The Great Beer Experiment

Bronze Age Irishmen were as fond of their beer as their 21st century counterparts, it has been claimed. 

Two archaeologists have put forward a theory that one of the most
common ancient monuments seen around Ireland may have been used for
brewing ale.

The following is a summary version of a forthcoming article in
Archaeology Ireland. The full text will be posted after publication of
the article. The majority of Irish field monuments are defined by their
names – a standing stone is a standing stone and a ringfort is a
ringfort – but not so the fulacht fiadh, characterised by its
horseshoe-shaped mound and associated trough.
 
 
One hungover morning at breakfast, discussing the natural
predisposition of all men to seek means to alter our minds, coupled
with our innate inquisitiveness (and more mundane preparations for the
excavation of a fulacht fiadh), Billy Quinn of Moore Group came to a
sudden and startling conclusion: fulachts were Ireland’s earliest
breweries!
 
 
Immediately we set out on a journey of discovery. This quest took us to
Barcelona to the Congres Cerveza Prehistorica, and later one evening in
Las Ramblas in the company of, among others, an international beer
author, an award winning short story writer, a world renowned beer
academic and a Canadian Classical scholar – all of whom shared our
passion for the early history of beer. In pursuit of the early Northern
European brewing evidence we travelled to the Orkneys and the welcoming
arms of Merryn and Graham Dineley, an archaeologist and home brewer who
taught us more about Neolithic brewing and the basic manufacturing
process. Hot rock brewing technology brought us to Belgium and thence
to Bavaria and Rouchenfeld’s brewery in Marktoberdorf. We also had to
follow the clues to Canada, all of this culminating in a failed attempt
to enter Iran via Basra.
 
 
So having discovered that brewing and beer drinking was prevalent and
widespread throughout The Levant and The Far East with growing evidence
of the same from Late Neolithic and Bronze Age Europe and Britain, and
given our prodigious reputation for alcohol consumption (even in Roman
Times), where and how did the Bronze Age Irish people brew?
 

 
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