[Stones] bronze age ale

[Merryn Dineley]

Ric, according to my research, brewing was a feature of neolithic grain 
processing, from c4000 BC onwards in Britain and was in full swing 
before the Bronze`Age. Evidence at Barnhouse, a neolithic village near 
the Stones of Stenness, of organic residues in Grooved ware indicates 
turning barley into malt sugars and ale. Drains and huge pots indicate 
the wet processing of barley.

I have to agree with you about stereotypical images of neolithic 
farmers! Nobody woke up one day and said 'I think I shall be a farmer 
from now on' It was a gradual development and hunting/gathering was 
important for a very long time.

I think malting is the key. The research into Bronze Age fulact fiadhs 
is interesting because these features have been interpreted as meat 
cooking places up to now - but with no evidence of bone at the sites. I 
think mashing is a much better explanation. Hot stone mashing with 
fermentation to follow! Barley is of little use for flour or bread but 
is great for malting.
merryn

Ric wrote:

> Hi,
> 
> i guess the NW European cereal yield in the Late
> Bronze Age might have been approaching practical
> levels of 'milled barley' to kick-start the brewing
> industry, but we seem to have developed a
> stereo-typical image of the prehistoric farmer who
> just turned up one day, and created - as if by magic -
>  rolling vistas of endless cereals rippling in the
> breeze?
> 
> the truth is more likely that agriculture was a
> lengthy stop-start process of experimentation,
> presumably originally subservient to animal husbandry
> (esp. cattle), and pretty much running parallel to
> hunter-gatherer modes of subsistence for many
> generations if not many hundreds of years - after the
> gradual arrival of 'the neolithic cultural package' of
> proto-agriculture, from Southern Europe?
> 
> just a thought?
> 
> ;)
> 
> Ric
> 
> 
> --- Merryn Dineley <merryn at dineley.com> wrote:
> 
> 
>>Some new ideas about burnt mounds and fulacht fiadh.
>>Some folk might be 
>>interested in this, especially those of you who have
>>visited Ronnie 
>>Simison's burnt mound on South Ronaldsday, where the
>>stone trough and 
>>bronze age building can be seen at Liddle Farm.
>>Close by Tomb of the Eagles.
>>
>>It is interesting how these news reports have missed
>>the malt and refer 
>>instead to 'milled barley' being used to make beer.
>>Also they report 
>>that the beer was fermented in the trough but it
>>wasn't. The trough was 
>>used for mashing.
>>
>>
> 
> http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/northern_ireland/6941951.stm
> 
> http://www.indiaprwire.com/pressrelease/environmental-services/200708104056.htm
> 
>>For the full, correct story and some great pictures
>>of this great bit of 
>>practical research into a much neglected area of our
>>ancient past see
>>
>>www.mooregroup.ie/beer/index.html.
> 
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