For biblical hangover, try beer brewed BC

IT IS a question that has fermenting in the minds of beer lovers for centuries: what kind of beer did people drink during biblical times and how did it taste?

Finally, the prayers of the curious have been answered after scientists in Israel made history by brewing beer using extracts of ancient yeast.

When they drank their product, they concluded that the beer would have tasted something akin to a mixture of honey wine and modern ale.

Microbiologists in Israel, as well as scholars from the Israel Antiquities Authority and Hebrew University, extracted microscopic specimens from several ancient beer jugs that dated as far back as 3000BC.

They then cleaned and sequenced the full genome of every specimen, before handing it over to brewers as well as a local beer expert to produce the drink.

According to the scientists, the yeast was similar to that used in traditional African brews, such as Ethiopian honey wine, and to modern beer yeast, The Tablet reported.

The Associated Press said the beer was “champagne bubbly and dry, with a hint of green apple”.

A panel of tasters, including certified tasters from the International Beer Judge Certification Programme, said that the beer was high quality and safe for consumption.

In a joint statement, the researchers said that beer was an important part of people’s daily lives in antiquity.

“Great powers were attributed to beer in the ancient world, particularly for religious worship and healing properties,” the statement explained.

Dr Ronen Hazan, from the Hebrew University-hadassah School of Dental Medicine, who initiated the research, said that the experiment enabled them to taste the flavours of the past.

“By the way, the beer isn’t bad,” he added.

“Aside from the gimmick of drinking beer from this time, this research is extremely important to the field of experimental archaeology – a field that seeks to reconstruct the past.”