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Uncovering the Secrets of Ireland's Ancient Breweries

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Jeannette Latoria
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« on: December 10, 2007, 10:14:52 pm »

Uncovering the Secrets of Ireland's Ancient Breweries
By Nadya Labi  11.27.07 | 12:00 AM
 
 
Illustration: Andrew Zbihyj posts
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Hangovers rarely inspire scientific breakthroughs. But Billy Quinn's eureka moment occurred on just such a head-pounding morning in 2003. After a night spent carousing at a pub in Galway, Ireland, he and colleague Declan Moore were discussing their plans for the day over a traditional breakfast of bacon, eggs, sausages, black pudding, white pudding, beans, and fried potatoes. The two archaeologists were scheduled to excavate a nearby grassy mound known as a fulacht fiadh (pronounced "full-oct fee-ah"). About 5,000 of the mounds have been discovered throughout Ireland, most dating from 1500 to 500 BC. They're not much to look at — excavation reveals a rectangular trough (fulacht is Gaelic for "recess") surrounded by a horseshoe-shaped arrangement of burnt stones. No one's certain what they were used for, but in a flash of insight, Quinn proposed a hypothesis in keeping with his nation's cerevisaphilic reputation: The Bronze Age relics might just be Ireland's first breweries.

The odd mounds have long mystified archaeologists. Experts agree that the sites, usually located near streams, were likely used for boiling water, but excavations have yielded little more. Were they vats for dying clothes? Proto-saunas? One long-standing theory suggests they were used to boil meat — not an unreasonable notion, since fiadh can refer to deer. But few animal remains have been found near the holes, contrary to what might be expected around prehistoric kitchens.

Quinn believes that his theory, published recently in the journal Archaeology Ireland, is supported by the circumstantial evidence. Even for Bronze Age inhabitants, who lacked metal cooking vessels capable of withstanding fire, ale would have been easy to make. There are only three ingredients — hot water, milled grain, and yeast, which the ancients may have cultivated and stored on a stick that was passed down from generation to generation. The hot water converts the starches in the grain to sugars, creating a solution that, with fermentation and the addition of yeast, eventually becomes ale. (Beer requires hops, a plant that wasn't widely used before the 15th century.) According to Quinn, ale would have provided a safe, nutritious alternative to milk and water. "Because it's boiled," Quinn says, "you know it's uncontaminated." It's known that Stone Age Scots drank a cereal-based beverage, and a Sumerian tablet from 1800 BC is inscribed with a recipe for brewing beer. "From the early Christian period to the Middle Ages," Quinn adds, "children were sent to school on a diet of light beer."

Quinn and Moore got a crash course in ancient techniques by visiting breweries in Spain, Belgium, and Canada. Then they repurposed a cattle trough, filling it with water and placing it in a clay-lined hole. Using granite stones toasted in a nearby fire, the pair heated the water until it was steaming but not bubbling — according to the brewers they consulted, 153 degrees Fahrenheit is the ideal temperature for breaking down starch into sugar. Then they scooped in barley. After bringing the concoction to a boil, they transferred it to containers, added bog myrtle, meadow sweet, and, of course, yeast — all ingredients available to Bronze Age boozers. Three days later, the slightly fizzy copper-colored ale was ready for consumption.

Unfortunately, US restrictions on alcohol imports foiled wired's efforts to get a taste. As far as Quinn is concerned, though, the beverage passed the only true test: At a party he and Moore hosted to share the fruits of their labors, people "drank it by the pintful."

http://www.wired.com/culture/lifestyle/magazine/15-12/ps_ale
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Jeannette Latoria
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« Reply #1 on: December 10, 2007, 10:16:13 pm »



Illustration: Andrew Zbihyj
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