Sumerian Beer

Nutty with a hint of sweetness, this unfiltered beer is a peek 4,000 years into the past

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City/Region: Sumer | Mesopotamia

Time Period: c. 2000 BC

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While we don’t know what exactly ancient Sumerian beer was like, we do know that ancient Sumerians loved it. It appears in some of the earliest writings in proto-cuneiform from around 3,000 B.C.E. and features in Mesopotamian myths (the gods drank quite a bit). In fact, today’s recipe is based off of the vague yet obviously reverential Hymn to Ninkasi, who was the Sumerian goddess of beer.

There were at least nine types of beer in the Uruk period (4,000-3,100 B.C.E.) in ancient Sumer, including golden beer, dark beer, sweet dark beer, red beer, and strained beer. They also described its alcoholic content as ordinary, good, and very good (from weakest to strongest, obviously), ranging up to about 5%. This recipe makes a golden-colored beer that is slightly effervescent, nutty, and has just a hint of sweetness.

In a side note, Sumer was a region of Mesopotamia, so all Sumerians were Mesopotamians, but not all Mesopotamians were Sumerians. The analogy is imperfect, but it’s like the difference between the terms Californians and Americans.

“Ninkasi, your father is Enki, Lord Nidimmud,
Your mother is Ninti, the queen of the sacred lake…

It is you who bakes the bappir in the big oven
Puts in order the piles of hulled grains,...

Ninkasi, it is you who water the malt set on the ground,
The noble dogs guard it, even from the potentates,...

It is you who soaks the malt in a jar,
The waves rise, the waves fall.

It is you who spreads the cooked mash on large reed mats,
Coolness overcomes,...
It is you who holds with both hands the great sweet wort,
Brewing it with honey and wine…

The fermenting vat, which makes a pleasant sound
You place appropriately on a large collector vat…

Ninkasi, it is you who pours out the filtered beer of the collector vat,
It is like the onrush of the Tigris and Euphrates. ”

— Hymn to Ninkasi

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Ingredients:

Day 1

• 1 cup barley
• Water

Day 2

• 1 1/2 cups (210 g) barley flour
• 1 1/2 cups (340 g) sourdough starter*
• 1/2 cup (120 ml) water

Day 5

• Aromatics (I used coriander and cardamom)
• 1/2 cup (120 ml) date syrup
• 1 to 2 teaspoons of brewer’s yeast, if desired
• 1 gallon (4 liters) water

*See notes below.

Instructions:

1. Day 1: In a bowl, pour enough water over the barley to cover it completely and leave it to soak.
2. Day 2: Mix barley flour, sourdough starter, and water in a large bowl with your hands, then turn it out onto a clean surface and knead for 5 minutes. This dough is going to be our version of the bread called bappir mentioned in Hymn to Ninkasi.
3. Place the dough in a medium bowl and cover with a kitchen towel. Leave it to rise for a full day.
4. Strain the soaked barley and put it into a cheesecloth. Suspend the cheesecloth (I hung mine from the handle of a kitchen cupboard), and leave it for 2 to 3 days until it sprouts. You don’t want the barley to get too dry, so spritz it with water occasionally to keep it moist, about 2 to 3 times a day depending on the weather.
5. Day 3: Form the dough into a flat round loaf and place it on a baking sheet lined with parchment paper. Leave it, uncovered, to dry out.
6. Day 4: Preheat the oven to 300°F (150°C), then bake the bappir for a maximum of 10 minutes. You just want the outside to form a crust, the inside shouldn’t get above 110°F (43°C), because then it will start to kill the yeast.
7. After the bappir has baked, reduce the oven to 200°F (93°C). Spread the sprouted barley in an even layer on an unlined baking sheet and bake for 2 to 3 hours. The grains should be nicely browned and have a pleasant nutty aroma. Remove from the oven and leave it uncovered so it can continue to dry out.
8. Optional: Set dog to guard the barley from potentates.
9. Day 5: Crush the barley into a powder using either a mortar and pestle or a food processor. Place the crushed grain in a bowl and cover with water and let it soak for 2 hours.
10. Break up the bappir into small pieces and let it dry even more for the 2 hours that the crushed barley is soaking.
11. Add the bappir to a large jar, then add the soaked barley mash along with its liquid. Add in any aromatics you wish to use and the date syrup. If you’re worried about not having enough yeast from your bappir, you can add the additional yeast now as well.
12. Pour in the water and stir it well. Cover with a cheesecloth and leave it in a dark place for 2 to 3 days.
13. Day 7 or 8: Pour the beer through a sieve (it will still be cloudy).
14. Pour into your preferred drinking vessel and serve it forth within 2 days (any longer and you need to throw it out). A straw comes in handy to avoid the sediment that settles at the bottom and any particulates that float to the top.

Notes

• If you don’t have a sourdough starter that has been made with barley flour, then you can use 3 cups (420 g) of barley flour, 1 cup (240 ml) of water, and 1 tablespoon (9 g) of yeast.

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