Spain’s ancient beer traditions uncovered

A professor at Colorado State University is laying bare the pre-Roman beer culture of ancient Iberia.

Ancient Numanthia was the home of brewing, not vinification

Jonathan Carlyon, an associate professor at the university’s Department of Languages, Literatures and Cultures, and a specialist in early Spanish cultures, was inspired to research the subject after reading the CSU Magazine which featured the fermentation science and technology programme the university runs.

Speaking to the magazine in turn, he explained he had asked himself, “What can I add to this?”

His research has quickly made it clear that before the arrival of the Romans, it was beer and not wine that was consumed by the peninsula’s inhabitants; the Arevaci, Turdetani, Edetani, Cantabri and others.

The local brew was known as ‘Caelia’ by the Romans after their verb for heating, ‘calefacere’ and which is a reference to the heat given off by the brewing process.

Carlyon’s research has tracked the consumption of this drink back 5,000 years and, exactly as it was ancient Sumer and Egypt, that it was made by women using a basic fermentation process closely linked to bread making.

The fierce warrior peoples of ancient Spain used to drink the beer before battles, as the Romans found out when they tried to take the great city of Numantia in the second and first centuries BC. The wild, beer-filled revels before battle only added to the Romans’ view of the Iberians as dreadful savages. In the end, the Romans were forced to starve Numantia into submission after failing to take it by assault.

After the Romans completed their conquest of Iberia they were quick to plant vineyards and, before long, the total Romanisation of the Iberians (one of the most complete in the whole empire) had replaced the previous beer culture with a wine one – and one that exists to this day, with Spain one of the biggest wine producers in the world.

The appearance of Numantia is particularly interesting as LVMH’s top Spanish vineyard in Toro, ‘Numanthia’, is based close to that ancient fortress. The winery’s marketing strapline proudly states ‘the revival of a Spanish legend’ – but if it were really to revive the legend of Numantia it would appear it should be brewing beer not making wine.

Furthermore, visits to Spain have revealed that the burgeoning craft beer scene in the country has seen young brewers making contemporary versions of ‘caelia’.

He told CSU Magazine he hoped his work, either in the form of a paper or even a book, might be of use to those students at CSU taking the fermentation science programme and that the university’s own microbrewery, Fort Collins, might one day make some experimental batches of ‘Caelia’ of its own.

“Now beer is worthy of serious academic scholarship,” he told the magazine. “We’re always trying to recruit students to take our courses and get our minor. The Languages, Literatures and Cultures lens can be used in almost any field.

“This is an example of the consequences of taking a second look. That’s the thing about diversity and multidisciplinary work, it forces us to take a second look.”