Patrick McGovern takes us on a fascinating journey through time to the dawn of brewing when our ancestors might well have made a Palaeo-brew of wild fruits, honey, cereals, and botanicals. Early beverage-makers must have marveled at the magical process of fermentation. Their amazement grew as they drank the mind-altering drinks, which were to become the medicines, religious symbols, and social lubricants of later cultures.

McGovern recounts how the re-created Ancient Ales and Spirits of Dogfish Head Brewery came about as he circles the globe—to China, Turkey, Egypt, Italy, Scandinavia, Honduras, Peru, and Mexico. He interweaves archaeology and science, and tells the stories and struggles in making the most authentic versions of these liquid time capsules as possible. Accompanying homebrew interpretations--brimming with unusual spicy, fruity, and malty aromas and tastes--and matching meal recipes help bring the past alive, as our senses and imaginations travel “Back to the Future.”
 
About the Speaker:

Patrick E. McGovern is the Scientific Director of the Biomolecular Archaeology Project for Cuisine, Fermented Beverages, and Health at the University of Pennsylvania Museum in Philadelphia, where he is also an Adjunct Professor of Anthropology.

His academic background combined the physical sciences, archaeology, and history-an A.B. in Chemistry from Cornell University, graduate work in neurochemistry at the University of Rochester, and a Ph.D. in Near Eastern Archaeology and Literature from the Asian and Middle Eastern Studies Department of the University of Pennsylvania.

Over the past two decades, he has pioneered the exciting interdisciplinary field of Biomolecular Archaeology which is yielding whole new chapters concerning our human ancestry, medical practice, and ancient cuisines and beverages.

He is the author of Ancient Wine: The Search for the Origins of Viniculture (Princeton U., 2003/2004), recently translated into French as Naissance de la vigne et du vin (Paris: Libre & Solidaire, 2015). Other alcoholic beverages are dealt with in Uncorking the Past: The Quest for Wine, Beer, and Other Alcoholic Beverages (U. California, 2009/2010), which follows human ingenuity in making fermented beverages before and after our ancestors came “out of Africa” 200,000 years ago and traveled around the world.

A new book, Ancient Brews Rediscovered and Re-created (with Homebrew Interpretations, Meal Pairings, and Mood-enhancing Atmospherics including the appropriate music, attire, and setting), was published in June 2017 (WW Norton, New York). It tells the scientific, experimental, and personal backstories of how the Dogfish Head Brewery series of Ancient Ales and Spirits came about (nine re-created brews thus far). Ranging from galactic alcohol to the beginnings of life on earth to how our early ancestors reveled in extreme fermented beverage of every kind, the book lays the groundwork for how to go about bringing the past alive in as authentic a way as possible. It sheds new light on the earliest biotechnology of our innovative species. Dogfish Head is one of the fastest growing craft brewery in the U.S., and its first and premier Ancient Ale, Midas Touch, is its most awarded brew and the best-selling honey-based fermented beverage in the country.

Popularly, Dr. Pat is known as the “Indiana Jones of Ancient Ales, Wines, and Extreme Beverages.”
                   
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