Except that Franklin never said that. Nor is it true that the IPA was invented to last the journey to India, the Pilgrims went ashore because they ran out of Beer, or that Ale-Conners sat on benches to test the strength of beer. But that is one of the joys of learning and especially with studying the history of beer, you get to re-discover the truth and learn how things really happened.

Brewing has been a part of human material culture ever since the Neolithic. It is intertwined with religious, culinary, and ethnic traditions. As such, studying the history of brewing not only covers the scientific/technical development of an industry but also ourselves, our political games, economies, rites of passage, and daily rituals. That is why I decided to start researching it.

My dissertation focused on the Faroe Islands, with a pre-viking era settlement. Incidentally, there were some pots with potential beer residue, so my adviser and I decided to have a look. The results were inconclusive, and we were unable to modify our experiments to increase resolution due to time constraints. Hopefully in the future we will be able to try again, but in the meantime, the materials will sit in the storage area of the archaeological department. 

My fondest memory of my masters was sitting in the library with piles and piles of articles and text books on beer. Whether about beer in Africa, India, Asia, South America, drinking rituals to the legitimacy of residue analysis, it was really an endless exploration for more knowledge. An experience I never felt with biology.  

This blog, then, serves as a continuation of my studies. So, here you will find my jottings on academic papers, investigations, interviews, and brewing. Topics I hope to cover are the current knowledge of brewing archaeology, the roles beer played in the past, and the people acting behind the scenes.

Cheers!

Firstly, I have the new spiffy timelytipple.com domain now! Plus, I know the RSS feeder wasn't working, but that should be taken care of (hopefully). Also spent a week in Italy vacationing and getting caught up on some reading and writing. So the next few blog posts are already in the pipeline!

​Also working on a few other side project that I hope to announce soon.

Good! I have had pulque only once (and can understand why it might not be to everyone’s taste), and really enjoyed it. Would be rad if it was more available.​
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The journey of a man who decided to uncover the local brewing history in Wisconsin.

The history of the Stroud Brewery has been published in a new book by historian Marion Hearfield

Archaeologists out in Iowa City recently went exploring some old beer caves using 3D imaging known as LiDAR

This malting facility is located in Eberdingen-Hochdorf, next to Stuttgart. The area was identified as a farm within the rural residence of a nearby fortified hill top, known as ‘Hohen Asperg.’ There was also a rich grave mound found located just half a kilometer to the east of the site. Given the other finds at the site (such as some fine ceramics and bronze material), it is assumed this farm belonged to a Celtic Prince, probably living at the Hohen Asperg hilltop fort.


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Six ditches were found, each approximately 5 - 6 m long, 0.6 m wide and up to 1.1 m deep in a U-shaped profile. Since there was no evidence for erosion, Dr. Stika assumed the walls were supported with wooden boards, despite no such boards being excavated.

The site turned up three different groups of grains (assemblages). Two contained mostly hulled barley. Although the exact amount of barley isnt specified, it is said to be within the thousands of ‘multirowed barley’, which I'm assuming is six-row. The remaining assemblage had only around 266 individual grains and contained a few other species (wheat varieties and wild plants). ​

So to start the experiment, hulled and naked barley grains were germinated. This was done by soaking both grain types overnight, and then divided into three different groups. These were then exposed to different temperatures, light, and climate:

• Dark environment with humidity control around 10 °C
• Dark plus damp cellar around 14 °C
• Daylight at room temperature

After the germination process, these subgroups were then compared to modern malts. The best results were under dark and cool conditions with constantly high humidity. Signs of germination began after five days.

These experimental grains were then exposed to charring, to make them suitable for comparison to the Hochdorf trench grains. Charring was done at two different temperatures: 250 °C and 350 °C. Grains which were still moist puffed up, whereas dry grains remained morphologically intact. As expected, sprouts from the germination process did not survive, and no sprouts were recovered at the archaeological site.
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Interestingly, grains which were left to germinate for seven days or longer did not preserve well.

Merryn goes over how the vast amounts of burnt mounds throughout Britain could be explained with trough style brewing. Would love to try brewing that way, seems like a lot of fun (but a lot of work at the same time).

A short history of Suze, a gentian root aperitif made without wine.

The attempts at revival of a ‘45 million year old’ yeast found from fossilized amber discovered by Dr. Raul Cano in 1992. I’ll have to read the scientific article to see whether I trust his findings, but more yeast to brew with the better.

For the Historic Arkansas Museum’s 75th anniversary, a local brewery developed a historic beer that should be close to what the area’s first brewery would have made.​​

​Observation starts at 18:33
 
One man is sitting outside, drinking what appears to be a porter.
 
Above the entryway is a wooden plaque displaying the name of the pub, with Victorian-esque light fixtures adorning the outside wall.
 
Inside the pub are beer steins (Steinkruege) adorning wooden nooks, crannies, and display cases. The decorations are akin to a British pub, with the atmosphere to match. For the sake of anonymity, though, it is tough to go into detail about the place as it would be a total giveaway. But there is brewing memorabilia towards the back, with paintings of various beer labels and brewery logos.
 
This is an international craft beer bar and dedicates itself to beers from only one country. An idea normally afforded to the Belgians, and one which I hope catches on. It gives me more reasons to go out.
 
I order a pale ale. There are 19 taps, of which three are dedicated to cask ales. This is the only place (to my knowledge) that offers cask ale in Berlin, despite it not being a British pub. The beer styles range from pilsner to hefeweizen, a hopped bock to double IPA. It is one of the more impressive tap lists, but the majority of the beers are only from one brewery, despite it advertising as a craft beer bar, and not a brewery tap house.
 
There are also around 20 different bottles available, ranging from 11 to 40 euros in price.
 
An Italian woman walks up to the bar and greets the bartenders in a boisterous manner. While they exchange pleasantries, I stand in silence waiting for a freshly pulled beer.
 
I decide to sit outside, as the weather is agreeable and the bar is located in a nice neighborhood. There are six plants in the venue, hedges on the outside, with two trees shading the front patio. People walk by every other minute or so, always looking tempted to join in. Two others enter; this time German. They order a hefeweizen and a bock beer.
 
There are normally no TVs here, but given the European Championships, one is hanging in front of a window.
 
The Italian woman joins the man drinking outside. It appears they have organized a social gathering for a large group of internationals as they switched to English once more of them arrived. Their party eventually grows to eight. They’re all drinking different beer, but none of them have the hefeweizen or pilsner.
 
I finish up my pint and decide to sit inside next to the window. A couple walks in and start asking the bartender for advice on what to drink. Do bartenders get enough credit? It must get tiresome to recommend beer day in and day out.
 
The chef is preparing something, but it involves a giant wheel of cheese. Another man walks in, this time American. He seems to be the most talkative out of all the patrons, as he jumped from group to group trying to start a conversation. He is drinking the double IPA.
 
I try to distinguish what people are talking about, but it’s a touch difficult given the three different languages being spoken in here. Some are catching up; others are discussing the philosophy of death. Typical pub talk, really.
 
There are five people smoking, no vapes. Oddly enough, there are also five people with visible tattoos.
 
As I am about to leave, I notice an ‘American lager’ on tap. I am not aware of any American-style lager that is worthwhile, but to my surprise, it was a good beer despite my palate being wrecked after the session IPA.

It is now 20:02 when I leave, and there are sixteen people in the pub.