[Sca-cooks] And they think _our_ beer tastes bad

[Philip & Susan Troy]

Craig Jones. wrote:
> ""Adamantius:
>
> ""It does kind of make me wonder about what archaeological deduction
> ""process was applied.
> ""
>
> It does make me wonder.  Some points I can come up with:
>
> 1) adding dung before the final boil would not infect the brew.
> (boiling would kill the bacteria).

Good point. On the other hand, is there any evidence that ales in this
early period were (or were not) boiled after mashing? The Regia Anglorum
folks and also a Master Tofi (from AEthelmearc; I forget the rest of his
name) seem to support a pre-renaissance ale that was not boiled. And
then, of course, there's perhaps no reason to think pre-historic ales
should be like medieval ones, I suppose.

> 2) Maybe dung added that "Jen sais quoi" (sic) to the flavour profile?

Maybe; I assume it's there for some reason. Could there be digested
vegetable fibers rich, say, in tannins? Isn't animal dung used in
tanning for this reason?
>
> 3) Maybe Skara Brae men liked adding wierd stuff to their ale so they
> would seem tougher.  "Watch out for Thag...he add's goats lungs to his
> brew...He must be a real man!"

Why am I thinking of The MacAdder, with the two women fighting over him
in "The Ancient Hieland Manner: bare-breasted and with a twelve-pound
baby in each arm"? "Guinness! Grumphh! Noo, here's a drrink for a mon!
Lightly flavoured wi' sheep's dung!"

> 4) Maybe animal dung was used a fuel source.  Samples could have got
> all mixed up.  You throw away your used fuel and some fermenting jars
> you don't want onto the midden, and some old geezer digs it all up
> 4000 years later...

Hmmm. wasn't there something about perforated vessels containing traces
of baked animal dung?

A) Could the dung have been included in the ceramic?
b) Could these vessels have been used for smoking malt, in the kind of
humidity which might make simple air-drying difficult?

> 5) Some samples of new-born baby's poo allegedly contains high level
> of monoculture saccromyces yeast.  I'm not game to experiment there...
>
> 6) Maybe Skara Brae was just one large brewery?  Perhaps beer making &
> drinking was what coaleased society from hunter-gathering/simple
> agriculture towards townships.

Could be. The first paved street in New York City was Stone Street, now
part of the downtown financial district. The stone paving was
necessitated by the brewers on the street (it has been alleged) dumping
their waste water into the road, which would quickly become a swamp if
there weren't a hard surface and some drainage.

> 7) Perhaps the quest towards bronze age was simply to create nicer
> drinking cups???

Nah, it was to provide wedding presents once monogamous mating practices
were developed.

Adamantius
--
Phil & Susan Troy

troy at asan.com

"It was so blatant that Roger threw at him.  Clemens gets away with
things that get other people thrown out of games.  As long as they
let him get away with it, it's going  to continue." -- Joe Torre, 9/98