A Brewery in Jerusalem Just Resurrected A Beer Recipe From The Biblical Era

Jerusalem-based Herzi Brewery just made a beer using an ancient wheat strain that was used in the Holy Land two millennia ago. This could possible be the oldest beer made. 

Beer brewer Itai Gutman, owner of Herzl Brewery, said: “I found this article about these guys at the Tel Aviv University that made the genome of the model of wheat, the same grain I used and just made a light bulb light up and I just contacted them and within a few days I had several kilogrammes of this material.”

Unfortunately, you and me can’t get our hands on any as the brewery produced 20 litres of beer using traditional ingredients but ended up with a cloudy, flat liquid with 3 percent alcohol content and a hint of berries and honey. It was shared among Gutmans friends and only one bottle remains. He doesn’t plan to make anymore. 

According to Gurman, “The flavor was surprising. This is something that we never expected. We got this red fruity kind of a raspberry flavor, and there are no fruit additions in it, and it’s only because of the grains we used.”

This experiment could probably explain why wine was the preferred sacred beverage of the bible. Although wine was preferred, it’s likely that beer would have familiar to Jesus and his disciples. It was brought over from Egypt by the ancient Israelites, according to the Jewish Museum in Munich, which is taking part in the 500th anniversary celebrations of the Bavarian Beer Purity Law that regulated Germany’s brewing industry.