Brewing Mesopotamian Beer - 4,000 Years Old

I buying a figurin I don't really need while drunk, Enkki: Hold my beer.

Jose added all the spice

"They drank sweet wine,
They drank sweer beer..."
Man, these guys would have loved Manischewitz wine😂

Appreciate the detail of the research that went into this. Thanks!

The thing that the malted barley brings to the party are enzymes to convert starches to sugars. Unfortunately they need higher temperatures then RT to work. What was missing in your recipe was a rest at 140-155F for that conversion. Otherwise you will simply have starch water.

I enjoy so much the story telling! Love the videos and I’m always ready to check what’s it’s set it up in the background. I Never cook and never will but love the videos.

Wegen Marduk, aber des war bereits Donnerschtag - sonst noch was? - Nein! Nur Marduk verdammte Schei*e! - Was? Warum bistn dann noch hier? - weiß ich auned. Aber hier gibts Bier, kaltes Bier!

Make kvass

i heard that chicago reference...

Да это же квас
The fact that you got a decent kwass is even more impressive than that here in Russia one can buy sumerian beer at every corner. Seriously, good kwass is a rare thing, congratulations!

To be honest, when I first saw that he was gonna take a sip of this ancient beer, given how strong early alcoholic beverages were I was like, "Oh, boy. He's gonna be tripping all night on that stuff, brace yourself, viewers!" But then he took the sip and... nothing. Must've been a near-beer if he didn't get drunk outright. Nothing personal, I just have my reserves about older beers and liquors and don't wanna see anyone making their selves sick if the alcohol's at a fatal level.

The reason it's not sweet is probably because you didn't use wild yeast, which typically produces lower ABV. And the reason it's not sour is because not all yeast brew the same. Some create lactic acid, while others are even poisonous (with poisonous being as rare as finding a needle in a haystack).

A bakery next to me made Schnapps out of bread ... was an interesting taste :)

Considering the era, basically all beer would have been hyper-local affairs, a specific inn/house/baker would have made their own beer however they liked. So this is likely more accurate than you'd think.

I made this in preparation for making Tuh'u to throw the ultimate Sumerian feast with friends.

I went the extra mile to be as authentic as this recipe can be, used bio barley to make my own malt AND crushed the same barley with mortar and pestle to make my own barley flour for the bappir. I used the same aromatics as you did but left it to ferment for 5 days.

What I got was a pleasantly sour, flat and pretty alcoholy (didnt do any measurments or calculations, but by taste I'd say around 3-4% ABV) BEER-LIKE beverage.

Verdict: was nice but I honestly still prefer modern beer (though if it had been cold and carbonated it could have passed as a craft sour ale). I wouldn't make it again though (certainly not the way I did), I'll probably make some kvass next instead. (Maybe an idea for a new episode?) Anyhow, our Sumerian feast was a success, so thank you, Max ❤

A dog walks into a bar and says:
“I can’t see a thing! I’ll open this one.”

It’s much funnier in the original sumerian

No wonder their no more Sumerians 😂😂😂

I don't care if its horse piss as long as it gets the job done 🍺🍺🍺🤮🤮🤮

Was all excited to make this until I heard it lasted only 2 days

So i am not the only one who visited the peak of Mount Stupid??

Tasting splooge with Max

Whats cool about that story you told, is that it lines up with the going theory on why we started farming

To make beer

So the story is also telling us beer created civilization which is cool

Isn't making beer a crime against Islam in the regions today?

Some of the date syrup would have been fermented into alcohol. The nuttiness is the roasted barley. So happy I stumbled across your channel!

The problem might be the water.

The Sumerians knew what a liver was and how alcohol affected it?

Jose-hey maxy
Max-yes dear?
Jose-what century are we dining in tonight?
Max-uhhh I’m thinking we eat from 2500 bc you know a lil kardashian sheep stew and a lil bab beer.
Jose-oh……you think next week we eat some Aztec.
Max- sure
How I think every pre dinner conversation goes on that house

Now I want to make beer smh

Drink outdoors. You will understand when you drink it... yeast much? lol

I'm so glad I found this channel.

Marduk , Tiamat, nice Line-Up

Belki de bizim "boza" yapımımıza bakmalısınız.

Hate to be that guy, but you should say oldest beer made with agricultural grains. They found evidence of beer making from wild grains in Gobekli Tepe from ten thousand years ago.

It's practically kvass

I made that beer. Tasted surprisingly good but I got two days of diarrhea.

Truly u should not read that ancient text written to their evil false idol gods.. You would be surprised the doors u could open..All Praise, Honor and Glory be to Jesus Christ forever and ever

Wow, so even in Sumerian times people were experimenting with different flavors and strengths of beer!

The only thing I can gather from.This is that the people who were in charge that had the silver in gold paid people in beer so they would not get silver and gold

Me looking at my 50 pounds of barley like👀

Great try, But I think you made some mistake. First of All the name of the first beer was KaŠ and a russian beverage called Kvas have a similar process. But I have also some other doubt about the Bappir, maybe it is the production waste of beer, they try to not waste beer dregs and bake it again to make cracker. Or on the opposite they use the old bappir cracker to make beer, who can know it? Another important thing is the yeast used, maybe the date syroup is used to get the right yeast. I tryed with raisins (dryed grape) and it is great to start fermentation.

My recipe is:
250g bread tosted well,
5 liter of water,
150g date syrup/Honey,
aromatic plants like rosmary, laurel, or other bitter taste.

Natural yeast made from date or raisins some day before.

The first time i tryed without yeast, but the natural yeast started is very sour like lambic beer. So I understand how to cultivate the right yeast like we made for wine.

Let me know if you will try it....

This episode was so funny lol first time i heard about a god giving civilization to ppl because he got too drunk

Enki was an alien

so um guess I don't know "what is good" but forgive me for thinking that beer tastes like piss lol. I would still try this though as a history nerd

Old Annunaki’s Best! We used to steal a couple from grandpa as kids.

boy he looks like a soft version of Steve Carrel, even the voice. Loved the mead

"No potentates came to steal my barley" - I laughed so much. Thank you :)