Beer Archaeology

When I was in college there was a semester when I seriously considered majoring in Archaeology/ Anthropology. When I read this article I was saddened that I never followed through with it. I mean why did I not foresee analyzing leftover beer from the bottom of ancient clay pots? It's brilliant! And of course the maverick brewers at Dogfish Head have taken their quest to brew beer from things other than water, hops, (yeast) and barley to the extreme by digging up a 9,000 year old recipe from the Neolithic villiage of Jiahu, in Henan province, Northern China. While this instantly brings to my mind the words unsanitary and chunky (don't ask) (oh and yes, I use the same words for Lambecs, thus why I'm not a big fan), modern brewing practices have cleaned up the process a bit.

The ingredients are certainly unique "In keeping with historic evidence, Dogfish brewers used pre-gelatinized rice flakes, Wildflower honey, Muscat grapes, barley malt, hawthorn fruit, and Chrysanthemum flowers. The rice and barley malt were added together to make the mash for starch conversion and degredation." I have no idea what it's going to taste like but I'm looking forward to giving it a try. It is expected to hit wholesalers the third week of August and then to the stores a few weeks after that. For more information go to Dogfish Head here.