Subject: Brewing an Ancient Beer (Long)

From: [email-masked] (Patrick McCurdy)
Date: 22 Mar 1994 00:26:01 GMT

Thought this might be of interest here:

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Contributed by "Don Sharp" <[email-masked]>
To: [email-masked]
Subject: Sumerian Brewing Article

Brewing an Ancient Beer

Did beer come before bread? To answer the question scholars helped
concoct a Mesopotamian brew from a 3,800-year-old recipe etched in
clay.  By Solomon H. Katz and Fritz Maytag.

In the 1950s, Robert Braidwood of the University of Chicago published
an article in Scientific American suggesting a cause-effect
relationship between breadmaking and the domestication of cereal
grains. He cited evidence from his excavations at Jarmo  in the Taurus
Mountains of modern Iraq.  However, Jonathan D. Sauer, a well-known
botanist from the University of Wisconsin, responded to Braidwood's
article by asking if the earliest utilization of the domesticated
cereals may have been for beer rather than bread.  This query prompted
Braidwood to organize a unique "symposium" for the journal American
Anthropologiest titled "Did man once live by beer alone?"

(Photo, no caption (full page) picture of a capped Anchor-style bottle
labelled "Ninkasi" (along with some presumably Sumerian script)
Sumerian Beer.)

It was not an idle question.  We now believe that barley was
domesticated about 10,000 years ago in the highland region of the
southern Levant.  But it seems likely that wild grains were gathered
long before then. What prompted the shift from hunting and gathering to
agriculture?  Many scholars have suggested that overexploitation of
wild resources and climate change in the region are behind the
transition.  But barley can ferment naturally, as we shall explain,
and the discovery of beer at an early date may well have been a
significant motivation factor in hunter-gatherers settling down and
farming the grain.

In his contribution to the symposium, Sauer, with simple elegance,
explained that for hunter-gatherers the amount of work involved in
cultivating grain would not have been worthwhile if the only reward
was a little food.  The desire for beer, he felt, might have been
sufficient incentive for expending the effort to plant and raise the
barley, which he believed to be the earliest crop.

Hans Helback, a botanist who had worked with Braidwood at Jarmo
argued that beer was NOT the cause for domestication, but a much later
development probably originating with the drying of grain for storage.
The argument against Sauer's proposal was best articulated by botanist
Paul Manglesdorf, who reasoned that even though beer was a plausible
incentive for the domestication of grain, it was not possible to
"live on beer alone."  "Did these Neolithic farmers," he asked, "forgo
the extraordinary food values of the cereals in favor of alcohol, for
which they had no physiological need?  Are we to believe that the
foundations of western civilization were laid by an ill-fed people
living in a perpetual state of partial intoxication?  The majority of
the respondents concluded that it was inconceivable that beer came
before bread, and the issue was all but forgotten.

Last year the case was reopened.  The Anchor Brewing Company of San
Francisco, looking for a special event with which to celebrate the
tenth anniversary of its new brewhouse, became aware of the
Braidwood-Sauer debate after seeing an article on the subject in
Expeditions magazine published by the University Museum, University of
Pennsylvania.  The authors [Fritz Maytag is president of Anchor
Brewing Company, Solomon Katz is a bioanthropologist at the University
Museum] were intrigued by the beer-bread question , and conceived the
idea of brewing a beer based on an ancient recipe.  Such an effort
would not only help answer the beer-bread question but might also shed
new light on the ancient brewmaster's art.

We focussed on the beer-making tradition of Mesopotamia because of its
proximity to the region of the earliest cereal domestication.  Ancient
texts preserved on clay tablets indicate that the earliest beer was
Sumerian. From all that we can determine, beer played an important
role in Sumerian society, and was consumed by men and women from all
social classes.  In the Sumerian and Akkadian dictionaries being
compiled by scholars today, the word for beer crops up in contexts
relating to medicine, ritual, and myth.  Beer parlors receive special
mention in the laws codified by Hammurabi in the eighteenth century
B.C.  Apparently stiff penalties were dealt out to owners who
overcharged customers (death by drowning) or who failed to notify
authorities of the presen e of criminals in their establishments.
(execution). High priestesses who were caught in such places were
condemned to death by burning.

(Photo caption: The code of Hammurabi, inscribed on a basalt stela
(pictured) prescribed stiff penalties for offenses at beer taverns.
The king is depicted standing before Shamash, the god known as "Lord
of justice and law giver.")

In combing the surviving Sumerian literature for a starting point, we
examined the "Hymn to Ninkasi."  This document, which dates to about
1800 B.C., sings the praises of the Sumerian goddess of brewing.  The
text, known from tablets found at Nippur, Suppar, and Larsa, had been
translated by Miguel Civil of the Oriental Institute of the University
of Chicago in 1964.  Coded within the Hymn is an ancient recipe for
beer.  We would return to the Hymn time and again before attempting to
brew the Ancient recipe.  On several occasions we met with Civil to
discuss parts of the text that were vague or ambiguous.  In responding
to our questions Civil was led to refine his translation of certain
Sumerian words such as honey and wine.  His revised translation of the
hymn, presented here for the first time, allowed us to successsfully
re-create the Sumerian beer.

(Caption: The front of this lyre from Ur is decorated with a bull's
head of gold and lapis lazuli beneath which are inlaid panels showing
animals in beer drinking scenes.)

We then returned to Braidwood's question: Did beer come before bread?
Although Sumerian beer was made several millennia after barley was
first domesticated, the process used by the Sumerians is a "time
platform" from which we can ask questions about earlier practices.
When the "Hymn to Ninkasi" was written, beer was made using bread.  But
bappir, the Sumerian bread, could be kept for long periods of time
without spoiling, and so it was a storable resource.  We also know,
from various annotations on bappir and beer in the Sumerian and
Akkadian dictionaries, that bappir was eaten only during food
shortages.  In essence, making bread was a convenient way to store the
raw materials for brewing beer.

Which was more nutritious?  Since Braidwood first raised the
beer-bread question, we have learned that many traditional food
preparation practices involve steps that lower the toxicity and
improve the nutritional properties of plants, and become a regular
part of traditional cuisine.  For example, through fermentation
of barley-derived sugars into beer, yeast decreases the levels of
tannins, stomach-irritating chemicals, and increases the levels of B
vitamins and essential amino acids.  But for fermentation to occur,
yeast cells need a higher concentration of sugar than is normally
present in raw barley.  Coincidentally, a unique property of sprouted
barley seeds is their production of large amounts of enzymes that can
convert starch into sugar.  Barley thus has both starch, and, in its
sprouted form, enzymes that convert starch to sugar.  The seeds can
be sprouted any time of year, and the final product has excellent
nutritional value and can have mildly intoxicating levels of alcohol.
Collecting and processing wild barley seeds requires tremendous
effort, and at the time of the transition to agriculture, barley was
not the only exploitable food resource - in fact many others were
probably more accessible.  It is hard to imaging that the effort spent
collecting wild seeds would have been for producing loaves of bread.
The alcohol content and higher nutritional levels of beer, however,
might have been incentive enough.

Finally, it is worth noting that Nature herself may well have produced
the first beer.  After harvesting, wild barley seeds might have been
placed in a container for storage.  If the seeds were exposed to
moisture they would sprout.  Sprouted barley is sweeter and more
tender that unsprouted seeds, and therefore more edible.  Sprouted
seeds might have been dried for later consumption .  Exposed to
airborne yeast and more moisture, the barley would have fermented,
producing beer.  We may never know when some brave soul actually
drank the "spoiled" barley.  But we do know that someone did.

Secrets of the Stanzas

(Caption: The Hymn to Ninkasi, inscribed on a nineteenth-century B.C.
tablet, contains a recipe for Sumerian beer.)

To make sense of the "Hymn to Ninkasi," we approached it on several
levels.  First, we had to determine if its sequence was linear.  That
is, did the ordering of the stanzas reflect the actual sequence of
stages in a brewing process.  Second, we had to examine the Hymn for
metaphors and other literary devices that could give us clues to the
meaning of the text.  Third, we needed to decipher the specific steps
that were suggested in each stage of brewing.  Finally, we wanted to
determine whether any of the stages of the brewing process had been
left out.  Our interpretation of the Hymn rested on a combination of
the archaeological evidence - Sumerian texts, artistic representations
of beer drinking, and artifacts once used in the consumption of beer,
such as straws made of gold and lapis lazuli; a thorough knowledge of
the stages involved in beer making, and an understanding of the
biochemical and nutritional characteristics of barley and wheat-brewed
beers.

We soon learned that the Hymn was, in the broadest sense, a linear
description of brewing - the preparation and heating of a mash in which
enzymes convert the cereal starch into sugar, the boiling of the
processed mash, or wort, the addition of flavoring and the fermenting
of the wort using yeast to convert the sugar into alcohol and improve
the nutritional content of the beer.  By following the
stanza-by-stanza instructions, we could duplicate the process used by
the Sumerians.

(Photo caption: This mid-third-millenium B.C. impression from a
cylinder seal depicts the drinking of beer through straws.)

Stanza 1 refers to being "borne of flowing water." This conjured up
images of the flowing of the Tigris and Euphrates rivers, which are
known today for their high salt content.  The dissolved mineral
content of water can affect the quality of a brew.  For example,
calcium and bicarbonate have important effects on the acidity of beer.
Levels of calcium and magnesium are important in stabilizing enzymes
and facilitating the fermentation process.  The value and function of
dissolved minerals in the waters of the Tigris and Euphrates, however,
were probably not understood in antiquity.  (Today, some of the best
breweries are located over wells that flow through lime and dolomite
deposits.)

In Stanzas II and III water is referred to again.  Perhaps the
reference to a sacred lake and great walls calls attention to the use
of a lake as a reservoir for the irrigation of crops such as barley
from which the beer was made.  The sacred lake also attests the
importance of religious belief in the production of beer.  Stanza III
also introduces us to the gods and goddesses who made up Ninkasi's
family.  A minor goddess in the Sumerian pantheon, Ninkasi's name
literally means "you who fill my mouth so full."

(Photo caption: Sir Leonard Woolley discovered gold and lapis-lazuli
beer-drinking straws in the tomb of Lady Pu-abi at Ur, ca. 2650 to
2550 B.C.)

Stanza IV addresses the particulars of Mesopotamian beer production.
The process begins with bappir, a sweet and possibly pungent bread
made from barley dough.  It is mixed with "sweet aromatics" using a
"big shovel... in a pit" and then baked (Stanza V).  Bappir seems to
have served several purposes.  In brewing it served as a source of
both hydrolyzed or gelatinized starch for rapid and efficient sugar
production, and of proteins and flavors for the mashing process.

The fermentation processes depended on enzymes from malted, i.e.
sprouted, barley seeds for the conversion of starches to sugar.  It is
not surprising that "the noble dogs keep away even the potentates"
(Stanza VI) since sprouted barley was a very delicate and valuable
resource.  Sumerian bappir probably contained little, if any, malt,
and truly was a barley bread.  Flour from malted barley containing the
necessary enzymes was probably added later in the process.

Unfortunately, the meaning of "aromatic" has not been sufficiently
understood to determine which aromatic was used.  However, it is
almost certain that dates or date juice provided flavoring.  Dates
have the aromatic flavor that the Hymn specifies, but we did not know
if the flavor would survive the fermentation process.  Other
candidates for the aromatic were skirret weed, a licorice-flavored
plant, and "Assyrian root" or radish, both of which were added to
bouza, an Eqyptian beer made for the past 5,000 years and consumed
until a few years ago when stricter laws on sanitization and vending
curtailed production.

(Photo Caption: in the upper register of this impression of a seal
discovered at Ur straws sprout from a globular jar containing beer.)

Stanza VII describes the malt being soaked in a jar in which "the
waves rise, the waves fall."  Presumably this motion refers to the
mashing process during which the malt and the bappir are commbined
with additional barley, (possibly including hulled and crushed seeds
that have been toasted or heated to make it easier for the enzymes to
convert their starch into sugar.  Although it is not mentioned in the
Hymn, the mash probably would have been heated if the process were
similar to modern brewing methods.  How the Sumerians maintained
control of the mash temperature remains a bit of a puzzle.  THe
correct temperature and timing probably developed as a result of skill
and practice.  The production of high quality beer may have become a
profession because of the need for such expertise.

In Stanza VIII the "cooked mash" is spread on mats.  This action could
have served two purposes.  Spreading out the mash would have been an
ideal way to remove the spent grains from the mixture, and it would
also allow the liquid  to drain.  Cleaning out the spent grains would
have been beneficial to Sumerian drinkers who otherwise would have had
to rely on straws to bypass the hulls.  By the time the Hymn was
inscribed, a "filter" had become the symbol of professional brewers.
Once filtered, straws were not necessary, and the beer could be
consumed directly from cups.  The Hymn states that after the "cooked
mash" has been laid out, "coolness overcomes."  It is therefore highly
likely that the mash was heated.

(Caption: A beer jar and straws are depicted on an impression from a
seal found at Ur.)

After cleaning, the mash, now referred to as "wort," is placed in
containers for fermentation.  Fermentation proceeds best if the wort
is cool, since the high temperature of the mashing step would kill
heat-sensitive yeast.  Thus the references in Stanza VIII to "coolness
overcomes" is a crucial step that preceded the addition of yeast for
fermentation.

Stanza IX, which describes brewing the "great sweet wort" with honey
and wine, was difficult to understand.  We were struck by the use of
honey.  Was it really honey, or was it date juice?  Thanks to a
reinterpretation by Sumeriologist Miguel Civil, we believe that
"honey" meant date juice.  Gestin, translated as "wine" was another
matter.  In sumerian gestin means grape, wine and raisin.  At this
point in the recipe, yeast needs to be added to start the
fermentation.  Yeast occurs naturally on the skins of grapes and
raisins.  WHile it will survive the drying process, yeast on grapes
fermented into wine will not remain active.  Thus we reasoned that
wine could be eliminated as a candidate for gestin, and that the Hymn
refers instead to grapes or raisins.

Stanza X mentions the fermentation (collector) vat.  Long,
narrow-necked  vessels would have been preferred over vessels with
large, open mouths.  THe latter form would have allowed too much
mixture of the ingredients with air.  Exposure to air would have
increased the risk of secondary contamination, as well as allowing the
acidity to decrease too much, resulting in a lower production of
alcohol and stimulation of the growth of yeast.

The "pleasant sound" in Stanza X probably refers to the trickling of
the beer through the filter and into the fermentation vat below.
Finally, in Stanza XI, the finished beer is poured out of the
fermentation vat, and into the drinking containers.  The pouring of
the finished product must have been spectacular, the Hymn describes it
as rushing out like the "Tigris and Euphrates."  These rivers were the
source of life for the Ancient Mesopotamians, so the reference to
these two great waterways must have been symbolically connected to the
Sumerians appreciation of this fine fermented beverage.

(Caption: Banquets and beer drinking were often depicted on seals
during the Early Dynastic period (2600-2350 B.C.))

The Hymn to Ninkasi

Translation by Miguel Civil

Borne of the flowing water (...)
Tenderly cared for by the Ninhursag,
Borne of the flowing water (...)
Tenderly cared for by the Ninhursag,

Having founded your town by the sacred lake,
She finished its great walls for you,
Ninkasi, having founded your town by the sacred lake,
She finished its great walls for you

Your father is Enki, Lord Nidimmud,
Your mother is Ninti, the queen of the sacred lake,
Ninkasi, Your father is Enki, Lord Nidimmud,
Your mother is Ninti, the queen of the sacred lake.

You are the one who handles the dough, [and] with a big shovel,
Mixing in a pit, the bappir with sweet aromatics,
Ninkasi, You are the one who handles 
   the dough, [and] with a big shovel,
Mixing in a pit, the bappir with [date]-honey.

You are the one who bakes the bappir in the big oven,
Puts in order the piles of hulled grains,
Ninkasi, you are the one who bakes the bappir in the big oven,
Puts in order the piles of hulled grains,,

You are the one who waters the malt set on the ground,
The noble dogs keep away even the potentates,
Ninkasi, you are the one who waters the malt set on the ground,
The noble dogs keep away even the potentates.

You are the one who soaks the malt in a jar
The waves rise, the waves fall.
Ninkasi, you are the one who soaks the malt in a jar
The waves rise, the waves fall.

You are the one who spreads the cooked 
  mash on large reed mats,
Coolness overcomes.
Ninkasi, you are the one who spreads the cooked
  mash on large reed mats,
Coolness overcomes.

You are the one who holds with both hands the great sweet wort, 
Brewing [it] with honey and wine
(You the sweet wort to the vessel)
Ninkasi, (...)
(You the sweet wort to the vessel)

The filtering vat, which makes a pleasant sound,
You place appropriately on [top of] a large collector vat.
Ninkasi, the filtering vat, which makes a pleasant sound,
You place appropriately on [top of] a large collector vat.

When you pour out the filtered beer of the collector vat,
It is [like] the onrush of Tigris and Euphrates.
Ninkasi, you are the one who pours out the
  filtered beer of the collector vat,
It is [like] the onrush of Tigris and Euphrates.

A Thrilling Link with the Past

Satisfied with our interpretation of the "Hymn  to Ninkasi," we
decided to give the recipe a try. From this moment on we began to
feel a thrilling link with brewers from ages past.  After nearly
4,000 years, Sumerian beer terms such as bappir and gestin would
be spoken in a brewery once again.

To reproduce the recipe in a modern brewery, we made certain
assumptions about the Ancient method and a few modifications in
production in order to meet the standards of the Anchor Brewing
Company in San Francisco, where the beer was to be produced.

First, we used a honey and barley flour mixture to make the bappir.
Although in antiquity dates may have been added to sweeten and flavor
the bappir before it was baked, we added them only to the final
mixture of the bread when it was being put into the mashing vat.  (The
Federal Government strictly limits such additions, and permission had
not been obtained to put in dates.)  We decided to use a combination
of unmalted, malted and roasted barley for the flour.  However, in
baking it we found that it did not dry out and was not storable in
baked form.  SO we baked it a second time, which made the bread much
like the present-day Italian biscotti and similar to traditional
breads still baked on the island of Crete.  Since Ancient sources say
that bappir was stored, we believe that the bread was twice-baked in
antiquity.  However, until we have evidence of this technique in the
Ancient texts, we will avoid further speculation.  The bread, which
had a consistency like granola, was delicious.  However, it should be
noted that our bread was not as nutritious as Sumerian bread since our
probably contained less yeast.

We conservatively mixed one-third bappir and two-thirds malt in the
mash tank, to insure that all of the starch would convert to sugar.
We were initially concerned that the heavy amount of suspended
particles from the bappir would foul the modern lautering equipment
used to filter the mash, and produce a major plumbing problem in the
Anchor brewing vats.  Our fears turned out to be unfounded,
fortunately, and the lautering processes went just fine.

We allowed the wort to cool naturally instead of using modern
artificial techniques.  The mixture was wonderfully sweet and
fragrant, just as the Hymn mentions - the aroma of toasted barley and
the scent of dates.  We brewed using only a standard brewing yeast in
lieu of the gestin mentioned in the Hymn.  We wanted to prevent any
foreign yeast from infecting the tanks, and to keep the product within
controllable standards of purity.  In modern beer making, hops are
used to provide aromatic flavor and to preserve the beer.  Since we
could not identify an Ancient plant additive that would have served as
a hop-like preservative, the beer was flash-pasteurized to assure
preservation.  The final product yielded an alcohol concentration very
similar to modern beers of 3.5% by weight.  We were ready for the
final test.  How did it taste?

To celebrate the tenth anniversary of Anchor Brewing Company at its
present location, we served the Ninkasi brew to members of the
American Association of Micro Brewers, who were having their annual
meeting in San Francisco.  The beer was consumed in proper Sumerian
fashion: sipped from large jugs using long drinking straws fashioned
to resemble the gold and lapis-lazuli straws found in the mid-third
millenium tomb of Lady Pu-abi   at Ur.

Seven months later, a second group, convening at the University Museum
to discuss our work, sampled our Ancient brew.  Not all of the beer
had survived, even with refrigeration.  However, those bottles that
were still good had aged, much like fine wine - the beer had a dry
flavor lacking in bitterness.  Aged Ninkasi beer tasted similar to a
hard apple cider but retained the fragrance of dates.  According to
the Museum's Patrick McGovern, the beer "had the smoothness and
effervescence of champagne and a slight aroma of dates."  We had
reproduced the beer that made Ninkasi famous!  We do not claim to be
correct in all of the details, but we have made a sincere effort to
bring the art of the modern brewer to bear on the mystery of how
Ancient beer might have been made four millennia ago.

(Caption: Facing page: Brewers begin by baking bappir loaves, while
scholars consult the Ancient text.  The bappir is then mixed with malt
to form the mash.  Left: the mash, or wort, is allowed to ferment
after filtering and cooling.  THe final product is sampled and
bottled.)