What is the most original beer that can be reconstructed?
Uwe Ebbinghaus
Editor in the Feuilleton.
Follow I follow
Martin Zarnkow:
The first and simplest beer in the world probably came about like this: A person, probably a woman, took some grain in her hand and threw it into water.
Point.
Any fermenting microorganisms were on the grain or on the hand and there was an interaction.
And the nice thing is: everyone can do it tonight, it works.
By tomorrow a slightly yellow liquid will have formed with some alcohol, you will probably even find a bit of foam on it.
This corresponds to the general definition of beer as a drink obtained by fermentation from starchy substances, i.e. from long-chain sugar molecules.
The few enzymes on the grain and on the hand are enough to break down the starch in the grain and make a little beer.
I'm not talking about all the complex processes
When did malting come along, the moistening and subsequent drying of grain that optimizes the breakdown of starch?
I think it wasn't long in coming, but of course you don't know, the written testimonies are missing.
Malting arguably came along with humanity's other great biotechnology, baking.
You need two additional inventions for baking: Firstly, the grain has to be separated from the husks, so I have to crush or grind it, because otherwise it's not pleasant to eat.
The dough that is created is then incredibly close to the beer, or rather to the mash.
It just has a different flour-meal-water ratio.
And secondly, I need to heat the dough, bake it.
Otherwise I end up with some kind of viscous mass that doesn't keep and isn't pleasant to digest either.
How was the grain heated during early malting?
When the temperatures hit 60 degrees on the flat roof, like in the Middle East, it's ideal for kilning, for drying the previously germinated grains.
In the wetter, colder regions, in Europe for example, the energy must have come from elsewhere - from fire in previous centuries.
It is therefore not wrong to say that the early beers in our regions always had a certain smoky aroma.
If you are looking for more characteristics of these old beers, there are two more that are typical.
One is mixed fermentation.
Beers before 1883, before the introduction of pure yeast, always contained lactic acid bacteria and were therefore sour and sparkling.
And the other point is that these beers were less carbonated.
In terms of taste, these beers would be roughly comparable to a Belgian Geuze, which also involves various yeasts and lactic acid bacteria?