Smarty Pants Podcast

Here for the Beer

Exploring ancient ales and fermentation re-creations

By Stephanie Bastek | July 30, 2021
Arup Malakar/Flickr
Arup Malakar/Flickr

The experimental archaeologist Dr. Patrick McGovern, known casually as the “Indiana Jones of Ancient Ales, Wines, and Extreme Beverages,” and Sam Calagione, master brewer and founder of Dogfish Head Brewery, have spent years resurrecting the beverages of the past. In 2017, we sat down with them before an event at the Smithsonian to discuss what it takes to turn millennia-old booze samples at the bottom of a jug into mead fit for a king—or jiahu for an emperor—or tahenket for a pharaoh.

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