Experimental beer archaeology yields 3,000-year-old brew recipes spiked with thyme and poppy

There ’s a howling article in the Smithsonian today about “ beer archaeologist ” Patrick McGovern , a scholar who has unearth millennia - old alcohol formula by analyzing residues in ancient clayware . Now he ’s work with a beer maker , Sam Calagione , whose public house Dogfish Head dish up up beers based on recipe that are yard of year onetime .

In the Smithsonian , Abigail Tucker describes McGovern and Calagione ’s collaboration , which bring them to Egypt to find local ingredients :

“ Dr. Pat , ” as he ’s sleep together at Dogfish Head , is the world ’s foremost expert on ancient work drink , and he cracks long - forgotten formula with chemistry , scouring ancient kegful and bottles for residue samples to scrutinize in the science laboratory . He has identified the world ’s oldest known barleycorn beer ( from Iran ’s Zagros Mountains , dating to 3400 B.C. ) , the oldest grape wine ( also from the Zagros , circa 5400 B.C. ) and the earliest known booze of any variety , a Neolithic grog from China ’s Yellow River Valley brewed some 9,000 years ago . . .

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The ancients were liable to transfix their drink with all sort of unpredictable poppycock - olive petroleum , bog Vinca minor , Malva sylvestris , meadowsweet , mugwort , carrot , not to mention hallucinogens like hemp and poppy . But Calagione and McGovern establish their Egyptian selections on the archeologist ’s workplace with the grave of the Pharaoh Scorpion I , where a curious combination of savory , thyme and Chinese parsley show up in the residues of libation interred with the Danaus plexippus in 3150 B.C. ( They decided the za’atar spice medley , which frequently include all those herbs , plus marjoram and several others , was a current - day relief . ) Other guidelines came from the even more ancient Wadi Kubbaniya , an 18,000 - yr - old site in Upper Egypt where starch - scatter endocarp , probably used for craunch sorghum or bulrush , were found with the clay of doum - medal yield and chamomile . It ’s difficult to confirm , but “ it ’s very likely they were pass water beer there , ” McGovern says .

Sadly , the beer they ’re whipping up wo n’t have any hallucinogens in it — but the mind of beer with thyme and carrot in it sound intriguing .