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AP- Miami

Ancient Chinese pottery reveals 5,000-year-old beer brew

http://m.hindustantimes.com/world/ancient-chinese-pottery-reveals-5-000-year-old-beer-brew/story-oEm30SaRkukYOZRqdut5QP.html/

Residue on pottery from an archaeological site has revealed the earliest evidence of beer brewing in China left from a 5,000-year-old recipe, researchers said Monday.

The artifacts show that people of the era had already mastered an “advanced beer brewing technique” that contained elements from East and West, according to a study in the Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences, a peer-reviewed US journal.

Yellowish residue gleaned from pottery funnels and wide-mouthed pots show traces of ingredients that had been fermented together -- broomcorn millet, barley, a chewy grain known as Job’s tears, and tubers.

“The discovery of barley is a surprise,” lead author Jiajing Wang of Stanford University told AFP, saying it is the earliest known sign of barley in archaeological materials from China.

“This beer recipe indicates a mix of Chinese and Western traditions -- barley from the West; millet, Job’s tears and tubers from China.”

The discovery indicates that barley made its way to China some 1,000 years earlier than previously believed.

Barley “may have been used as a beer-making ingredient long before it became an agricultural staple,” the study said.

The archaeological site at Mijiaya, near a tributary of the Wei River in northern China, includes two pits dating to around 3,400-2,900 BC.

It contains artifacts that point to beer brewing, filtration and underground storage, as well as stoves that may have been used to heat and mash grains.

However, it is impossible to know exactly how the beer tasted, researchers said, because they do not know the ingredients’ exact proportion.

“My guess is that the beer might have tasted a bit sour and a bit sweet,” Wang said.

“Sour comes from fermented cereal grains, sweet from tubers.”

Elite drink

Evidence of beer brewing has been found around the same time period in Iran and Egypt, experts say.

“The introduction of Middle Eastern barley into a Chinese drink fits with the special role of fermented beverages in social interactions and as an exotic ingredient which would appeal to emerging elite individuals,” said Patrick McGovern, an expert on biomolecular archaeology at the University of Pennsylvania Museum of Archaeology and Anthropology.

McGovern, who was not involved in the study, agreed the techniques used for brewing in China were advanced, and that “ancient peoples, including those at Mijiaya, applied the same principles and techniques as brewers do today.”

They knew to use heat to break down carbohydrates, and the underground location of the brew site “is very significant,” he added.

“A cool spot is important in controlling heat, which if it gets too high can destroy the enzymes responsible for the carbohydrate to sugar conversion,” he said.

Lower temperatures would also have been important for keeping the beverage cool in storage.

Modern beer-makers such as Dogfish Head Brewery have tried to recreate some drinks from the past, and McGovern suggested offerings for any who might like to experience a flavour similar to the 5,000-year-old brew concocted in northern China.

“I would look to a variation on several of the Dogfish ancient ales,” he said. “Maybe overlapping between Ta Henket, which includes barley and some exotic herbs and fruits, and Chateau Jiahu, representing an earlier phase of ancient Chinese brewing.”

If this is a 5,000 yr old recipe.

What is the oldest recording of beer?
What culture?

Probably Cro-Magnon Man,getting accidentally potted!

Hhhaa. I will be Googling Cro-Magon & Neanderthal & beer all day now.....

Because I must know!

http://tasmancave.blogspot.ch/p/man-cave-brewery.html

Beer is one of the oldest beverages humans have produced, dating back to at least the fifth millennium BC and recorded in the written history of ancient Egypt and Mesopotamia. As almost any cereal containing certain sugars can undergo spontaneous fermentation due to wild yeasts in the air, it is possible that beer-like beverages were independently developed throughout the world soon after a tribe or culture had domesticated cereal. Chemical tests of ancient pottery jars reveal that beer was produced as far back as about 7,000 years ago in what is today Iran. This discovery reveals one of the earliest known uses of fermentation and is the earliest evidence of brewing to date. In Mesopotamia, the oldest evidence of beer is believed to be a 6,000-year-old Sumerian tablet depicting people drinking a beverage through reed straws from a communal bowl. A 3900-year-old Sumerian poem honouring Ninkasi, the patron goddess of brewing, contains the oldest surviving beer recipe, describing the production of beer from barley via bread. In China, residue on pottery dating from between 5400 to 4900 years ago shows beer was brewed using barley and other grains.[2]

The invention of bread and beer has been argued to be responsible for humanity's ability to develop technology and build civilization.[3][4][5] The earliest chemically confirmed barley beer to date was discovered at Godin Tepe in the central Zagros Mountains of Iran, where fragments of a jug, at least 5,000 years old was found to be coated with beerstone, a by-product of the brewing process.[6]

Beer may have been known in Neolithic Europe as far back as 5,000 years ago,[7] and was mainly brewed on a domestic scale.[8]WIKI

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/History_of_beer

Beer is one of the world's oldest prepared beverages, possibly dating back to the early Neolithic or 9500 BC, when cereal was first farmed,[12] and is recorded in the written history of ancient Iraq and ancient Egypt.[13] Archaeologists speculate that beer was instrumental in the formation of civilizations.[14]WIKI
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Beer

Ancient Egyptian Proverb:

'The mouth of a perfectly happy man is filled with beer.'

The drinking of beer may have created civilization!!!!!

I need this recipe coz where i live a can of beer costs 4 U.S Dollars & i need about 10 of those cans to feel something