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Great Lakes Brewing Co.’s efforts to replicate a 5,000-year-old Sumerian beer are featured in a New York Times article titled “For Its Latest Beer, a Craft Brewer Chooses an Unlikely Pairing: Archaeology.”

In the item, writer Steven Yaccino covers the efforts by the Ohio City-based brewery to whip up a batch of the Mesopotamian malt, which isn’t easy considering that those ancient brewers failed to post their recipe on the Interwebs.

Because no detailed recipes have been found, attempts to recreate it have been based upon cuneiform texts and an ancient poem, Hymn to Ninkasi, that hints at the recipe.

“How can you be in this business and not want to know from where your forefathers came with their formulas and their technology?” co-owner Pat Conway is quoted in the piece.

Great Lakes has no plans to sell the beer, but rather use it as an educational exercise. The brewing vessels are a popular addition on the guided tours of the brewery, and they intend to showcase the Sumerian beer at events in Cleveland this summer.

Read more about the process here.

This article appears in Jun 19-25, 2013.

For 25 years, Douglas Trattner has worked as a full-time freelance writer, editor and author. His work as co-author on Michael Symon's cookbooks have earned him four New York Times Best-Selling Author honors, while his longstanding role as Scene dining editor has garnered awards of its own.

One reply on “Great Lakes’ Efforts to Replicate 5,000-year-old Sumerian Beer in NY Times”

  1. Now that’s pretty dang cool. The only problem is, I don’t think anyone is really going to be able to say if its authentic or not. It’s not like we can bring someone in and have them do a taste test.

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