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Ancient Brews: Rediscovered and Re-created
One of Smithsonian Magazine’s Ten Best Books of the Year about FoodA Forbes Best Booze Book of the Year
Interweaving archaeology and science, Patrick E. McGovern tells the enthralling story of the world’s oldest alcoholic beverages and the cultures that created them. Humans invented heady concoctions, experimenting with fruits, honey, cereals, tree resins, botanicals, and more. These “liquid time capsules” carried social, medicinal, and religious significance with far-reaching consequences for our species. McGovern describes nine extreme fermented beverages of our ancestors, including the Midas Touch from Turkey and the 9000-year-old Chateau Jiahu from Neolithic China, the earliest chemically identified alcoholic drink yet discovered. For the adventuresome, homebrew interpretations of the ancient drinks are provided, with matching meal recipes.
Interweaving archaeology and science, Patrick E. McGovern tells the enthralling story of the world’s oldest alcoholic beverages and the cultures that created them. Humans invented heady concoctions, experimenting with fruits, honey, cereals, tree resins, botanicals, and more. These “liquid time capsules” carried social, medicinal, and religious significance with far-reaching consequences for our species. McGovern describes nine extreme fermented beverages of our ancestors, including the Midas Touch from Turkey and the 9000-year-old Chateau Jiahu from Neolithic China, the earliest chemically identified alcoholic drink yet discovered. For the adventuresome, homebrew interpretations of the ancient drinks are provided, with matching meal recipes.
323 pages, Kindle Edition
First published January 1, 2017
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June 26, 2019
This was a book about the history and archaeology of alcoholic beverages. In theory, this should have been really interesting, but in practice, the book was really poorly written.
The author, Pat McGovern, is a chemical archaeologist; he studies the history of alcoholic beverages by analyzing the chemical residues in ancient pottery. In addition to studying ancient beverages, he's also helped to recreate them, working with Sam Calagione of Dogfish Head breweries. Together, they've made a line of "Ancient Ales", which you can buy at certain liquor stores.
The book was organized around these Ancient Ales; each chapter corresponded to one of them. The general format of these chapters was that McGovern would explain the archaeological discoveries that had led to the recreation (often including the story of his own archaeological work), and then he would talk about the process that he and Calagione went through to adapt these archaeological findings into a new beer.
Some of the chapters seemed decently well-written, but others just utterly failed to cohere. In general, the writing didn't seem to follow any clear line of discussion, and I had trouble figuring out what point McGovern was trying to make. He threw in miscellaneous archaeological and autobiographical facts, seemingly at random, in a way that felt more like it was about padding the word count than providing useful information to the reader. It felt like one of those books that happens when the publisher calls up the author and says "Hey, can you write a book on this topic by this deadline?", and then the author struggles to write a book's worth of material in time. (Alternatively, maybe McGovern was just drunk the entire time he wrote it.)
The chapters at the end seemed least coherent. They were about Theobroma, a chocolate-based drink, and Chicha, a corn-based one. The random facts seemed to be hiding the fact that actually, they didn't have much archaeological info to go on for these drinks. It sounded like we really don't have that much archaeological evidence for Chicha. And although there's lots of archaeological evidence of chocolate use, the book didn't make it clear whether any of those chocolate-based drinks had been alcoholic (and it felt like maybe the writing was trying to cover up the fact that they weren't).
So anyway, this book was probably not worth reading, and I wish I'd gotten this same info out of online articles instead. But I did learn a few bits of actual factual content:
- Up until recently, the Reinheitsgebot (a German beer purity law which says that beer can only be made from barley malt, hops, and yeast) has held sway. Craft breweries, with their adventurous beers, didn't really become a thing until around the year 2000. (I hadn't realized this, since I wasn't anywhere near 21 at that time.)
- I had always thought that alcohol was discovered relatively late, like, after the agricultural revolution (hence why there's a higher incidence of alcoholism in populations that are new to agriculture). But McGovern hypothesizes that humans have known about and deliberately consumed alcohol since early in our evolutionary history. To support this, he argues that all sorts of animals deliberately seek out alcoholically fermented fruit. Anyway, it's definitely just a hypothesis, and a somewhat romantic and fanciful one at that. But it's one I'd never considered before.
- I had also always thought that early beverages were low in alcohol, and that the point wasn't to get drunk, but to create a source of carbs that would not go bad, and also to create a source of liquid that couldn't be contaminated by harmful microorganisms. But according to McGovern, the ancients wanted beverages with a high alcohol content, because they (like us) appreciated alcohol's psychoactive properties.
- In order to achieve this high alcohol content, they basically just mixed together everything that would ferment, and turned that into a beverage. Rather than making wine, mead, or beer, they'd throw grapes, honey, and grain all together in one fermenting vessel. For whatever reason (probably just to make them sound cool), McGovern calls these hybrid beverages "extreme fermented beverages".
- A lot of the recreated beers didn't seem very faithful to the original (they just mixed together any ingredient that had appeared in any archaeological find in a given region, rather than trying to recreate a specific rediscovered beverage). But there was one, Midas Touch, which did seem to be a faithful recreation. It was based on residues found in an ancient Phrygian tomb, which either belonged to the historical King Midas, or, more likely, to his father King Gordias (who is said to have tied the Gordian knot). Apparently, this king was buried with a huge amount of food and drink, and it ended up being very well-preserved, so archaeologists were able to study the residues in depth. It was a combined wine-mead-beer.
- The Canaanites / Phoenicians were some of the first people to make wine (see https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Phoenic...). Prior to them, everyone was making these "extreme fermented beverages" out of anything they could find. But the Canaanites and Phoenicians made wine, and traded it to their neighbors in the Mediterranean; it became a very high-prestige item. They would get other cultures interested in the wine via trade, and then they would come and help those cultures develop their own vineyards and wineries. In doing so they spread both their grapevines and their wine culture around the Mediterranean, thus displacing earlier beverages. The book talks about the traditional beer of the Egyptians, and the traditional drink of the Etruscans, which were two of the beverages that got displaced. Interestingly, the Phoenician wines were made with tree resins (possibly as a preservative).
- Some ancient beer was made by first baking bread and then making the beer out of the bread (instead of going straight from the grains to the beer).
- Corn beer in South America (called Chicha) is traditionally made by chewing the corn first (to get the salivary amylase to convert starches to sugars).
The book made two mistakes which I consider unforgivable, and which contribute to the low rating. The first was that it described the Etruscans as a Celtic people which spoke a non-Indo-European language, which is a contradiction. The second is that it used the word "quixotic" as if it meant a combination of quirky and exotic.
I do not recommend reading this book.
The author, Pat McGovern, is a chemical archaeologist; he studies the history of alcoholic beverages by analyzing the chemical residues in ancient pottery. In addition to studying ancient beverages, he's also helped to recreate them, working with Sam Calagione of Dogfish Head breweries. Together, they've made a line of "Ancient Ales", which you can buy at certain liquor stores.
The book was organized around these Ancient Ales; each chapter corresponded to one of them. The general format of these chapters was that McGovern would explain the archaeological discoveries that had led to the recreation (often including the story of his own archaeological work), and then he would talk about the process that he and Calagione went through to adapt these archaeological findings into a new beer.
Some of the chapters seemed decently well-written, but others just utterly failed to cohere. In general, the writing didn't seem to follow any clear line of discussion, and I had trouble figuring out what point McGovern was trying to make. He threw in miscellaneous archaeological and autobiographical facts, seemingly at random, in a way that felt more like it was about padding the word count than providing useful information to the reader. It felt like one of those books that happens when the publisher calls up the author and says "Hey, can you write a book on this topic by this deadline?", and then the author struggles to write a book's worth of material in time. (Alternatively, maybe McGovern was just drunk the entire time he wrote it.)
The chapters at the end seemed least coherent. They were about Theobroma, a chocolate-based drink, and Chicha, a corn-based one. The random facts seemed to be hiding the fact that actually, they didn't have much archaeological info to go on for these drinks. It sounded like we really don't have that much archaeological evidence for Chicha. And although there's lots of archaeological evidence of chocolate use, the book didn't make it clear whether any of those chocolate-based drinks had been alcoholic (and it felt like maybe the writing was trying to cover up the fact that they weren't).
So anyway, this book was probably not worth reading, and I wish I'd gotten this same info out of online articles instead. But I did learn a few bits of actual factual content:
- Up until recently, the Reinheitsgebot (a German beer purity law which says that beer can only be made from barley malt, hops, and yeast) has held sway. Craft breweries, with their adventurous beers, didn't really become a thing until around the year 2000. (I hadn't realized this, since I wasn't anywhere near 21 at that time.)
- I had always thought that alcohol was discovered relatively late, like, after the agricultural revolution (hence why there's a higher incidence of alcoholism in populations that are new to agriculture). But McGovern hypothesizes that humans have known about and deliberately consumed alcohol since early in our evolutionary history. To support this, he argues that all sorts of animals deliberately seek out alcoholically fermented fruit. Anyway, it's definitely just a hypothesis, and a somewhat romantic and fanciful one at that. But it's one I'd never considered before.
- I had also always thought that early beverages were low in alcohol, and that the point wasn't to get drunk, but to create a source of carbs that would not go bad, and also to create a source of liquid that couldn't be contaminated by harmful microorganisms. But according to McGovern, the ancients wanted beverages with a high alcohol content, because they (like us) appreciated alcohol's psychoactive properties.
- In order to achieve this high alcohol content, they basically just mixed together everything that would ferment, and turned that into a beverage. Rather than making wine, mead, or beer, they'd throw grapes, honey, and grain all together in one fermenting vessel. For whatever reason (probably just to make them sound cool), McGovern calls these hybrid beverages "extreme fermented beverages".
- A lot of the recreated beers didn't seem very faithful to the original (they just mixed together any ingredient that had appeared in any archaeological find in a given region, rather than trying to recreate a specific rediscovered beverage). But there was one, Midas Touch, which did seem to be a faithful recreation. It was based on residues found in an ancient Phrygian tomb, which either belonged to the historical King Midas, or, more likely, to his father King Gordias (who is said to have tied the Gordian knot). Apparently, this king was buried with a huge amount of food and drink, and it ended up being very well-preserved, so archaeologists were able to study the residues in depth. It was a combined wine-mead-beer.
- The Canaanites / Phoenicians were some of the first people to make wine (see https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Phoenic...). Prior to them, everyone was making these "extreme fermented beverages" out of anything they could find. But the Canaanites and Phoenicians made wine, and traded it to their neighbors in the Mediterranean; it became a very high-prestige item. They would get other cultures interested in the wine via trade, and then they would come and help those cultures develop their own vineyards and wineries. In doing so they spread both their grapevines and their wine culture around the Mediterranean, thus displacing earlier beverages. The book talks about the traditional beer of the Egyptians, and the traditional drink of the Etruscans, which were two of the beverages that got displaced. Interestingly, the Phoenician wines were made with tree resins (possibly as a preservative).
- Some ancient beer was made by first baking bread and then making the beer out of the bread (instead of going straight from the grains to the beer).
- Corn beer in South America (called Chicha) is traditionally made by chewing the corn first (to get the salivary amylase to convert starches to sugars).
The book made two mistakes which I consider unforgivable, and which contribute to the low rating. The first was that it described the Etruscans as a Celtic people which spoke a non-Indo-European language, which is a contradiction. The second is that it used the word "quixotic" as if it meant a combination of quirky and exotic.
I do not recommend reading this book.
December 14, 2017
Logging the last of my 2017 reads today so that they'll count towards this year's Reading Challenge totals. Full review coming in early 2018.
July 20, 2021
I have to admit the beginning threw me because of the evolution lesson. I was like I wanted to read about beer. The author may have felt there was a connection to the remaining, but I wasn't/didn't feel it. This was a very interesting book.
July 14, 2025
Ancient Brews is a must-read for anyone fascinated by ancient foodways, archaeology, craft brewing, or the deep history of beer. Patrick McGovern—part scientist, part storyteller—pairs beautifully with brewer Sam Calagione to take readers on a sweet (and sometimes sour) fermented journey through time.
McGovern does an excellent job explaining the scientific techniques used to analyze ancient pottery for chemical residues, grounding each brew in solid archaeological and ethnographic context. The book is structured so that each chapter focuses on a different beverage from a different part of the world, making for a global tour of fermentation through the ages.
We especially appreciated the inclusion of local voices throughout the book. McGovern makes a point of naming and crediting the people he consults, honoring their expertise and contribution to his interpretations—something we don’t see often enough in academic and popular history writing.
The recipes at the end of each chapter are a delightful bonus. Whether you're a homebrewer or just curious, McGovern provides instructions for recreating these ancient drinks yourself, which adds an interactive and experimental element to the read.
If we had one critique, it’s that the book could have used a concluding chapter to tie everything together—a final reflection on what all these brews tell us about humanity’s long relationship with alcohol.
Overall, this was a fascinating and flavorful read. We enjoyed diving into it for the podcast and highly recommend it to anyone curious about the ancient roots of what’s in their glass.
McGovern does an excellent job explaining the scientific techniques used to analyze ancient pottery for chemical residues, grounding each brew in solid archaeological and ethnographic context. The book is structured so that each chapter focuses on a different beverage from a different part of the world, making for a global tour of fermentation through the ages.
We especially appreciated the inclusion of local voices throughout the book. McGovern makes a point of naming and crediting the people he consults, honoring their expertise and contribution to his interpretations—something we don’t see often enough in academic and popular history writing.
The recipes at the end of each chapter are a delightful bonus. Whether you're a homebrewer or just curious, McGovern provides instructions for recreating these ancient drinks yourself, which adds an interactive and experimental element to the read.
If we had one critique, it’s that the book could have used a concluding chapter to tie everything together—a final reflection on what all these brews tell us about humanity’s long relationship with alcohol.
Overall, this was a fascinating and flavorful read. We enjoyed diving into it for the podcast and highly recommend it to anyone curious about the ancient roots of what’s in their glass.
August 14, 2025
In many ways, this book reminded me of Sally Grainger’s THE STORY OF GARUM, but this book is clearly intended for the general reader. While the author does go into archaeology, history, chemistry, and botany behind these beverages, he doesn’t bludgeon the reader with excessive detail. On the other hand, sometimes I felt that he was trying too hard to write a popular book, with digressions that really had nothing to do with the subject and humorous asides that seemed a bit heavy-handed. There was also a certain amount of travelogue-ness. Also, for the love of God, do you have to call mixed beverages (often combinations of grain, honey and fruits with other ingredients) “extreme fermented beverages.” It makes it sound like he’s peddling an energy drink. That being said, overall, it’s an interesting read, combining various disciplines in researching and attempting to recreate assorted ancient drinks. And, while there are often varying degrees of speculation involved, the author is pretty honest in differentiating between what he can prove, what he guessed at, and what he made up whole cloth. This book also includes instructions for homebrewing these beverages as well as recipes for more-or-less period-appropriate foods that can be paired with them. 3.5 stars.
June 3, 2017
For someone who knows very little about alcoholic beverages, I found this book to be very interesting and easy to read. The author, a bit of an archeologist/scientist/experimenter joins forces with a craft brewer to discover and possibly recreate ancient beverages. They travel all over the world, examine ancient artifacts, checking local lore and history, analyze anything and everything ancient that might help them discover what the ancients drank, what their brews were made of and how they made them. Much is conjecture, extrapolation and informed guesswork. Each recreated beverage is presented with accompanying foods. A bit of history is thrown in to humanize their brews and support their choices. I found the great variety of ingredients and brewing methods, aging vessels and serving containers especially fascinating.
March 27, 2018
I think it was likely the narrator of this audio book that made the material seem so very dry. I mean, this is fascinating stuff, how ancient peoples made booze and how Dogfish Head recreated them. But, it just seemed to lumber on and my motivation to even continue listening to it waned. I mean, he couldn't even pronounce things correctly and had this homebrewer and Certified Cicerone genuinely confused about some of the information. So, ima blame the narrator and not the material for the rating ;)
September 20, 2018
It’s a rare academic who can write a book that will engage the public. Most academics have no sense of drama, of slowly revealing a story. Instead, most rely upon rote statements and repetition, as if teaching to a particularly dull class. The worst tell endless stories that star none other than themselves to prove their points. Unfortunately author Patrick McGovern, of the Penn Museum Biomolecular Archaeology Project, fits this stereotype perfectly.
Ancient Brews Rediscovered and Recreated could have been edited, in theory, into a series of informative stories about ancient alcoholic beverages. Instead, it rambles on about the author’s search for such information, then circles back to the same historical information repeatedly. The book’s premise that McGovern and brewmaster Sam Calagione are recreating ancient brews is dubious, since the author repeatedly expounds on how the recipes that they create deviate from the historical findings.
So, not true to its premise of recreating ancient beverages, the book seems rather pointless. It appears to be mostly an advertisement for Sam’s “ancient” Dogfish Head beers, which are also more personal than historical. And the personal history of these two guys is simply not that interesting. The book is probably most valuable to home brewers, who will skip the text entirely and go straight to the recipes, even though they also have little to do with history.
Ancient Brews Rediscovered and Recreated could have been edited, in theory, into a series of informative stories about ancient alcoholic beverages. Instead, it rambles on about the author’s search for such information, then circles back to the same historical information repeatedly. The book’s premise that McGovern and brewmaster Sam Calagione are recreating ancient brews is dubious, since the author repeatedly expounds on how the recipes that they create deviate from the historical findings.
So, not true to its premise of recreating ancient beverages, the book seems rather pointless. It appears to be mostly an advertisement for Sam’s “ancient” Dogfish Head beers, which are also more personal than historical. And the personal history of these two guys is simply not that interesting. The book is probably most valuable to home brewers, who will skip the text entirely and go straight to the recipes, even though they also have little to do with history.
July 5, 2017
Kind of a long commercial for Dogfish Head brewery. The recipes may be inspired by historic brews, but "re-created" is stretching credulity, and the writing accompanying each project reinforces that. The meal pairings are pretty pointless, and make it seem like the book doesn't know what sort of audience it's shooting for.
September 20, 2021
Great as an audiobook....
September 4, 2021
How can a book be both universal and obscure? When it is about something that everybody uses, but nobody cares about beyond that use. Maybe the best example is cars. Almost everybody drives, but very few people care about how they are made or car repair. But wait, maybe people do care about car repair? Wasn’t Car Talk, a show about car repair, a nationwide fixture on public radio for twenty years? Indeed. And it was no mystery why - Tom & Ray were just good fun to hang out with. And knowledgeable enough to have insight on cars that you didn’t know you wanted to have. And smart enough to be fascinating on a number of other topics. Mostly how to have the good life. (Secret: have a family that’s fun to be with and be with them.)
And so it is with Ancient Brews. How could any but a devoted beer brewer be interested in a book about brewing beer? Especially, since the beers being brewed, let’s be honest, nobody but an extreme beer brewer would even think about drinking, much less brewing. But as with Car Talk, the joy is in the presentation. Patrick McGovern is immense fun to hang with.
And hang we do. From his home at the Penn Museum where he gets paid to research this very topic, we join him on journeys throughout the world. Worlds actually – modern and ancient. Through eight chapters we traverse not just eight brews, but eight civilizations. And not just eight civilizations, but eight personal stories. And each story brings in a new set of characters. And some chemistry where the brew is reverse engineered. And finally the brew they decide to make and the outcome. (Everybody has a great time and gets wasted.) And the meal pairing. (He thinks of everything.)
So you don’t have to be into brewing beer to enjoy the book. It certainly helps if you enjoy trying new kinds of beer. And drinking beer and hanging out with interesting people talking shop. Also if you enjoy history, especially the ancient variety where documents are sparse but people fascinating and we are forever trying to figure out better what they were really like. Like us? Sure – they love to sit around drinking beer with a family that’s fun to be with and interesting people talking shop.
And so it is with Ancient Brews. How could any but a devoted beer brewer be interested in a book about brewing beer? Especially, since the beers being brewed, let’s be honest, nobody but an extreme beer brewer would even think about drinking, much less brewing. But as with Car Talk, the joy is in the presentation. Patrick McGovern is immense fun to hang with.
And hang we do. From his home at the Penn Museum where he gets paid to research this very topic, we join him on journeys throughout the world. Worlds actually – modern and ancient. Through eight chapters we traverse not just eight brews, but eight civilizations. And not just eight civilizations, but eight personal stories. And each story brings in a new set of characters. And some chemistry where the brew is reverse engineered. And finally the brew they decide to make and the outcome. (Everybody has a great time and gets wasted.) And the meal pairing. (He thinks of everything.)
So you don’t have to be into brewing beer to enjoy the book. It certainly helps if you enjoy trying new kinds of beer. And drinking beer and hanging out with interesting people talking shop. Also if you enjoy history, especially the ancient variety where documents are sparse but people fascinating and we are forever trying to figure out better what they were really like. Like us? Sure – they love to sit around drinking beer with a family that’s fun to be with and interesting people talking shop.
March 25, 2019
I come by my interest in this subject matter by way of my vocation - I've had an interest in ancient beer since working on an archaeological site in Iceland, where we were pretty certain we'd unearthed evidence of ancient beer making. So I'm an archaeologist, a researcher, a traveler and a beer enthusiast - so this book was practically written for me, wasn't it?
This isn't a research book, which personally disappointed me just a little, but in fairness it doesn't claim to be. It doesn't include the sorts of technical details you'd expect of a research paper (and McGovern has published many of those). But there is a huge general interest in exploring - and tasting! - the roots of beer production, which this book is capitalizing on, inspired by the topical trend of the booming craft beer industry. It's part research, part travelogue, and part recipe book. Unfortunately I found the reading a little dry considering the subject matter - McGovern is a research visionary and an accomplished academic who is considered the world's leading authority in this sort of analysis, but he's not a novelist with a good sense of pacing and perhaps a little flair for the dramatic. And unless I'm an experienced beer brewer dedicated to hunting down rare and unusual ingredients like Irish moss, purple corn, or meadowsweet to experiment with, which I'm not, the recipes are pretty unapproachable.
It's not a bad book at all - especially not for someone with interests similar to my own. It goes without stating that its well-researched and the subject matter is certainly interesting - it just lacks the spark that keeps you turning the pages or imprints the information deeply into your psyche so that you can share the next time you're enjoying a craft beer with your friends at the local pub.
This isn't a research book, which personally disappointed me just a little, but in fairness it doesn't claim to be. It doesn't include the sorts of technical details you'd expect of a research paper (and McGovern has published many of those). But there is a huge general interest in exploring - and tasting! - the roots of beer production, which this book is capitalizing on, inspired by the topical trend of the booming craft beer industry. It's part research, part travelogue, and part recipe book. Unfortunately I found the reading a little dry considering the subject matter - McGovern is a research visionary and an accomplished academic who is considered the world's leading authority in this sort of analysis, but he's not a novelist with a good sense of pacing and perhaps a little flair for the dramatic. And unless I'm an experienced beer brewer dedicated to hunting down rare and unusual ingredients like Irish moss, purple corn, or meadowsweet to experiment with, which I'm not, the recipes are pretty unapproachable.
It's not a bad book at all - especially not for someone with interests similar to my own. It goes without stating that its well-researched and the subject matter is certainly interesting - it just lacks the spark that keeps you turning the pages or imprints the information deeply into your psyche so that you can share the next time you're enjoying a craft beer with your friends at the local pub.
November 16, 2017
A terrifically insightful book on historical cultures fermented beverages. Starting in Africa, and moving on to China, Scandinavia, and finally 'the New World' (Mayan/Inca cultures). Very detailed in what these ancient ales/fermented beverages/extreme beverages/wines/etc. were and how they were probably made, as well as how they recreated these beverages through Dogfish Head brewery (Midas Touch, Etrusca, Chateau Jihau {which I am currently drinking as I type this}, Kvasir, Ta Hanket, and lastly Chicha). [ https://untappd.com/user/BenKline/che... ]
Also very noteworthy about the book is all of the homebrew recipes to use (which I have copied down in case of future use, never know), as well as food pairing recipes. The book is very informative about both the drinks and food as well as the cultures represented (Mesopotamia, Egypt, China, Scandinavia, Central America/South America). Definitely a fun read, and well recommended to those wanting to learn more about brewing/beverages/beers, as well as for home brewers for some possible new insights and recipes.
Also very noteworthy about the book is all of the homebrew recipes to use (which I have copied down in case of future use, never know), as well as food pairing recipes. The book is very informative about both the drinks and food as well as the cultures represented (Mesopotamia, Egypt, China, Scandinavia, Central America/South America). Definitely a fun read, and well recommended to those wanting to learn more about brewing/beverages/beers, as well as for home brewers for some possible new insights and recipes.
February 9, 2019
Interesting, as long as you don't expect consistent organization and content. Yes, the book has chapters, most of which examine one type of ancient beverage and end with a recipe each for the beverage and a coordinating meal. The overall organization ends there. The examinations of each beverage are all over the map (literally). Some descriptions read like travel logs (as noted in other reviews), some read like scientific investigations into bio-archaeology. It pretty much reads like the author just rambled onto paper his thoughts around each beverage. While some of these thoughts, and the process descriptions are fascinating, I didn't really care about how he sat down with other people to celebrate the newest concoction (especially, since there was no way I was going to be able to try it myself). And he pats himself on the back a bit too much.
Overall, while the basic concepts are fascinating, there are probably better technical books on the subject.
Overall, while the basic concepts are fascinating, there are probably better technical books on the subject.
March 20, 2018
I'm feeling generous. The discussion of the methods used to construct hypotheses of what sort of beverages might have been made/consumed in the past and of the beverages themselves was interesting. However, the re-imaginations of the beverages seemed pretty clearly to me to have been for pleasure and/or profit, the concern with being able to sell the beverages reflected, for example, in concern with TTB regulations. This belied the recurrent claim that the brews were made for scientific reasons. Additionally, it was far from engaging as travel writing--it read like an editor saw an early manuscript and demanded more local color, which was reluctantly added in in the most cursory way as an afterthought. And surely there's a way to write about the interesting and longstanding collaboration that McGovern has had with Dogfish Head without coming off as such a commercial. 2.5 stars.
September 6, 2018
It's certainly interesting, even thought-provoking. But it fell short in a lot of ways, largely feeling like an ad for Dogfish Head brewing. It's a great brewery to be sure, but I was just sort of hoping to learn more in-depth about the types of ancient brews, where they came from and what they evolved into, things like that - and they are there to some degree, but heavily covered with extraordinarily detailed descriptions of the chemical analysis and process used to recreate the ancient brews. It is probably far more interesting to a homebrewer than someone intrigued by ancient beverages.
And maybe that's the intent, so...perhaps my review is unfair? In any case, I sort of like it, so it gets 3 stars. Also, the writing is pretty uneven (not everybody can be expected to be a top-writer, but editors exist for a reason, people!)
And maybe that's the intent, so...perhaps my review is unfair? In any case, I sort of like it, so it gets 3 stars. Also, the writing is pretty uneven (not everybody can be expected to be a top-writer, but editors exist for a reason, people!)
November 10, 2017
This is a thoroughly researched and extremely dense book about the history of fermented beer-like beverages. It is fascinating to learn about the evolution of brewing and fermenting.
I really appreciated the amount of history in this book. Unfortunately, that is also the books downfall. There is so much information about various people, places, and things that it reads more like a textbook than a jaunt through drunken history.
I did not try any of the dinner recipes in the book and have only tried a couple of the Dogfish beers that the book is written about. I thought it was an astute but odd inclusion to have them in the book. Most of them did sound quite good.
I really appreciated the amount of history in this book. Unfortunately, that is also the books downfall. There is so much information about various people, places, and things that it reads more like a textbook than a jaunt through drunken history.
I did not try any of the dinner recipes in the book and have only tried a couple of the Dogfish beers that the book is written about. I thought it was an astute but odd inclusion to have them in the book. Most of them did sound quite good.
January 30, 2018
Interesting but largely lost its way.
The History, Archaeology, Archaeobotany, and chemistry portions were very interesting and should have been expanded, but unfortunately much of the book was dedicated to a record of the author's travels; and as a travel writer he is less than entertaining. In addition the general brewing accounts were lacking and the food pairings a bizarre feature hanging on the end of each chapter with minimal reason for being there...
In conclusion, I truly wish the author had stuck to his strengths, and saved his personal travel accounts for his students and grandchildren
The History, Archaeology, Archaeobotany, and chemistry portions were very interesting and should have been expanded, but unfortunately much of the book was dedicated to a record of the author's travels; and as a travel writer he is less than entertaining. In addition the general brewing accounts were lacking and the food pairings a bizarre feature hanging on the end of each chapter with minimal reason for being there...
In conclusion, I truly wish the author had stuck to his strengths, and saved his personal travel accounts for his students and grandchildren
April 9, 2019
If you're looking for a book on ancient beer, brewing, and fermentation around the world, then this book isn't for you. What this book is, however, is the story behind how Dr. McGovern and Sam Calagione of Dogfish Head Brewing met and the story behind the ancient brews they've made. A very interesting read on how Dr. McGovern's branch of archaeology works, how some of these ancient beverages were discovered, and how they set about to recreate them. With recipes included so you can brew them at home.
This book is only about the Ancient Ales that Dogfish Head have released and does not cover any other research Dr. McGovern has done.
This book is only about the Ancient Ales that Dogfish Head have released and does not cover any other research Dr. McGovern has done.
February 23, 2018
A detailed account of the author’s journey to uncover the ingredients of ancient fermented beverages. Chapters are roughly broken into geographic regions, cultures, and the resulting modern approximation of the ancient brew. Many of these modern brews are done in conjunction with Dogfish Head Craft Brewed Ales. Overall a solid book. The only negative point I can think of is the author’s extreme use of the word ‘extreme.’ I blame Sam Calagione. ;)
February 22, 2025
I received this book as a gift and thought the premise sounded interesting enough. Unfortunately, it turned out to be not my cup of tea... or cup of extreme fermented beverage, I guess? The only way I got through it was by reading a few pages before bed in the evenings and using its soporific effect to my benefit. I'd only recommend this to someone who's very interested in beer/homebrewing or archaeology; this is not a book for the casual reader.
July 16, 2020
Very interesting and entertaining historical, anthropological, archaeological, and chemical survey of the fermented beverages made peoples across various times and nations. Includes home brewing instructions on how to recreate the ancient brews and recipes for meal accompaniments so you can host your own historical beer dinners.
December 22, 2020
Not only is this written well, but more importantly it contains excellent information. Based on archeological fact and biochemistry findings the reader is treated to an exploration of ancient brewed beverages.
After having read some dry material to get information on interesting ales, this was a treat. Now I need to make time to get to Delaware to taste some of Dogfish Head Brewing products.
After having read some dry material to get information on interesting ales, this was a treat. Now I need to make time to get to Delaware to taste some of Dogfish Head Brewing products.
March 17, 2020
Full disclosure: I’m a geeky fan of Patrick McGovern and find his unabashed enthusiasm for his subject matter breathes life into the intermingled fields of archeology, microbiology, history, geography, and a love for brews, ales, and fermented beverages. This is a welcome addition to my library.
March 23, 2020
Really enjoyed the first half of the book. Towards the end it started to drag a little probably since there was less science and history to cite for the last couple of drinks? I enjoyed the content of this book a lot, but at times the writing style bothered me. Still a solid 3 stars.
December 13, 2025
An entertaining and unique approach to experimental archeology through the lens of trying to brew ancient beers and “extreme beverages” using archeological and biochemical evidence. Worth the read for beer lovers and history buffs alike.
August 17, 2017
quite good, but geographically off..
Honduras is not on the Gulf of Mexico. (theobroma section)
Honduras is not on the Gulf of Mexico. (theobroma section)
September 6, 2017
A fascinating journey back in time to rediscover the drinks of our ancestors.
November 20, 2019
Fascinating combination of beer, science, and history - AND I've drunk most of the beers described!
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