Beer is one of the oldest alcoholic beverages in the world with a long and rich history full of legends, myths and stories. A variety of ingredients and cereal crops have been used to make beer and some cultures around the world still make their traditional brews using methods similar to those applied thousands of years earlier. Ancient Egyptians were skillful brewers and according to Diodorus ‘made a drink from barley, for smell and sweetness not much inferior to wine.’ Recreation of ancient beers has become popular, so learning to brew like an ancient Egyptian seems timely as beer helped prevent a goddess from destroying the mankind, and pyramids may not have been built if there wasn’t enough beer.
Beer was a staple food in ancient Egypt and a widely used metaphor for the good life of ancient Egyptians. It was an important source of nutrition and an essential dietary item together with bread. Bread and beer were the ‘golden symbols of life’ and the offering formulae in tombs often included a request for ‘thousands of bread and beer’.
Ancient Egyptians were as concerned with continuing to drink beer in the afterlife so they were buried with jars of beer and magical models of breweries, while brewing scenes decorated walls of their tombs and offering bearers carried some additional supplies for eternity. Beer was also offered to the gods and in one offering stela the gift of life and donation of a brewery to the gods are related: ‘May the gods of Memphis give king life as he presents a brewery to support an endowment of beer before them in perpetuity’.
Different kinds of beer are mentioned in ancient Egyptian texts, including sweet beer, dark beer, garnished beer (perhaps specially flavored with herbs or fruits), friend’s beer, beer of truth, beer of eternity, etc. Beer was also imported; references of a New Kingdom date refer to a beer from Kedi in Asia.
Beer was a staple but also a refreshing beverage. That the ancient Egyptians liked their beer cool can be seen from a complaint against robbers who had stolen some food and drink: ‘they drew a bottle of beer which was (cooling) in water, while I was staying in my father’s room’. Beer was also drank in taverns and the term for drinking partyʿt ḥnḳt literally meant beer house. Brewer was called ‘fty and dreaming of drinking warm beer was considered a bad sign.
Goddess Hathor is generally associated with brewing of beer in ancient Egypt. She was also worshipped as the ‘goddess of drunkenness.’ In the Book of Heavenly Cow, Hathor (in the form of Sekhmet) is tricked into drunkenness in order to prevent her from destroying the mankind. As the story goes, Re poured out beer dyed red with red ochre, inundating fields to a height of three palms. When the goddess saw the fields she started to drink and forgot all about the destruction of mankind. Menqet was also known as a beer goddess of the ancient Egyptians and the one ‘who makes beer’.
Ancient Egyptian breweries
The earliest Egyptian breweries were found at Predynastic sites at Hierakonpolis and Abydos. Excavations at both of these sites revealed installations consisting of double rows of large vats setup into a mudbrick construction.
The large quantities of ash and charcoal were found surrounding the vats and slight reddening of ceramic indicate that they were moderately heated. Thanks to the arid Egyptian climate, some of the vat contents have survived as residue in which remains of emmer wheat and barley were found. Single vats with similar features have been also discovered at Mahasna and Ballas, in the vicinity of Hierakonpolis. These findings suggest that the vats were used as brewing vessels and that brewing of beer was already underway at least around 3500 to 3400 B.C.
Pyramid workers at Giza received daily rations of bread and beer where, according to McGovern, uncovered vats similar to those at Hierakonpolis could have been used to make both bread and beer, and a large number of standard Egyptian beer bottles were found scattered in the area. Excavations at the Middle Kingdom Abu Ghalib site uncovered elongated conical molds that Larsen suggested were used for partially baking bread that was then used for beer brewing. Two sites from the New Kingdom (workmen’s villages of Amarna and Deir el-Medina) have provided additional evidence for the full process of brewing methods which will be discussed shortly.
Brew like an Egyptian – the common account of ancient Egyptian brewing techniques
Interpretations of ancient Egyptian brewing methods are mainly based on artistic representations which include wall-reliefs and paintings, statuettes and models of breweries placed inside the tombs. Although the brewing scenes are often accompanied with inscriptions they do not always explain the actions being carried out, but usually record conversations between bakers and brewers.
Egyptian beer was also described by several ancient writers – Herodotus, Diodorus, Strabo, Pliny, and Athenaeus, while the recipe written by the end of the third/beginning of the fourth century AD by the Egyptian Zosimos of Panopolis has been most frequently cited as a model of ancient Egyptian brewing.
Generally speaking, the most common interpretation of brewing in ancient Egypt is based on the use of bread. Beer loaves or the so-called beer bread were made from dough rich in yeast and lightly baked so that the yeast would not be killed by heat. Those loaves were then crumbled and rinsed with water through sieves into vats (additional ingredients such as dates or extra yeast might have been added at this point). Fermentation occurred inside the vats and the resulting liquid was decanted into jars which were sealed for storage or transport.
The process described is somewhat similar to the one used for making a Nubian beverage bouza, commonly drank by boatmen of the Nile today. McGovern describes the making of bouza as follows:
First, cereal – generally wheat, but also barley, millet and sorghum – is ground and lightly baked as leavened bread, with a moist, yeasty center. The bread is broken, diluted with water, and combined with malt. The resulting mash is moderately heated for several hours and more water added, and, sometimes after a filtration step, the beverage is primed with some old bouza and set aside to ferment for several days.
Bouza making has been described by other authors as well, and Burckhardt mentions one variety called ‘mother of the nightingale,’ because it allegedly makes a drunkard sing.
Reconstruction of ancient Egyptian brewing methods based on evidence from preserved beer remains
Archaeological data has provided a different view on ancient Egyptian brewing methods. Amongst the most important archaeological remains are beer residues recovered from tombs and settlement sites, representing both funerary and daily life practices. While these residues are from the finished product and intermediate stages of brewing and from different types of beer made using different techniques, they still provide the most direct evidence as to the ingredients used in the making of ancient Egyptian beer.
The majority of examined beer residues were found to contain barley, whereas some were made entirely of emmer wheat. Occasionally, both cereals were mixed together in more or less equal proportions.
Beer residues were found in small shallow cups that were probably used for drinking, in closed vessels suitable for fermenting or storing the beer and, in the case of Predynastic installations, in large open vats. Beer remains were also found in a number of amphorae and drinking straws have been recovered from ancient Egyptian sites.
Many of the existing residues have not been fully examined, but a number of the specimens were analyzed by Johannes Grüss and Delwen Samuel carried out a detailed study on the residues from the two workmen’s villages of Amarna and Deir el-Medina. Amarna was the capital of the country during the reign of Akhenaten, and the village at Deir el-Medina was inhabited by workers who built royal tombs in the Valley of the Kings and the Valley of the Queens (ca. 1550-1069 B.C.). Although the evidence from these two villages does not fully reflect the entire New Kingdom brewing practices, the reconstruction of the ancient Egyptian brewing process based on direct evidence of preserved beer residues appears to be different from the earlier common interpretation.
According to this study, conducted using electron scanning microscopy (SEM), at least during the New Kingdom the ancient Egyptians used malt for brewing and not lightly baked bread. Brewing was a two-part process, where two parts of cereal grain were differently treated and then mixed together. The addition of dates or other fruits was not necessary for successful fermentation and the word bnr, interpreted as dates according to Samuel, might also refer to the sweetness derived from malt.
The first step in the process was malting the grain (moistening the grain allowed for germination, and the sprouted grain could be then dried in the sun or by gentle heating). Malt was coarsely ground with one part being set aside while the rest of the malt, or unsprouted cereal instead, was cooked in water. The cooked cereal and uncooked malt were then mixed together and rinsed with water through a sieve into a large pottery vessel where the resulting liquid (equivalent to wort) would ferment into beer.
There are different possibilities as to how the fermentation could occur inside the vats. In traditional brewing the same vats containing plenty of desirable yeasts and lactic acid bacteria are always used for brewing, or the vats are left to the open air to initiate fermentation (technique used today in brewing Belgian lambic beers). A portion of the last brew or other ingredients rich in yeast such as fruit could also be added to aid the fermentation process. All four methods might have been used depending on the circumstances and the individual brewer. Manniche mentions beer residue of a New Kingdom date where yeast cells grown on wild bananas were identified. The fruits of wild bananas are inedible, but people consume the starchy leaf bases.
Wild suggested that malting could have taken place in big jars placed on their sides; one example can be seen in a brewery model from the tomb of Nefery (BH116), where six jars are placed on their side in front of the brewers.
Toasted malt could have also been used alongside malt for brewing to provide color and flavor. Samuel points out that heating malt while still moist produces a sweet toffee-like flavor, similar to that of date fruit. A variety of roasted malts are also used in brewing today (crystal malts and caramel malts have sweet caramel and toffee flavors and deeply roasted malts produce dark or black beers). McGovern mentions a brewing scene from the tomb of Ti at Saqqara where a large horizontal malting jar is shown close to the oven where it was probably toasted.
Baking and brewing were often represented together and they usually took place at the same locations. According to Samuel, this was not the case because bread was a precursor to brewing beer, but because bread and beer shared the same ingredients and a similar technology was used at many stages of baking and brewing. The brewers are often depicted in a squeezing stance, indicating they were making an effort to remove as much water and soluble material as possible, but as suggested by Samuel, ‘the result was not bread loaves in the sieve, but more-or-less fist-sized damp chaffy lumps’.
Other ingredients of ancient Egyptian brews
Ancient Egyptians made a variety of beers of different strengths and flavors. Various flavorings are found in literature but their identification is not clear.
Date fruits were widely thought to be a main ingredient in ancient Egyptian beer, used both for flavor, and more importantly, to provide sufficient sugar for fermentation. References of date fruits were found in the brewing scenes from the Sixth Dynasty tomb of Iynefert at Saqqara and the Twelfth Dynasty Tomb of Intefiqer at Thebes (TT60), and in the texts associated with making of beer (Moscow Mathematical Papyrus, Papyrus Bulaq 18 and Papyrus Louvre 3326, etc.). More recently a 17th Dynasty jar ‘containing barley and two dates to produce sweet beer in the hereafter’ has been recovered by Proyecto Djehuty at Dra Abu el-Naga.
No evidence for the use of date fruits has been found in the examined residues from Amarna and Deir el-Medina, but additions such as syrups might only be identified using chemical analysis. According to the evidence from archaeobotanical remains examined by Samuel, dates were rather the occasional flavoring and not a standard ingredient in ancient Egyptian beer.
A seed gall from sycamore fig was found in one jar from Deir el-Medina tomb. This rare find indicates that sycamore figs were used for flavoring special beers.
The symbolic importance of sycamore fig in ancient Egypt is well known, and it is one of the best represented species in artistic and textual records with the fruit commonly found in ancient Egyptian tombs since Predynastic times. Perhaps because of its religious significance and association with goddess Hathor, the sycamore fig could have been an ingredient in the ‘beer for eternity’.
Another ingredient that was added in the brewing process is carob. Sweet beer, frequently mentioned in ancient Egyptian texts, is made with addition of carob pods. Honey and honeyed bread were also used to sweeten the brew.
Sour orange has been identified in one residue, but this identification has been dismissed as this fruit was not known in the Mediterranean world until after the medieval period. Few additional plant remains were found in residues from Deir el-Medina and Amarna but identification was difficult due to their small size and rarity.
Other fruit and spices were also added as well, but there is limited direct evidence from examined residues thus far.
Similar present day beers
Evidence from the examined New Kingdom residues seems to suggest that the brewing methods applied at the two sites are different from that used in Nubia for making of bouza. There is some similarity though, as the making of bouza involves mixing two differently treated parts of grain – lightly baked bread (cooked cereal) and uncooked malt. Nevertheless, studies of preserved archaeobotanical and archaeological remains from prehistoric sites near the town of Aswan (Wadi Kubbaniya and Nabta Playa), and the chemical data from the tomb of Scorpion I at Abydos, according to McGovern, still support the view that ancient Egyptians made beer with well leavened bread at some point.
The brewing methods, based on the evidence from preserved beer residues, seem to more closely resemble those still found in some parts of sub-Saharan Africa. The southern African sorghum beer, for instance, is made from an elaborate series of mixtures, including cooked and uncooked grain and malt. Sudanese fermented food beverage Merissa, made of sorghum or millet, involves three different grain treatments and complex processing and mixing as well. The use of a two-part brewing process by ancient Egyptians also allowed for variation and development of different flavors and strengths.
It is clear that a large variety of beers existed in ancient Egypt, with local practices likely being influenced by foreigners as well. Wheat, barley and sorghum grew in the Nile valley. As Strabo wrote ‘barley beer is a preparation peculiar to the Egyptians. It is common among many tribes, but the mode of preparing it, differs in each’. He also adds that the Ethiopians made a drink both from millet and from barley and the Kushites (also rulers of the Twenty-fifth Dynasty) were known to make a drink from sorghum as well. Nubians made sorghum and millet beers which were also essential offerings for the dead.
Re-creating the ‘liquid gold of Pharaohs’
Akhenaten included a bakery and a brewery in the sun temple of his wife Nefertiti when he built his capital city el-Amarna. The analysis of beer remains recovered from this site by Delwen Samuel led to re-creation of Tutankhamun Ale (6% ABV) by Scottish and Newcastle Breweries in 1996. They used modern emmer wheat, with a 1:1 mixture of unmalted emmer and emmer malt. One thousand bottles sold out quickly at the price of around $75.
Another more recent example, is the Ta Henket (4.5% ) beer brewed by Patrick McGovern with Dogfish Brewery in 2011, using emmer wheat and loaves of hearth-baked bread with its yeasty and caramelized flavors. The name reflects the decision to make a bread-based replica of ancient Egyptian brew (ta – bread sign represented by a semicircular-shaped bread loaf, and henket – beer sign depicted by a jar). This beer is also flavored with chamomile, dom-palm fruit and Middle Eastern herbs found at famous Khan el-Khalili market in Cairo, with addition of yeast from date palm groves at Dahshur.
According to McGovern, Ta Henket was brewed as one of many possible interpretations of a prehistoric Egyptian beverage: ‘Nothing like it has yet been found in an ancient Egyptian vessel. Still, it does justice to the available chemical, archaeobotanical and textual evidence.’
Unfortunately, the beverage was quickly taken off the market as the sales were down, and the Middle Eastern spice mixture za’atar and dom fruit ‘were likely too intense for the average American consumer.’
Home brewers interested in tasting the beer of ancient Egyptians can try some of the recipes provided by Brew Your Own magazine: https://byo.com/hops/item/2150-tutankhamun-ale-story. Of course, there are other options one can try using ancient Egyptian fruits and herbs available today. Cheers!
Bibliography:
A. Lucas, J. R. Harris, Ancient Egyptian Materials and Industries. London, 1962
D. B. Redford, The Oxford Encyclopedia of Ancient Egypt. Oxford, 2001
D. Samuel, ‘Brewing and baking,’ in Ancient Egyptian Materials and Technology, ed. P. T. Nicholson, I. Shaw. Cambridge, 2000
D. Samuel, ‘Archaeology of ancient Egyptian beer,’ in Journal of the American Society of Brewing Chemists 54(1996):3-12
L. C. Kahn, ‘Beer and brewing’ in The Oxford Companion to Archaeology, ed. B. M. Fagan, C. Beck. Oxford, 1996
N. de Garis Davies, A. H. Gardiner, The Tomb of Antefoker, Vizier of Sesostris I, and of His Wife, Senet. London, 1920
N. de Garis Davies, Two Ramesside tombs at Thebes. New York, 1927
P. E. McGovern, Uncorking the Past: The Quest for Wine, Beer, and Other Alcoholic Beverages. Berkeley, 2009
W. K. Simpson, The Literature of Ancient Egypt: An Anthology of Stories, Instructions, Stelae, Autobiographies, and Poetry, New Haven, 2003
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