The “Hymn to Ninkasi”: The Oldest Beer Recipe in History?

This post is also available in:

Beer is the second most consumed alcoholic beverage in the world, and it carries a long and distinguished legacy. In fact, it is older than wine and older than whiskey.

Its origins even predate agriculture. In 2018, a team from Stanford University and the University of Haifa identified residues of a fermented wheat and barley drink in 13,000-year-old stone mortars at Raqefet Cave, in Israel, used by the Natufians, a people of hunter-gatherers (Liu et al., 2018).

The find strengthens the theory that beer may have driven the rise of agriculture. Yet it is not until the 4th millennium BC that we have sources documenting the deliberate production of beer in ancient Sumer.

Around the same time, at Godin Tepe, a trading outpost in the Zagros Mountains of present-day Iran, a jar dated between 3500 and 3100 BC preserves traces of calcium oxalate, the main component of beerstone.

It is the oldest known chemical evidence of barley beer (Michel, McGovern and Badler, Nature, 1992). Beer has also been described as the “midwife of civilization” because of its central role in agriculture, trade, urbanization and medicine.

The Goddess Ninkasi

Beer became so important to ancient Mesopotamian culture that the Sumerians created a goddess for beer and brewing, Ninkasi, to whom an anonymous poet, intoxicated by her powers, wrote a hymn in 1800 BC.

A daughter of the mighty creator Enki and of Ninti, “queen of the sacred lake,” Ninkasi is all the more moving a deity given the role women played in ancient culture as respected brewers.

The “Hymn to Ninkasi” not only offers a glimpse of how important this custom was in Sumerian mythology, it also hands us a recipe for making beer, the oldest beer recipe in history.

Translated in 1964 from two clay tablets by Miguel Civil, professor of Sumerology at the University of Chicago, the poem contains instructions precise enough that Fritz Maytag, former owner of Anchor Brewing Company in San Francisco, set out to test them.

“Ninkasi Beer”

The results were presented at the annual meeting of the American Association of Micro Brewers in 1991.

The brewers, Civil wrote in Modern Brewers Recreate Ancient Beer (Oriental Institute, 1991),

were able to taste “Ninkasi Beer,” sipping it from large jugs with drinking straws as they did four millennia ago.

The beer had an alcohol concentration of 3.5% ABV, very similar to modern session beers, and it

had a “dry taste lacking in bitterness,” “similar to a hard apple cider.” A challenge for every homebrewer.

Unfortunately, Maytag could not bottle and sell the recreation commercially, because in ancient Mesopotamia “beer was brewed for immediate consumption.”

But what mattered most to Miguel Civil about the experiment was that his translation had been in the hands of a master brewer

who saw through the difficult terminology and poetic metaphors.

The Hymn to Ninkasi

Below is the first part of the “Hymn to Ninkasi,” which describes in poetic terms the step-by-step process of brewing Sumerian beer.

A second part of the hymn celebrates the vessels in which the beer is brewed and served, and includes the customary tavern toasts and drinking songs.

Born of the flowing water, tenderly cared for by Ninhursag.
Born of the flowing water, tenderly cared for by Ninhursag.

Having founded your city next to the sacred lake, she built your great walls for you.
Ninkasi, having founded your city next to the sacred lake, she built your great walls for you.

Your father is Enki, Lord Nudimmud, your mother is Ninti, queen of the sacred lake.
Ninkasi, your father is Enki, Lord Nudimmud, your mother is Ninti, queen of the sacred lake.

You are the one who handles the dough [and] with your great shovel mixes in a pit the bappir with sweet spices.
Ninkasi, you are the one who handles the dough [and] with your great shovel mixes in a pit the bappir with [dates] honey.

You are the one who bakes the bappir in the great oven, ordering the piles of hulled grains.
Ninkasi, you are the one who bakes the bappir in the great oven, ordering the piles of hulled grains.

You are the one who waters the malt of the earth, while your noble dogs keep even the potentates at bay.
Ninkasi, you are the one who waters the malt of the earth while your noble dogs keep even the potentates at bay.

You are the one who soaks the malt in a jar, the waves rise, the waves fall.
Ninkasi, you are the one who soaks the malt in a jar while the waves rise and the waves fall.

You are the one who spreads the cooked and mashed dough over large woven reed filters, the freshness overcomes;
Ninkasi, you are the one who spreads the cooked and mashed dough over large woven reed filters, and freshness overcomes.

You are the one who holds in both hands the fresh beer, fermenting it with honey [and] wine.
(You, the sweet new beer in the vessel) Ninkasi, (…) (You, the sweet new beer in the vessel) The filtering vat, with its pleasant sound, you placed it properly in a large collecting tub.
Ninkasi, the filtering vat, with its pleasant sound, you placed it properly in a large collecting tub.

When you pour from the collecting tub the already filtered beer it is [like] the floods of the Tigris and Euphrates,
Ninkasi, you are the one who pours from the collecting tub the already filtered beer,
and it is [like] the floods of the Tigris and Euphrates.

Frequently Asked Questions (FAQ)

1. What role did beer play in the development of the earliest civilizations?

Beer was an economic and social engine in cultures such as Sumer. Its production spurred agriculture (growing cereals), trade (exchanging surpluses) and even urbanization, since it required storage and distribution.

2. How does Sumerian brewing compare with modern brewing?

Sumerian beer was made with bappir, a barley dough baked in the oven, and with malt soaked in jars. It was sweetened with dates or honey and filtered through reeds. The big difference from today’s beer is hops, which the Sumerians did not use, along with controlled fermentation.

3. Why were women the main brewers in ancient Mesopotamia?

In Mesopotamia, brewing was tied to household tasks such as making bread, traditionally a woman’s role. Women were respected as producers of beer, a staple food, and their command of this craft gave them economic and social standing.

4. What challenges did Fritz Maytag face when recreating Ninkasi’s beer?

Maytag had to interpret the hymn’s poetic language and metaphors, such as the line “the waves rise, the waves fall,” which describes soaking the malt. The beer also could not be bottled, because it was brewed for immediate consumption and did not keep well. Its flavor, dry and cider-like, was noticeably different from modern beers.

5. What does the Hymn to Ninkasi reveal about the relationship between religion and daily life in Sumer?

The hymn shows that beer was sacred, since its making was attributed to a deity, linking the divine and the earthly. The mention of Enki (god of wisdom) and Ninti (goddess of life) suggests that beer symbolized creation and sustenance. Taverns, in turn, were social spaces where rituals and toasts blended the spiritual with the communal.

Bibliography

1. Miguel Civil, “A Hymn to the Beer Goddess and a Drinking Song,” in Studies Presented to A. Leo Oppenheim, Oriental Institute, University of Chicago, 1964
2. Miguel Civil, Modern Brewers Recreate Ancient Beer, The Oriental Institute News & Notes 132, 1991
3. Rudolph H. Michel, Patrick E. McGovern and Virginia R. Badler, Chemical evidence for ancient beer, Nature 360, 1992
4. Li Liu et al., Fermented beverage and food storage in 13,000 y-old stone mortars at Raqefet Cave, Israel, Journal of Archaeological Science: Reports 21, 2018

Recommended

• Cuneiform tablet NMC 7962: the oldest known beer receipt with a quality classification
• Beer in Ancient Egypt: Its Importance as Food and Its Social Consumption