I knew it! Genetic predisposition to drink beer since I'm Irish (and various other sundry ethnic blends)!
Early Irish Brewing Studied | A Good Beer Blog: Bronze Age man was a bit of a boozer, according to a team of archaeologists who claim to have uncovered evidence of the world's largest prehistoric brewing industry.
After four years of research, which has seen them travel from Belgium to Bavaria to investigate ancient beer-making methods, the team has concluded that Ireland's love affair with alcohol predates the 1759 foundation of the Guinness brewery by many thousands of years. An archaeological consultancy based in Co Galway has demonstrated that enigmatic man-made Bronze Age features, which are common throughout Ireland, could well have been ancient microbreweries.
Some photos here, and more details about replicating the brew (a variant of weiss beer) here
We produced what is more properly termed a gruit ale (gruit is a term used to describe the herbal mix used to flavour ale). Through our experiments, we discovered that the process of brewing ale in a fulacht using hot rock technology is a simple process. To produce the ale took only a few hours, followed by a three-day wait to allow for fermentation. Three hundred litres of water was transformed into a very palatable 110 litres of ale with minimal work.
