Well, here it is, the moment we'd been waiting for.... ... ready for bottling.... ... And the siphons going...and its... ..... ..TOTALY BAUTCHED.......Sigh...moand.. groan..drink.... ........ Now for the second batch: (intense expresion of worry).. ..... ready for bottling.... ... And the siphons going...and its... ..... ..TOTALY BAUTCHED.......Sigh...moan.. groan..drink...drink sob.....drink. Well, after about 10 extra hours of work and about $30 for ingredients. Both batches were bad as in totally undrinkable. It's not exactly clear to me if it was sanitation related, *we were careful*, but perhaps not careful enough. Collectively we've only had 2 bad batches out of about 25-30. So 2 bad in one brew day was quite a loss. Coupled with the fact that the only 2 other readers who contacted me as having tried it, had bad batches; I'm begining to believe there may be some significant flaw or omission in our current process. I think it was a lot easier for Anchor Steam (with all their expertise and facilities, than the average homebrewer). Is it the bread? We boiled the wort briefly, do we need to do it longer? Of course the scary thought is that the ancients probably would have drunken it anyway. My brew buddies were quite disappointed and see no reason to continue the experiment (having forgon 2 batched of "normal" homebrew). As for myself, I see it as an opportunity to still explore the fringe of brewing, there's a certain challenge to brewing and perfecting something unusual and ancient that isn't just listed in all the books. However, I'll make 1 gallon batch sizes and conduct a controlled experiment next time (with lots of bleach and rinsing). Here's my original posts, rearranged, and with final SG for anyone else that wants to try. A word of advice: Don't use Hibiscus! -------------------------------- Beer #1: 6lbs malted barley 4lbs bappir upward infusion process 30 min protein rest 6lbs date syrup added to lauter along with 1/2 ounce rosemary 12 dates Pitched with Wyeast California Lager Original SG 1.065 Final SG 1.020 Status: DOWN THE DRAIN We had intended to only use 3lbs of date syrup but had some miscommunication (too many cooks in the kitchen). We did boil the wort very briefly for sanitation. We used a wort chiller. Our specific gravity was 1.060 at 81 degrees F (about 1.065). As Rob said, "This much smells so sweet, I can't get over it". Anyone want to guess final gravity, assuming all goes well? We will ferment at room temperature (about 60-65 degrees). Beer #2 6lbs malted barley (american 2-row) 4lbs bappir upward infusion process 30 min protein rest 4lbs honey added to lauter along with pre-Pitched with dry wine yeast Original SG 1.050 at 88 degrees F (1.056) Final SG 1.008 Status: DOWN THE DRAIN Background Info: ---------------------- Sumerian Beer - A Journey Into the Unknown. Background: In August of 1989, Anchor Brewing Co. reproduced the oldest known recipe for beer from a Sumerian clay tablet dating back to at least 1800 B.C.. Called Ninkasi, this beer was only produced for the internal consumption of Anchor Brewing. Anchor will provide you with information if you call (415)-863-8350. The beer is made from an ancient bread recipe, called bappir. Inspired by this recipe, we decided that our first attempt at mashing, would be an attempt to reproduce Ninkasi. No one, of course (including Anchor), really has any idea of how it is supposed to taste. My personal goal is to try to reproduce the recipe as closely as possible, and then refine it into a highly drinkable and enjoyable (assuming it needs any improvement at all) beer. Herein is an account of the first of several of our attempts to brew this beer. The Brewers: George Paap (Me) - engineer, beer brewer, beer drinker John Wells - professional cook, student, beer brewer, beer drinker Rob Jenkins - professional cook, professional musician, beer brewer, beer drinker We have been brewing together (and separately) since April 1992. Approximate experience is about 20-25 batches of beer, 6 batches of mead. Brewing philosophy There are two type of brewing: brewing for rapid consumption (i.e., 2 weeks from brewing to drinking, dry or liquid yeast, primary fermentation only, no aging unless really necessary); and trying to brew the best beer possible (i.e., using all the "advanced techniques"). Most of our experience tends towards the former, although we have tried various "advanced techniques". Now we are moving towards the latter, and are attempting our first mashing. In the future we will probably brew both types of beer simultaneously (otherwise it's too hard to keep the shelves stocked;-). Brew goal: make a batch of Ninkasi beer following the Anchor recipe as much as possible, but improvising for any problems and limitations. The Anchor recipe: -Bappir Bread: used 80% barley, 10% roasted barley, 10% malted barley, and honey, the bread was twice baked, -mashed with typical upward infusion process, ratio 1/3 bappir, 2/3 malted barley -syrup of date added to the final mash -wort not boiled -wort cooled gradually -pitched with standard top fermenting yeast -original gravity: 11.1 plato -final gravity: 2.6 apparent -alcohol: 3.5% BAPPIR: The bread of the God(des)s The first challenge was to create the bread. Anchor describe it as having the taste of granola and the consistency of a cookie (a hard cookie in my opinion). Fortunately I brew with cooks. We used: 10lbs pearled barley (crushed, no husks) 2lbs toasted barley (light, 4 row malt) 2lbs American 6 row malt red raspberry and hibiscus 13lbs honey 3.5lbs gold medal flour (wheat and barley) We had started with 7.5 lbs honey, did a test "patty" and it didn't stay together. We continued to add honey until it became too runny. Then we added 3.5 lbs of flour to give it some consistency. It was like a very good granola. Rob said "This is like eating rocks, the bikers would love this". Next time I think we will grind up some of the grain to a more flour consistency. This is NOT easy to stir. We now had a LOT of bappir. A couple of days after we had made our bappir, I got an email from Lance Reed (lrr1@midawy.uchicago.edu or lrr1@quads.uchicago.edu, edited and reproduced with permission) describing his experience: ------------------------ "It turns out that the reason I got into homebrewing was because I tried the same experiment that the Anchor Brewing company tried at about the same time (shortly after). I was currently a 2nd year student at the Univ. of Chicago, and a Near Eastern Studies major (well, for awhile anyway). I was able to talk to one of the original translator's (Miguel Civil) about the problem. After reading Miller's book and as many sources relating to early brewing processes, I attempted to brew sumerian beer. The results were similar to what Anchor did- a wine-like beer, but I had a rampant strain of lactobacillus (sour). Unfortunately, during a subsequent move, I lost all my equipment and notes. The recipe I used for the bread came from a bread making book. The name of the recipe was "Shepherd's Bread" . It was a concoction of Barley flour, water, and honey. All my research led me to the conclusion that the existence of beer came from left out barley gruel that accidentally fermented. It turns out that the best way to store barley (at least in ancient times) was to first make it into thin flat rounds, and then bake it once to cook it, and then bake it a second time to harden it. This stuff will last months (very brick like). Anyway, By using the recipe that I had (which incidentally called for making the bread in flat 5 inch circles) and baking it twice (helps to convert starch to sugar), I thought I was adequately simulating the procedure to the best of my knowledge. I added crushed malted barley to the recipe (along with husks) to better simulate the bread. The bread (very hard) was then softened using water, and mashed at protein and starch conversion temperatures (this probably wasn't done by the Sumerians). I added extra honey, and a date "goo" (I forget the sumerian name--stuff is great on toast) made from modjool dates cut up and cooked with water and a smidgen of honey. I also added a few raisins, which had possible references (probably to introduce yeasts). When we made our bread, we used a combination of Barley flour (unmalted of-course), malted barley (half of it pre-crushed, as for beer; half of it hand ground in a mortar & pestle), and enough water and honey to make it stick. And yes, it was very hard. In fact, one leftover test piece was left in the refrigerator for about three months, and tasted almost the same as the day after it was baked (twice). One of my friends plans to use a similar recipe to make the bread for hiking trips. I had a semi-professional Baker lend some advice during one of the test sessions, but he did little more than play with the dough. The book that had the recipe I sort of used, I accidentally found one day while browsing our campus book-store (a little thing, only 40pages or so, but really helpful). ........The whole experience of learning beer lore, and getting together with friends to make the bread was awesome. Hope you had as much fun as I did. But I actually was hoping to have something the average person would want to drink, and hence--I worried (hadn't read C. Papazizan yet). When we made it, I used a mixture of lager and ale yeast, figuring that the yeast 4000 years ago would have been wild and mixed anyway. In truth, the stuff that I came up with was probably somewhat authentic, considering that the sumerians would not have considered "sanitation". Something similar to a modern day Iambic would make sense. Who knows though, that was 4000 yrs ago, things (yeasts) have changed a lot since then. Good Luck on your experiment. Like I said, it turned out somewhat as expected, except for the sourness. I hope some of this is helpful, and not to redundant. I don't know what the Anchor Brewing Co. sent out as information. Try back issues of Discover Magazine (1990/91). I don't have the recipe anymore for the flat Shepherd's bread, but if you want I can try to track it down. I have been considering trying this all again, now that I have been brewing for about a year. Let me know how things turn out." Praises to Ninkasi, L. Reed -------------------------- A quick update on the status of our attempt to reproduce Ninkasi. Anyway, last Sunday we racked the beer of for secondary fermentation. The first batch (with 6lbs of date syrup) was some of the wierdest stuff I've tasted. We don't think it went BAD, but it was weird. So we stood around perplexed and then it hit us. We were being blown away by the hibiscus we had but in the bread. I imagine it will become much more subltle with time. I'm quite excited about our second batch (using honey instead of dates, and wine yeast). It tasted like what I would envision oatmeal mead might taste like. Of course, the taste at this stage isn't very representative of what the final taste will be, but I would say both are going to have very unique tastes. ------------- Well If you made it this far, you must be interested. Let me know if you try brewing it. George george_paap@email.sps.mot.com BEER, its a terible thing to waste (especially 10 gallons of it :-(