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Beer in Ancient Egypt
...sent you to school when you were ready to be taught writing, and she waited for you daily at home with bread and beer. -- Instructions of Ani, regarding his mother As we all know, ancient Egypt was well known for its beer, which they called hqt (heket). Hqt was the national drink of Egypt, consumed by adults and children alike, and is commonly called the drink of the poor because in pharonic times the average wage included two jars of hqt or just over two liters. However, it was also enjoyed by the upper classes. Like wine it was offered to the gods and put in the tombs of the dead. Some of the gods and goddesses associated with beer are Osiris, Isis, Bast, Sekhmet, Hathor, and Tenenet. (Legend holds that it was Osiris who taught mankind to make beer.) An example of the offering of beer and wine to the dead can be seen in the tomb of Nakht, scribe and priest of the hours at the temple of Amun, in Sheikh Abd el-Qurna (the hill to the north of the Ramesseum). “Large scale beer production was a royal monopoly, temples had their own breweries and in towns and villages breweries were farmed out.” An ancient brewery found at Nekhen (Hierakonpolis) gives us a glimpse at what a large scale brewery would look like, it would house large ceramic vats, fermenting pots and kilns that could heat large volumes of liquid. The ceramic vats found at Hierakonpolis were in parallel rows and set in a mud platform and was likely covered in a structure to contain heat. The vats could possibly hold about 16 gallons each. Making beer was possibly a two day process, one day to bring the brew to the correct temperature and cool it, then one day to ferment. It is likely that the beer was moved from the vats to other vessels to ferment, and if this is true, large volumes could be made on a daily basis. |
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Written by Hilarity Hatshepsut with assistance from Sankira Qin. Site design by Sankira Qin. The authors wish to gratefully acknowledge MerytMaihes Osorkon, Sementawy Horemheb, Menes Mentuhotep, Marduk Hammurabi, Asenath Amenhotep, Mirjam Nebet, Shesmu Ramesses, and Kaz Matsudaira for their research and graphics assistance. | |