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| 1.
Process for reproducing gruit beer in the Middle Ages |
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| Mashing |
| Similar
to modern beer, the process begins with mashing of the malt. Ground
malt of oat, wheat and barley is placed in wooden mash tanks. Hot
water from a boiling kettle is added and stirred with a paddle,
and mashed at a temperature of approximately 65 degrees Centigrade. |
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| Wort
filtering |
| After
mashing, a willow woven basket is placed in the wort, pushed down,
and the liquid extract transferred with a ladle to the wort boiling
kettle. |
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| Wort
boiling |
| Once
the wort is boiled a crushed gruit (a combination of five herbs-ground
ivy, betony, fennel, peppermint and mugwort) is added, and boiled
for one hour. In the last stage of boiling, sweet gale is added
to provide fragrance. |
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| Wort
cooling |
| The
boiled wort is removed with a ladle into a flat tank called a coolship,
and slowly cooled overnight. |
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| Fermentation |
| Yeast
is added to the cooled wort to begin fermentation. |
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| Storage
(barrels) |
| After
finishing fermentation, the gruit beer is transferred to a wooden
barrel, and carefully placed in storage. |
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| 2.
Characteristics of gruit beer |
| • |
Full-flavored
taste, with a complex fragrance interwoven by the variety of herbs
and a refreshing bitterness |
| • |
Alcohol
content of approximately 8% |
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|
| 3.
Major steps in the ‘Five Thousand Years of Beer’ research
project |
| |
| Progress
to date: |
| Apr.
2001 |
Research
begun on beer of ancient Egypt |
| Sept.
2001 |
Research
begun on Old Kingdom beer |
| Aug.
2002 |
New
hypothesis on the process of brewing during the Old Kingdom
announced
First time that beer had been reproduced by faithfully following
the wall paintings of the Old Kingdom period |
| Aug.
2002 |
New
hypothesis on process of brewing during the New Kingdom period
announced |
| Aug.
2004 |
Old
Kingdom and New Kingdom beer reproduced using emmer wheat,
an ancient species of wild wheat |
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* Durum
wheat, which has the same chromosome count as ancient types
of wheat, was previously used in the reproduction project.
In 2004 Kirin reproduced Old Kingdom and New Kingdom beer
using emmer wheat grown at its plant research center. |
| Oct.
2004 |
Reproduced
European gruit beer of the Middle Ages |
|
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| Future
steps (tentative) |
| 2005 |
Reproduce
the first beer brewed in Japan |
|
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Overview
of the Exhibition
Reproducing Gruit Beer-Herbs Inviting to Europe in the Middle Ages |
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