Molecular archaeology has made it possible to reconstruct ancient brews, and ingredients like yarrow and bog myrtle are making a comeback. Beer may never be the same again ...

Give or take a millennium, brewing has been with us for the last 10,000 years. Grain, water, and yeast have been ever-present (although before Pasteur the yeast was a bit of a mystery), while the practice of adding hops for bitterness in beer has only been in general worldwide use for about 600 years. I've often wondered what the beers of 500 and 5,000 years ago tasted like, and now, with brewers looking to historic recipes and unfashionable ingredients for inspiration, it's becoming possible to find out.

Beers have, historically, been made with "the indigenous, natural ingredients at hand. The artistry, creativity and diversity of these beers were as colourful and contrasting as the varied cultures in which they were brewed." So say Dogfish Head, a brewery in Milton, Delaware, who have a range of ancient ales formulated by Dr Patrick McGovern, a molecular archaeologist.



Their Chateau Jiahu is based on evidence from a 9,000-year-old tomb in China, one of the earliest recorded finds of "beer". The Dogfish recreation contains sake rice, wildflower honey, Muscat grapes, hawthorn fruit and chrysanthemum flowers. Midas Touch contains honey, Muscat grapes and saffron and is based on "an ancient Turkish recipe using the original ingredients from the 2,700 year old drinking vessels discovered in the tomb of King Midas." Theobroma is based on "chemical analysis of pottery fragments found in Honduras which revealed the earliest known alcoholic chocolate drink used by early civilizations to toast special occasions." It contains Aztec cocoa powder and cocoa nibs, honey, chillies and annatto.

Our ancestors would quickly have discovered that you can't consume a sweet drink in any real quantity, and as their taste for the intoxicating effects of alcohol grew, the hunt for bittering ingredients to make beer a thirst-quenching experience began. Before hops, brewers would add a wide variety of locally available herbs and plants to their beers, the most common ingredients were bog myrtle and yarrow but others included:

"sage, wormwood, rosemary, broom (very popular), dandelions, nettles … alehoof ... wood avens or Herb Bennet," explains brewing historian Martyn Cornell. "Beyond these, heather, ground ivy, juniper, wild carrot seed, poppy, various spices and pepper were all used."

Gruit is a style which pre-dates the use of hops, the name referring to the mixture of herbs used. Stuart Howe at Sharp's Brewery brewed a gruit earlier this year containing yarrow, turmeric, bay and lemon balm. Moonlight Brewing in California brewed Artemis, a gruit containing mugwort and wild bergamot.

Sahti is a traditional Finnish beer style which is filtered through juniper twigs and fermented with bakers' yeast. Nøgne Ø, a Norwegian brewery, make a sahti with sea wormwood, juniper, heather honey, three yeasts plus hops and a variety of grains. Another recently revived style is purl, a beer flavoured with wormwood which may have been served warm with a slug of gin; Sonoma Springs from California make Green Purl which includes wormwood, horseradish, orange peel and juniper in a dry and herbal brew with an intense tonsil-beating botanical finish.

Williams Bros Brewery in Alloa, Scotland, produce a range of historic ales alongside their contemporary range. Their most popular historic ale is Froach, made with heather and sweet gale making for a floral, spicy and perfumed pint. Their Grozet ale includes bog myrtle, meadow sweet and gooseberries; Alba includes pine and spruce sprigs; and Kelpie includes seaweed which adds a distinct peppery, vegetal quality which works very well with the rich, roasty base beer.

So where is this new-found enthusiasm for ancient ingredients leading brewers? Away from liquid time capsules and historical recreations, breweries are experimenting with adding herbs and spices to beers with increasing regularity. Ginger is popular, making for genuine ginger ales, adding fragrant, warming spice; elderflower creates a floral, fruity flavour – Thornbridge's Craven Silk is a fine example; Dogfish Head, Stone Brewing and Victory Brewing have Saison du BUFF, a three-way collaboration which has a recipe inclined towards Mediterranean food and includes parsley, sage, rosemary and thyme; Vapeur brewery's Saison de Pipaix contains black pepper, ginger, orange peel, curaçao and star anise, and their other beers include cumin, coriander and vanilla; Hugh Fearnley-Whittingstall and Badger Brewery have created River Cottage Stinger made with nettles which add a grassy, herbal flavour.

Badger also make a beer with dandelion and while not added for bitterness, fruit is a traditional beer ingredient, particularly in Belgium, and there is evidence of fruit beer being on sale in London in the 1700s – the most popular and frequently used today are cherries, raspberries, blueberries, strawberries and apricots; other ingredients you may see around include juniper, clove, peppercorns, liquorice, hibiscus, tea, chamomile and spruce.

Unusual or not, there's a long history of beers brewed with a wealth of ingredients, be they fruits, spices, herbs or hops. Now, as brewers look to their forebears for inspiration, beers with these flavours are available to the modern drinker and keeping the traditions alive. What do you think: wormwood in your beer? Stinging nettles or seaweed? Does yarrow, sage and bog myrtle sound appetising?