Brewing 'Old School': OBH's Owen Bitas blogs from Cyprus

Hello all!

For the next three weeks I'll be sharing blog space with Charles, our master brewer, to take things back old school.

Very old school.

I'm currently in Kissonerga, Cyprus working on an experimental archeology dig run by HARP Archeology. I'm sure you're asking, "...what could this possibly have to do with craft brewing?" Well, despite the rich tradition of wine in the Mediterranean, there was, albeit small, a bit of brewing tradition too. And that's what I'm here to study.

Over the course of the next month I'll be working to construct a kiln by hand that would be extremely similar to the ones used by middle to late Bronze Age brewers. I'll also be excavating the kilns of previous research groups, to see how their reconstructions may have compared to the original. And, of course, I'll be brewing beer using the techniques and ingredients employed by our ancient brewers.

So, follow along for the next month, and let's see how far brewing has come in the past...few thousand years!

-Owen