OT Hey Firkin

[Red]

Is that Ninkasi you're using for your avatar? If it is, have you tried making the beer? My friends and I keep talking about trying it but haven't gotten to it yet.

For those who don't know, Ninkasi is the sumerian goddess of Beer (amonst other things). One of the prayers to her that's been translated gave enough info about how Sumerians brewed beer that a West Coast brewer named Fritz Maytag made some up for a convention of beer industry pros a number of years ago.

 

[firkin]

Red,

whoops, answered you on Bill's "gift horse" thread-- anyway I pasted it here:

Wondered if anybody would notice the avatar. It's an image found on a 6000 yr old Sumerian clay tablet depicting two people drinking beer from an earthenware jug through long straws. I've never heard of any images of Ninkasi herself, but I'm not the one to ask. Anchor made a batch once trying to follow the hymn to Ninkasi, but I've never tried to. When I brewed, I never even got to full-mash, let alone trying something like that--If I remember, the principle carbohydrate source was bread!

Notice the less clearly depicted person on the left--perhaps an ancient ancestor of Bruise?

I'll now add this...

You might want to check out the links to Finnish Sahti or Estonian Kodoulu in this thread:

http://www.bladeforums.com/forums/showthread.php?s=&threadid=272835&highlight=beer

Similar, but seems a little less complicated for a first try--Seems sparging will be a bit more difficult for any of them, but using bread seems like a real toughie. Yeast is another question--it might be possible to culture indigenous yeast from the grain itself. Unprocessed, whole-grain rye flour has enough native yeast that one can start a sour dough culture just by incubating it with water. Takes a few days to be noticeably active. Maybe one could then bulk it up by feeding it a bit wort made a few days in advance. Could be closer to the spontaneous innocuulation orginally used. If it doesn't catch, you can always pitch a healthy batch of comercial yeast.

Good luck!

 

[Aardvark]

two people drinking beer from an earthenware jug through long straws.

So THAT'S where myth started that you get drunk faster if you drink beer through a straw.