After three thousand years, the beer of the ancient Egyptians was brewed again

McDonnell, who works for a nonprofit organization, started his hobby in 2020 during the coronavirus pandemic. That’s when he decided to try to reconstruct ancient Egyptian beer, which required several years of research, carefully selected ingredients and a dose of luck. He drew inspiration from similar experiments, such as Seamus Buckley, who made the bread of the ancient Egyptian pyramid builders based on a four-thousand-year-old recipe.

McDonnell collected the recipes needed for brewing from the Ebers Papyrus, the herb book of the ancient Egyptians, and then selected the most important ingredients based on these: Egyptian balsam, sycomorph fig, red juniper, carob, black cumin, frankincense, Israeli golden raisins, and Yemenite honey. He also carefully selected the barley and wheat to make the end result as authentic as possible. Procuring the yeast was particularly adventurous, as spores of the ancient Philistines’ brewing yeast were found during an Israeli excavation, which McDonnell also used.

The finished beer, dubbed Sinai Sour, offers a tart, cider-like fruity flavor, and McDonnell is proud to present his work, which faithfully reflects the traditions of ancient Egyptian brewing.

The history of beer is deeply rooted in the region of the Middle East and North Africa, where thirteen thousand-year-old remains point to early signs of brewing. For the peoples of Mesopotamia and the Levant, beer was not only a staple food, but also had religious significance, as evidenced by the hymn dedicated to Ninkasi, the goddess of beer and brewing.

McDonnell’s success highlights that uncovering and reviving the secrets of the past is not only the task of archaeologists and historians, but is an opportunity available to anyone with sufficient enthusiasm and perseverance.