Antibiotic Beer Gave Ancient Africans Health Buzz

[Guest guest]

>Or the beers...most of the Belgians are 5-6% alcohol or better, while a

>straight LF brew inoculated with whey would only contain saccharomyces

>as a contaminant. Alcohol IS a preservative.

All good points! Esp. the alcohol ... I keep forgetting that the " small beer "

they used to make was just not as alcoholic. Mine isn't so alcoholic

either. I get full WAY before I get tipsy! It does go very sour in the

bottle, even without air though ... maybe it's not technically " vinegar "

just those LB doing their thing (and they don't need air).

Hops kill bacteria too, so a nice alcoholic homebrew should keep

pretty well. Our " homebrew " that was made with barley etc.

did keep pretty well but it didn't age gracefully enough for

selling. The commercial folks would be better about sanitation

etc. though I'd guess. And they'd probably filter out the yeast,

as was also mentioned.

So here's a technical question from an NT standpoint: does filtering

out the yeast and bacteria count as " pasteurization " ? Sometimes it

is *called* " Cold pasteurizing " . No heat is used that might injure

vitamins/flavor etc., but you don't get the probiotics either. I notice

that few beers or wines anymore get " scum " on the bottom of

the bottle (a sign of live yeast), whereas homemade wine and

beer generally do.

Heidi Jean

[Guest guest]

At 6:05 PM +0000 5/23/05, Heidi wrote:

>So here's a technical question from an NT standpoint: does filtering

>out the yeast and bacteria count as " pasteurization " ? Sometimes it

>is *called* " Cold pasteurizing " . No heat is used that might injure

>vitamins/flavor etc., but you don't get the probiotics either. I notice

>that few beers or wines anymore get " scum " on the bottom of

>the bottle (a sign of live yeast), whereas homemade wine and

>beer generally do.

I wouldn't call it pasteurization. Nothing's gotten injured by heat,

because there's nothing left TO injure by heat. I think we can agree

that it's a less-than-optimal situation, without confusing the issue

with terms that denote different technical processes.

Isn't there a " hyphenated-pasteurization " term that's used as a

euphemism for irradiation?

[Guest guest]

>

> All good points! Esp. the alcohol ... I keep forgetting that

the " small beer "

> they used to make was just not as alcoholic. Mine isn't so alcoholic

> either. I get full WAY before I get tipsy!

heidi, what the heck kind of small beer are you making, LOL? i thought

small beer involved the use of grains and i know you don't consume any

grains, even in beer form.

laura

[Guest guest]

>I wouldn't call it pasteurization. Nothing's gotten injured by heat,

>because there's nothing left TO injure by heat. I think we can agree

>that it's a less-than-optimal situation, without confusing the issue

>with terms that denote different technical processes.

Oh, well, there IS plenty to injure with heat, in the case of wine

or beer! Beer is boiled to death when you start out, but after

the yeast and maybe bacteria work on it, there are all kinds

of aromatic compounds and vitamins etc. that you DO want

to preserve. And full of antibiotics perhaps, as per the original

link.

And if it isn't micro-filtered it is ALSO full of probiotics (at

least the lambic ale would be). So if the original question

by is: " where can I get beer with live bacilli? " then

filtered beer wouldn't be it.

>Isn't there a " hyphenated-pasteurization " term that's used as a

>euphemism for irradiation?

Ah yeah, that too ...

Heidi Jean

[Guest guest]

>heidi, what the heck kind of small beer are you making, LOL? i thought

>small beer involved the use of grains and i know you don't consume any

>grains, even in beer form.

>

>laura

" Small beer " was made with whatever was around ... using ONLY barley

to make beer is modern development. Washington's household

apparently made it with molasses, as do I. Sorghum was used too.

Now the claim is made that 's " small beer " was REALLY

potent, but I'm not sure about that ... the yeasts they used

back then might not have been so powerful, and there may have

been a fair bit of bacteria involved which would lower the alcohol

content. But our founding fathers DID drink a bit! " Small beer "

was presumably LESS alcoholic than " beer " , so one wonders!

Anyway, this is the recipe that inspired me to use molasses.

Molasses is chock full of vitamins and minerals (all the good

stuff that is removed to make white sugar!). It's also cheap

and easy to get. And makes VERY tasty beer! In Cuba they make

a similar drink called " Malta " , tho it's too sweet for my taste.

http://www.npr.org/templates/story/story.php?storyId=1591417

Washington's Beer Recipe

(Note: Following this recipe exactly will result in a beer with an alcohol

content of about 11 percent -- making it at least twice as potent as most of

today's commercially brewed domestic beers.)

To Make Small Beer:

Take a large siffer full of bran hops to your taste-boil these 3 hours. Then

strain our 30 gall[o]n into a cooler put in 3 gall[o]n molasses while the beer

is scalding hot or rather draw the molasses into the cooler. Strain the beer on

it while boiling hot, let this stand till it is little more than blood warm.

Then put in a quart of ye[a]st if the weather is very cold cover it over with a

blank[et] let it work in the cask-Leave the bung open till it is almost done

working-Bottle it that day week it was brewed. "

Heidi Jean

[Guest guest]

RE: " Antibiotic " Beer Gave Ancient Africans Health Buzz

> Isn't there a " hyphenated-pasteurization " term that's used as a

> euphemism for irradiation?

,

I believe you're referring to " cold-pasteurization "

-Terry

[Guest guest]

> RE: " Antibiotic " Beer Gave Ancient Africans Health Buzz

>

>

> Gene:

>> From the

>> little I've read, most of the microbrews are pasteurized.

>

> " Possibly the bottled ones, certainly not brewpub brew. "

> Right. I meant the bottled ones.

>

Now I would think this to be the reverse? I understand if I go to a brewery

and sample beer that is fermented on the same grounds, it probably is very

fresh and not pasteurized. OTOH, if I'm in a bar in Cleveland and order a

draught bass ale, it most certainly would HAVE to be pasteurized? Is this

correct?

Terry

[Guest guest]

On Tue, 24 May 2005 18:25:41 -0400

" Terry Benouameur " <tben@...> wrote:

> > RE: " Antibiotic " Beer Gave Ancient Africans Health Buzz

> >

> >

> > Gene:

> >> From the

> >> little I've read, most of the microbrews are pasteurized.

> >

> > " Possibly the bottled ones, certainly not brewpub brew. "

>

>

> > Right. I meant the bottled ones.

>

>

> >

> Now I would think this to be the reverse? I understand if I go to a brewery

> and sample beer that is fermented on the same grounds, it probably is very

> fresh and not pasteurized. OTOH, if I'm in a bar in Cleveland and order a

> draught bass ale, it most certainly would HAVE to be pasteurized? Is this

> correct?

>

> Terry

Not necessarily. If its cask conditioned or nitro tapped it won't be

pasteurized regardless of where in the country you drink it. Having said

that most brew pub *is not* pasteurized. The difference in taste and

longevity is in how it is stored. Cask ales once opened will only stay

fresh for two or three days.

Also there are many bottled beers that are not pasteurized even though

they might not say so on the label. You just have to ask. And there are

a number of beers that have undergone a secondary fermentation where you

can still see the yeast in the bottom of the bottle.

" This is what is meant by " sacrifice " , literally, the " making sacred "

of an animal consumed for dinner. Yet sacrifice, because it dwells

on the death, is a concept often shocking to the secular modern

Western mind - to people who calmly organize daily hecatombs

of beasts, and who are among the most death-dealing carnivores

the world has ever seen. "

Margaret Visser: The Rituals of Dinner

[Guest guest]

At 2:33 AM +0000 5/25/05, Terry wrote:

> > Gene:

>>> From the

>>> little I've read, most of the microbrews are pasteurized.

>>

>> " Possibly the bottled ones, certainly not brewpub brew. "

>

>

>> Right. I meant the bottled ones.

>

>

>>

>Now I would think this to be the reverse? I understand if I go to a brewery

>and sample beer that is fermented on the same grounds, it probably is very

>fresh and not pasteurized.

right, that's what I meant. Straight from the keg/fermenter.

>OTOH, if I'm in a bar in Cleveland and order a

>draught bass ale, it most certainly would HAVE to be pasteurized? Is this

>correct?

Not necessarily. Bottled beer is expected to hang around

unrefrigerated. A keg OTOH is a big enough investment to be

protected. And with modern transport it could come here

unpasteurized. I don't know whether it does so though. But what's the

point of draught if it's been messed with?

Pre-pasteurization, beers that were meant to be shipped were

formulated differently. The chief examples are Russian Imperial Stout

(shipped by the British through the Baltic Sea) and India Pale Ale

(ditto to India). such beers have high alcohol and hop content.

--

Quick, USUM (ret.)

www.en.com/users/jaquick

" Every people deserves the regime it is willing to endure. " --the

White Rose, leaflet #1

[Guest guest]

Might explain why RA patients improve on minocycline, if RA is a bone related infection. --penny "Humans have been downing beer for millennia. In certain instances, some drinkers got an extra dose of medicine, according to an analysis of Nubian bones from Sudan in North Africa. Armelagos is an anthropologist at Emory University in Atlanta, Georgia. For more than two decades, he and his colleagues have studied bones dated to between A.D. 350 and 550 from Nubia, an ancient kingdom south of ancient Egypt along the Nile River. The bones, the researchers say, contain traces of the antibiotic tetracycline. Today tetracycline is used to treat ailments ranging from acne flare-ups to urinary-tract infections. But the antibiotic only came into commercial use half a century ago. So how did tetracycline get into the Nubian bones? Armelagos and his team say they found an answer in ancient beer. The brew was made from grain contaminated with the bacteria streptomycedes, which produces tetracycline. The ancient Nubians, according to Armelagos, stored their grain in mud bins. A soil bacteria, streptomycedes is ubiquitous in arid climates like Sudan's. "We looked at how the grain was used then and came across a recipe for beer," Armelagos said. The Nubians would make dough with the grain, bake it briefly at a hot temperature, and then use it to make beer. "We're not talking about Heineken or Bud Light. This was a thick gruel, sort of a sour cereal," he said. Feel-Good Drink According to Armelagos, the Nubians would drink the gruel and probably allowed their children to eat what was left at the bottom of the vat. Traces of tetracycline have been found in more than 90 percent of the bones

the team examined, including those of 24-month-old infants. But did the Nubians know they were drinking beer contaminated with tetracycline? "They probably realized the alcohol made them feel better, but there is a whole series of Egyptian pharmacopoeias [medicine books] that talk about things beer can help with," Armelagos said. (The ancient Nubians had no written language that discussed daily life but lived just south of the Egyptians, who did.) Armelagos said the Egyptians used beer as a gum-disease treatment, a dressing for wounds, and even an anal fumigant—a vaporborne pesticide to treat diseases of the anus. The anthropologist also believes the tetracycline protected the Nubians from bone infections, as all the bones he examined are infection free. Charlie Bamforth, a professor of biochemistry and brewing science at the University of California, , said that beer has been a

staple of the human diet for thousands of years and that the health benefits of beer were likely known, even if not scientifically explained, in ancient times. "They must have consumed it because it was rather tastier than the grain from which it was derived. They would have noticed people fared better by consuming this product than they were just consuming the grain itself," he said. " http://news.nationalgeographic.com/news/2005/05/0516_050516_ancientbeer.html