FOOD NEWS
The World's First-Ever Beer Recipe Has Been Around Since Ancient Times
BY AUTUMN SWIERS
Beer has been enjoyed around the world in one form or another for centuries. The oldest known recipe dates back to 1,8000 B.C. to a cuneiform poem written on clay tablets.
Titled "Hymn to Ninkasi," the poem helped scientists put together the ancient beer recipe, which created a dry, non-bitter beer with a cider-like flavor and 3.5% ABV.
As explained in "Hymn to Ninkasi," the ancient recipe relied on natural fermentation and began with making a malted barley dough called bappir in a pit with honey and aromatics.
The dough was soaked with malt to ferment and then cooked before it was spread on large reed mats to cool. This was then cooked again with more honey and wine before filtration.
The resulting beer didn’t have a long shelf life and was drunk out of large jugs using a straw. The popular drink made appearances at important social rituals and religious events.