US brewery resurrects Iron Age ‘braggot’

A brewery in the US has teamed up with an archaeologist to recreate a 2,500 year-old Iron Age German mead.

Paelobotanist Manfred Rösch and conservator Tanja Kreß examining the cauldron. Photo credit: Bettina Arnold

Lakefront Brewery in Milwaukee collaborated with Bettina Arnold, an archaeologist and anthropologist at the University of Wisconsin-Milwaukee, to recreate the ancient brew, traces of which were found in an ancient cauldron.

Arnold had been part of a team that discovered the bronze cauldron while excavating a burial plot dating from 400-450BC near the Heuneburg hillfort in Baden-Württemberg.

The person for whom the burial was for had been buried with the cauldron which was originally filled with 14 litres of “high quality” mead.

Trace evidence of the beverage was recovered from the cauldron and further work by German paelobotanist Manfred Rösch and conservator Tanja Kreß uncovered the basic elements of the recipe.

It turned out to be a ‘braggot’, an old type of mead that combines barley and honey, that was further flavoured in this instance with mint and meadow wort, which acted as a preservative in place of hops.

The drink took seven hours to brew and two weeks to ferment. A report for National Public Radio described the final result as “smooth and pleasant… with a minty, herbal edge.”

Unfortunately, it does not appear the braggot will be hitting the shelves anytime soon. Lakefront’s Chris Ranson told NPR that while “cool to taste… I don’t think people would be interested in purchasing it to drink.”

It’s not the first time brewers and archaeologists have combined to resurrect old drinks of late.

This March a Chicago brewery worked with a local museum to recreate an ancient Peruvian chichi de molle, which went on sale in the museum café and is more widely available from the brewery.