It would be an entirely different experience for the liquor connoisseurs this summer if they get lucky enough to taste a 9,000-year-old brew. Chateau Jiahu is a mixed fermented beverage of rice, honey and fruit, which was being produced 9,000 years ago. It was the time when barley beer and grape wine were beginning to be made in the Middle East. The beverage was first described by University of Pennsylvania molecular archaeologist Patrick McGovern in the “Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences” based on chemical traces from pottery in the Neolithic village of Jiahu in Northern China. After that, he approached Sam Calagione of Dogfish Head Craft Brewery in Milton to re-create this ancient beverage. Thus, the Chateau Jiahu came into existence. The Beer Babe blog, last year, said about the brew, “It is very smooth, not overly sweet but the honey is a delightful compliment.”

Other than the Chateau Jiahu, Dogfish will be rolling out some other highly strange brews this summer, including the first large batch of Sah’tea for the masses and the Theobroma, a cocoa-based brew that was produced from a chemical analysis of 3,200-year-old pottery fragments from the Cradle of Chocolate, the Ulua Valley in Honduras. The Chateau Jiahu will be packaged June 8th-9th and will start shipping to wholesalers the following week.

Via: ScientificAmerican459213