Resurrecting Dead Beer

No the title does not refer to a batch of homebrew that has died and I am trying to resurrect, but to the fact that Dogfish Head have brewed a beer based on traces of a drink that was found in the remians of a pot from China that is estimated to be 9,000 years old. The beer is called Chateau Jiahu. This continues their series of ancient ales which also includes; Midas Touch and Theobroma.

Here is a little on the process used, taken from the Dogfish Head website:

"In keeping with historic evidence, Dogfish brewers used pre-gelatinized rice flakes, Wildflower honey, Muscat grapes, barley malt, hawthorn fruit, and Chrysanthemum flowers. The rice and barley malt were added together to make the mash for starch conversion and degredation. The resulting sweet wort was then run into the kettle. The honey, grapes, Hawthorn fruit, andChrysanthemum flowers were then added. The entire mixture was boiled for 45 minutes, then cooled. The resulting sweet liquid was pitched with a fresh culture of Sake yeast and allowed to ferment a month before the transfer into a chilled secondary tank."

Unfortunately they are only making a few thousand cases and so it probably won't be exported, but it is certainly an interesting idea.