4500 year old beer. Wisely the ancient Irish seem to have had a wider
source of different beers than the present scant selection.
fulacht fiadh
Archaeologists Recreate Ancient Irish Beer
Two Galway Archaeologists have proposed a theory that one of the most
common archaeological monuments in the Irish landscape may have been
used for brewing a Bronze Age Beer.
Billy Quinn and Declan Moore, two archaeologists with Moore
Archaeological & Environmental Services (Moore Group) in Galway,
believe that an extensive brewing tradition existed in Ireland as far
back as 2500 BC. In an article to be published in Archaeology Ireland
next month, they detail their experiments and research into the
enigmatic site that is the fulacht fiadh. These monuments (of which
there are approx. 4500), which present in the landscape as small,
horseshoe shaped grass covered mounds, have been conventionally
thought of by archaeologists as ancient cooking spots. However, Quinn
and Moore believe that they may have also been used as breweries.
According to Quinn "the tradition of brewing in Ireland has a long
history, we think that the fulacht may have been used as a kitchen
sink, for cooking, dying, many uses, but that a primary use was the
brewing of ale." The two set out to investigate their theory in a
journey which took them across Europe in search of further evidence.
To prove their theory, Quinn & Moore set out to recreate the process.
They used an old wooden trough filled with water and added heated
stones. After achieving an optimum temperature of 60-70°C they began
to add milled barley and after approx 45 minutes simply baled the
final product into fermentation vessels. They added natural wild
flavourings (taking care to avoid anything toxic or hallucinogenic)
and then added yeast after cooling the vessels in a bath of cold water
for several hours.
According to Moore "including the leftover liquid we could easily have
produced up to 300 litres of this most basic ale". Through their
experiments, they discovered that the process of brewing ale in a
fulacht using hot rock technology is a simple process. To produce the
ale took only a few hours, followed by a three-day wait to allow for
fermentation.
Quinn and Moore point out that although their theory is based solely
on circumstantial and experimental evidence, they believe that,
although probably multifunctional in nature, a primary use of the
fulacht fiadh was for brewing beer.
For additional information on ancient Irish beer, contact Declan or
Billy or visit Moore Group.
A selection of photographs can be viewed at
Ancient Irish beer Photos. Larger versions can be provided on request.
1 comment:
A fascinating experiment. I would like to know if there is any support for this theory from artifacts found at sites. Presumably one would expect a high proportion of ceramics for vessels to transport the brew. Would wooden vessels have been used for the fermentation process? In fact have they done anything to prove that brewing was more likely than, say, tanning?
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