Posts tagged brewing

A group of Australian scientists claim they have pulled off a world first by reviving the yeast of a 220-year-old beer salvaged from a shipwreck. A detailed DNA analysis of the yeasts was undertaken to find out if the yeasts were present because of contamination. The brewer’s yeast brettanomyces was found. It is not used in modern commercial brewing, but was used everywhere in old-style brewing. Also present was the brewer’s yeast Saccharomyces, but not like it had ever been seen before. The yeast was a hybrid that sat closest on the family tree to Trappist ale, made by monks in Belgium.

via http://www.abc.net.au/news/2016–06–14/worlds-oldest-beer-brought-back-to-life-scientists-claim/7496532

Medieval brewers had used many problematic ingredients to preserve beers, including, for example soot and fly agaric mushrooms. More commonly, other “gruit” herbs had been used, such as stinging nettle and henbane. Indeed, the German name of the latter, Bilsenkraut, may originally mean “Plzeň herb”, indicating that this region was a major centre of beer brewing long before the invention of (Reinheitsgebot-compliant) Pilsener.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Reinheitsgebot