Ancient Ale Brews Up a Treat

One of Japan's most well known breweries has produced a new beer based entirely on a recipe inscribed on a 4400-year-old Egyptian wall painting. Kirin Brewery, Japan's second largest beer maker, has teamed up with Egyptologists from Waseda University in Tokyo to reproduce an alcoholic beverage based on a recipe deciphered from a recently discovered Egyptian hieroglyphic. Anthropologists say Old Kingdom Beer, as Kirin has dubbed it, is more or less the same ancient ale that would have been consumed in Egypt as far back as the 10th century BC. A barley based brew with a hefty alcohol content of about 10 percent, Old Kingdom has approximately twice the kick of modern day beer. Kirin brewers say the concoction is quite different from today's traditional lager beer because it's not made from hops, the ingredient that gives beer its bitter bite - and the dark color and thick consistency produce little or no head.

Unfortunately, curious pub crawlers won't get to wet their whistles with a pint of Old Kingdom any time soon. Kirin Brewery and Waseda University say the first batch will be reserved for research and then sent to the US to be put under the microscope at the Master Brewers Association of America beer conference this October. A similar limited edition brew was marketed by Newcastle in the mid-nineties under the name Tutankhamen Ale. A single bottle sold for a heady US$80.


Bad luck they didn't commercialise it more widely. I would have liked to try it just to give me a (slightly) better idea of how was life like in Ancient Egypt. With a mummy on it, it would have looked terrific in the combini