The ancient Egyptians loved beer. According to Mohamed A. Farag, a Professor of Chemistry at The American University in Cairo:
“Together with bread, beer was considered a staple food for the ancient Egyptians. Moreover, it was an essential provision for their afterlife as shown by numerous depictions and models of brewing found in their tombs.”
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In a new paper published to the journal Scientific Reports, Dr. Farag and an international team of colleagues sought to provide an in-depth chemical recipe of ancient Egyptian beer. They conducted detailed chemical analyses with infrared and mass spectrometry on residues found in large, 5,600-year-old vats discovered at the world’s oldest-known large-scale brewery, unearthed in Hierakonpolis, Egypt. The site could have produced 325 liters of beer at one time, equivalent to about 650 modern bottles, the researchers say.
Read full, original article: What We’ve Learned From Ancient Egypt’s Oldest Large-Scale Brewery