Interesting story in the news today about a discovery in a Cambridgeshire archaeological site where the earliest traces of British beer has been discovered. The site has thrown up traces of charred residues from the brewing process, the microscopic particles unearthed show tell-tale signs of mashing and fermentation, key processes in brewing. The amazing thing is that the estimated dates for the site stretch back as far as 400 BC, it seems that ancient Britons were mashing-in and necking home-brew before even the Romans got here!
There's currently a trend in craft-brewing at the moment for barrel aging certain styles of beer, in the photograph above you can see some product from my local brewery (Siren) which is a smoked porter that's been flavoured with coffee and blackcurrant and then aged in Bourbon barrels for many months. The result is an extremely complex drink, only just recognizable as beer, more like barley-wine. Shame those ancient Britons didn't discover bottling technology maybe we could have tasted what two and a half millennia old beer might be like :) ..
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