They produced a nutritious, non-perishable and intoxicating beverage by soaking barley or Emmer wheat. For the ancient Egyptians also, beer was the preeminent beverage and was more popular than water, which often was contaminated; and although beer had a lower social status than wine, beer was a necessity for the household and the kitchen. Brewing was the woman's task, as it was in Mesopotamia.
Scientists have found beer sediments from jars at Abadiyeh, a Predynastic (5500-3100 BC) cemetery on the east bank of the Nile in Upper Egypt and at Naqada, which is one of the largest Predynastic sites in Egypt, situated some 26 km north of Luxor on the west bank of Nile.
Early Dynastic (3100-2686 BC) written records showed that beer was very important during that period.
The Egyptians were already aware that using the sediment from a successful batch would speed up the new fermentation process. Their beers tended to be dark, as they used roasted beer bread, and they reached an alcohol content of 12 to 15%.
Bottled beer was also an Egyptians invention. When the pyramids were built, beer in clay bottles was delivered to the building site.
The divinities presiding over it were goddesses and some kind of chief brewer. According to Egyptian religious tradition, Osiris, the god of agriculture, taught the people to prepare beer.
Osiris was also credited with introducing beer to countries where wine was unknown.
The intimate relation between baking and brewing in Egypt and in Mesopotamia is supported both by the use of the Sumero-Akkadian word lahamu, originally meaning "loaves", to indicate brewing and by the constant association of baking and brewing in Egyptian art. "Bread and beer" was the symbol of food and a greeting formula.
The ancient Egyptians also made wine, but it would appear that viticulture and large-scale vinification was more or less confined to certain areas of the countries, such as the Nile Delta and the oases of the Western Dessert.
Beer brewing in Ancient Egypt
