypt coast. See them [08/27/2023]
• Greaco-Roman winery discovered in Egypt's Beheira [04/08/2019]
• Tomb of ancient Egyptian beer brewer unearthed [05/09/2014]
• Archaeologists Virtually Recreate Ancient Egyptian Brewery [08/11/2013]
• Ancient Christian "Holy Wine" Factory Found in Egypt [06/19/2008]
• Ancient Beer, Wine Jars Found in Egypt [05/18/2005]
• Brewers concoct ancient Egyptian ale. [08/11/2002]
• Brewers Concoct Ancient Egyptian Ale ("..tastes very different from today's beer.") [08/03/2002]

[Adder]

gives me a severe headache every time, even in small quantities.

Happens to me when I drink Iron City...