Understanding Early Modern Beer: An Interdisciplinary Approach

Summary

This is an abstract from the session entitled "FoodCult: Food, Culture and Identity in Ireland, c.1550-1650", at the 2023 annual meeting of the Society for Historical Archaeology.

Beer was a staple of diets in the past. While its profound social and cultural significance is well established, little is known about the quality of the drink itself, particularly its nutritional characteristics. Previously, attempts to estimate calorie and alcohol content have been monodisciplinary in approach, involving theoretical calculations based on grain content, or an approximation with modern equivalents. This paper describes an interdisciplinary approach to the problem of beer. Exploiting rich archival material, the project recreates a beer, using the most appropriate ingredients, equipment, and processes possible. Scientific analysis of the beer offers new perspectives on the drink as a dietary staple. The project is a model for integrating experimental approaches into mainstream historical study, and the practice of radical interdisciplinarity. It represents the most comprehensive effort to recreate historic beer to date, bringing together historians, archaeologists, microbiologists, brewing scientists and craftworkers, to tackle questions about the past.

This Resource is Part of the Following Collections

• Society for Historical Archaeology 2023   •
• FoodCult: Food, Culture and Identity in Ireland, c.1550-1650

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Individual & Institutional Roles

Contact(s): Nicole Haddow