Was King Midas A Beer Tippler?
A fascinating book called “Uncorking The Past: The Quest for Wine, Beer, and Other Alcoholic Beverages” looks at alcoholic drinks from eons ago. Dr. Patrick McGovern, an archaeological chemist at the University of Pennsylvania, found evidence of an ancient alcoholic beverage in a 2,700-year-old royal tomb in Turkey. It could have been the tomb of King Midas! He found one far older, 9,000 years old to be exact, in the Chinese city of Jiahu. McGovern believes that honey, grapes and hawthorn fruit gave the Jiahu brewers the sugar and yeast they needed to start fermentation. Later Chinese brewers developed a technique called mould saccharification, which breaks the complex carbohydrates of rice into simple sugars that can be fermented. That process yielded more specialised drinks including ancient and modern rice wines. Now McGovern has collaborated with Delaware brewer Sam Calagione of Dogfish Head beer brewery. You can buy and actually drink a “Midas Touch” beer, from the original recipe
