Posts Tagged ‘ale’

IRELAND’S PATRON SAINT OF BEER

IRELAND'S PATRON SAINT OF BEER

Today marks the festival day of Imbolc, a pagan Gaelic festival celebrating the beginning of Spring. The date has been Christianised as the feast day of St. Bridget, one of Irelands better known Saints, who has inherited much of the folklore associated with the Goddess Brigid. The word Imbolc probably derives from the Irish ‘i […]


BREWDAY BOTTLING

BREWDAY BOTTLING

Yesterday Billy and I bottled out first keggery beer. It’s a basic beer with some added cascade hops, bog myrtle and yarrow using an american ale yeast, and, of course, some hot rocks. We also had a little early morning taste. The bog myrtle was surprisingly overpowering. We had thought that the hops would balance […]


THE FULACHT BEER EXPERIMENT – ARCHAEOLOGY OF BEER

THE FULACHT BEER EXPERIMENT - ARCHAEOLOGY OF BEER

Declan, Billy and Nigel presented at a Seminar on ‘Experimental Archaeology in Northwest Europe: Principles and Potential’ in UCD last week. Our presentation was on the beer experiments and Fulacht Fiadh. Here’s some of Declan’s section of the presentation: Fulachta fiadh are one of the most widespread of Irish field monuments and may number up […]


Ancient Beer Latest…

From the January – February edition of Britarch (thanks to Merryn for pointing it out to us): Burnt mound theory tested to perfection David Chapman found an eroding “burnt mound” – a common but unexplained prehistoric mound of fired stones – on the Lleyn peninsula at Hell’s Mouth. Excavations in 2008 revealed an oak trough […]


Reinventing the wheel

Reinventing the wheel

Paul Rondelez in Cork drew our attention to a paper from the Journal of the Royal Historical and Archaeological Association of Ireland from 1886 which spoke to us through the centuries. A kindred spirit and direct descendent of Daniel O’Connell, one Gabriel Redmond M.D., musing on the function of Fulachta Fiadh in the aforementioned paper, posited […]


Boscos Flaming Stone Beer

Boscos Flaming Stone Beer

We’ve recently been in touch with Chuck Spypeck and Jeremy Feinstone of Boscos Brewery in Memphis, Tennessee, USA, as far as we can tell, the world’s last remaining commercial hot rock brewery. Boscos Juniper “Stone” Beer was a Gold Medal Winner at the 2000 Great American Beer Festival and for all intents and purposes is […]


Response to Archaeobotanists letter

Response to Archaeobotanists letter

In reply to the Irish Archaeobotanical Discussion Groups letter about the article on Fulacht Fiadh and brewing published in Archaeology Ireland, in the first instance we’d like to state our delight in receiving such a stimulating and provoking response and warmly acknowledge the group’s congratulations on our experimental endeavours. It is always a welcome and […]


Early Irish Ale

Early Irish Ale

We’ve been scouring the Annals of the Four Masters (available online here) for beer references recently. Reading the Annals can be a bit of a chore but there are occasional gems in there. Some of the earlier entries refer to corn and ‘fruitful crops’ and fruit but the first reference to beer we’ve encountered comes […]


Irish Hospitality

Irish Hospitality

For those of you who have always wondered what Ireland was like for the early Christian inhabitants of the place, and let’s face it, we all have at some stage, here’s a slightly distilled version of P.W. Joyce’s excellent introduction to his (1905) “A Smaller Social History of Ireland” available in full on the interweb […]


Ale, brewing and fulacht fiadh: Archaeology Ireland

Ale, brewing and fulacht fiadh: Archaeology Ireland

Ale, brewing and fulacht fiadh Billy Quinn and Declan Moore of Moore Environmental and Archaeological Consultants in Galway present a bleary eyed experimental reassessment of the nature and function of fulacht fiadh The majority of Irish field monuments are defined by their names – a standing stone is a standing stone and a ringfort is […]