How does one "discover" beer? Wine I can see. Grape juice, sits in storage till it ferments and viola, you've got wine. Beer, on the other hand, requires a scientific approach to brewing ingredients, cooking, fermenting, etc. One does not accidentally come upon beer, it must be planned and researched.........
Consider that a common way to prepare whole grains for cooking is to soak them for at least a day. Also consider that sprouting is a way to enhance the nutrition of grains.
I didn't think they had violas that long ago..
"How does one "discover" beer? Wine I can see. Grape juice, sits in storage till it ferments and viola, you've got wine. Beer, on the other hand, requires a scientific approach to brewing ingredients, cooking, fermenting, etc. One does not accidentally come upon beer, it must be planned and researched........."
I always thought making wine and mead was much more complicated. I've made beer for years but when I read a book on wine making I thought it was pretty fussy.
One does not accidentally come upon beer, it must be planned and researched.........
And Moses came down from the mountain with a frosty mud and said "Let there be beer". The people rejoiced.
"nings Of Agriculture, Red Badger wrote:
How does one "discover" beer? Wine I can see. Grape juice, sits in storage till it ferments and viola, you've got wine. Beer, on the other hand, requires a scientific approach to brewing ingredients, cooking, fermenting, etc. One does not accidentally come upon beer, it must be planned and researched........."
For what we would call modern, drinkable beer true. We have the medieval scholastic monks to thank for that...most all of what we now know as beer came from their experimentation.
However, just a fermented grain drink...requires no great science. Leave some grain in a container (even a hole in rock) of water for a few days, strain out the grain, and the result is beer. Easier almost than wine. Not very potable by our standards, but in neolithic times, I'm sure lovely. Archeologically, "beer" just means a brew from fermented grains, not Bitberger Pilsener, or Chimay Red, hence to be a basic beer, doesn't mean what we know of as beer today.
Besides usually the craftsmenship of the ancient world is greater than we imagine. They may well have had a potable grain beverage (beer) that we would find delicious.
In King Midas' tomb, the remnents of the evaporated beverage s in the chalices were analyzed...finding a sophisticated brewed mix of grape must, honey, and barley all brewed together (like a combination of wine, mead and beer...but not mixed, but fermented at the same time). I've had Dogfish Head brewery's attempt at recreating it, and it is a very delicious beerwinemead...which doesn't fit any category of taste I've known. We shouldn't think the ancients as tasteless!
Does that mean there are strings attached?