Beer and ancient antibiotics

I personally love homebrewed beer, it's not just tasty but good for your health too!

In the ancient world beer was medicine as it contained natural antibiotics. I've read about this before and wondered if filtering our modern beer has impacted human health negatively. Should we stop filtering beer to keep the stuff that is good for our health?


(Thanks Swanne for the picture)

The ancient Egyptian practice of brewing beer, documented through archeology and ancient art, is believed to have been a long-standing practice in the region at the time. Brewing beer using fermentation mixtures containing Streptomyces, which excrete tetracycline, appeared to be the only way these people could have produced the quantity of the antibiotic necessary to explain the fluorescent [tetracycline] signal [found in their bones]. So they likely intentionally added the bacteria to their fermenting brews.

Source: The Ancient Egyptians Invented Antibiotics

Chemical analysis of the bones of ancient Sudanese Nubians who lived nearly 2000 years ago shows they were ingesting the antibiotic tetracycline on a regular basis, likely from a special brew of beer. The find is the strongest yet that antibiotics were previously discovered by humans before Alexander Fleming discovered penicillin in 1928.

Source: Ancient Nubians Made Antibiotic Beer

In the old days when people brewed beer they just let the brewing barrels stand in the barn without a lid, not bothering to shield it from whatever spores or bugs that fell into it. Sounds kind of discusting for us today, but they may have been onto something as some of these fungus spores or bacterias could have been benefitial to the ancients. Now commercial brewweries filter everything bad out and the factories are very clinical, perhaps this is a bad idea?

-MM

a reply to: MerkabaMeditation

Í'm never sick or even a cold, and I love beer (I ain't a heavy drinker, just a few on couple of evenings).
But I don't understand it why I never am sick or have a cold but I told people; it's because of beer and it seems it's true

a reply to: Plugin

Is it homebrewed beer that you usually drink?

-MM

a reply to: MerkabaMeditation

No I have read too fast but I'm pretty sure just regular beer (it's 100% nature product anyways) is very healthy if you don't drink too much. There must be something else in it that kills bacteria (as well) or boost your immune system.

Also it's a myth beer makes you fat. Yes beer even helps keeping you a good figure!

They did some testing on mouse and beer and those who got beer had much less fat.

a reply to: MerkabaMeditation

There is a documentary out there (NetFlix?), "How beer saved the World". Entertaining and informative.

Personally, I believe that the more we expose our immune systems through living our daily lives, the better off we will all be.

That said, of course the people with weakened immune systems won't be.

Life isn't fair, but it can be fun. It's the journey between birth and death that makes it such a adventure.

I drink a lot of beer. I don't remember the last time I was sick.

lol, sorry I couldn't resist:

Unpasteurized and unfiltered beer does sound healthy in moderation. However, if it gives you the Schltz, you could get dehydrated and weak.

Homemade wine sounds like it could be better than store bought from this perspective. Unprocessed cheese too.

Well the only thing is, its not our beer. Not the 6-8% alcohol and made with chemicals to speed up fermentation, and now GMO. This isn't the same thing.

In the past, fruits , grains were used to create lightly fermented, beverages, so its actually more akin to the Japanese fermented foods than our concepts of alcohol. And we should all be doing that.

I actually do not like beer, washed up version, Made In USA. Heard that beer is better when Not placed in ice. Now I do like Imports, just maybe 3 of them a month if my body asks for a beer.

I have only been sick once, lasted almost a week, yet just about to 50. I eat, drink whatever my body wants; even if it's nasty like fish! Friends do make it on said porch, outside with just a rag covering it. Bugs and all floating on top, do say they strain it before putting it in a bottle/s.

So is beer better cold or room temp? Just found a store having almost every imported beer one can name! Better yet, one can mix any 6 pk from all of them!

Friends tell me it's the Yeast that makes a good beer, haven't said anything about the bugs though. Now they have switched to Atymurth? sour thick stuff that can have a bang next to a tree if one drinks too much!

Peace

I can tell you as home brewer of 10 years and opening a brewery myself in the near future, beer is headed in a whole new direction. I actually have learned how to produce malt, the main item in beer, and am currently using a local farmer's barley. The beer comes out delicious, tastes like the local region. I use basic "old school" techniques to brew, with a real ATS mindset.

When the world comes to an end (pick your poison) only the truly skilled will be cherished. I am teaching myself to brew without fancy bells and whistles, like our ancestors, so I will have my place. The plumber, carpenter, blacksmith and brewer, doctor and dentist, these will be the trades that get us through. Not IT tech, CEO, visual aides.The director of media at FOX is screwed.

originally posted by: Gothar
I can tell you as home brewer of 10 years and opening a brewery myself in the near future, beer is headed in a whole new direction. I actually have learned how to produce malt, the main item in beer, and am currently using a local farmer's barley. The beer comes out delicious, tastes like the local region. I use basic "old school" techniques to brew, with a real ATS mindset.

Interesting, would love to get a taste sometime. Did you know that Ancients Irish beer from 2,500 BC did not even use hops? Here are someone that tries to recreate the beer:

originally posted by: Gothar
When the world comes to an end (pick your poison) only the truly skilled will be cherished...The director of media at FOX is screwed.

ROFL! So true.

-MM

I drink on average 2 liters of beer a day and I can't remember the last time I was really sick, except for one time when I returned from Mumbai, but if you don't get sick in Mumbai you're not human! Since moving to Russia I've tried a lot of the non filtered beer you can get in the local markets, most of it is pretty good stuff as long as its made with quality water. I don't think there is too much GMO stuff going into the local brews.



a reply to: MerkabaMeditation

One of the main reasons beers and meads were made in ancient times, was mainly because drinking water was usually filthy and contained harmful bacteria and parasites.

Turning the water into beer or meads, meant that the brewing process and the resulting alcohol killed the pathogens and nasties in the water and made it safe to drink without making you ill or dead.

Beer used to be literally drank like water, actually in place of water..everyone drank it in large quantity, including kids.

These days they add nasty chemical agents to do the same thing the brewing process used to.

I know which i'd prefer to drink though.

a reply to: MerkabaMeditation

Hops was orignally used as a preservative for brews making long oceanic vogages to British Colonies. Yes, and homebrew tastes nothing at all like the commericalized stuff they sell in the stores.

As far as ancient antibiotics go, here's my take: Soon after the advent of agriculture, some grain was left out in a container, and got rained on. And it sat, and fermented naturally with wild bacteria involved. While sanitation is vital in modern production to repeat consistancy between batches, (hey, even homebrewers are anal about sanitation!) back then they didn't really understand the fermentation process thoroughly, and kept a small portion of the previous batch to "start" the next one. There was no refrigeration back then, and brewing was hit and miss, but incorporated all the local bacteria that could possible make you sick. Call it the all-natural version of a modern flu shot on a regular basis. Their bodies developed the antibodies to fight off the minor bugs simply because they were imbibing them in various dosages.

To answer your question, is filtration bad? I have an old homebrewing thread on here somewhere, and I never filter. It's not that I am against filtering, it's because a wee bit of sediment is perfectly natural, and with siphoning, you don't really disturb the fermentation bed, but it's only a preference. Sometimes with dry-hopping you'll get the sediment, but that only adds to the flavor, not detract from it. It's not about the filtration at all.

The REAL problem with modern beer production is the use of GMO grain. They use tonnes of it in a modern sanitary facility, and here's why: Modern GMO grain is killing off the naturally occuring gut bacteria that process the vegetable fiber in our diets. We need that fiber for three essential amino acids, and it's why we are omnivorous. Enter the Shikimate Pathway.

The shikimate pathway is a seven step metabolic route used by bacteria, fungi, algae, parasites, and plants for the biosynthesis of aromatic amino acids (phenylalanine, tyrosine, and tryptophan). This pathway is not found in animals; therefore, phenylalanine and tryptophan represent essential amino acids that must be obtained from the animal's diet (animals can synthesise tyrosine from phenylalanine, and therefore is not an essential amino acid except for individuals unable to hydroxylate phenylalanine to tyrosine).

Glyphosate, the active ingredient in the herbicide Roundup, kills plants by interfering with the shikimate pathway in plants. More specifically, glyphosate inhibits the enzyme 5-enolpyruvylshikimate-3-phosphate synthase (EPSPS). "Roundup Ready" genetically modified crops overcome that inhibition.

In plain english, they use herbicide to control weeds, which would kill the crops we need to eat, so they altered the genetic structure of the plants to survive the herbicide. All well, and good, until you realize that they have done nothing to alter the naturally occuring bacteria in our digestive tracts that process the food we eat and that we need to survive. As the levels of healthy bacteria die off from shikimate inhibition, the overall health of the population declines. Increases in obesity, autism, and other "disorders", in my opinion, are all related to this. I suppose I should make a separate thread for this research.....

Of course, our ancestors didn't have this problem, because they still farmed with non-GMO crops.

a reply to: Druid42

I mostly use spelt wheat for bread these days, more tasty and I feel more healthy. This is an ancient wheat used for food by humans at least 5,000 BC.

Spelt can be used for beer too, you should try to make some once.

-MM

a reply to: MerkabaMeditation

I checked, and it's very high in protein. May just try it.

I like a drop of beer myself, but I'm not kidding myself it's healthy.

As for the antibiotic story: if beer contains antibiotics, all you beer enthusiasts are doing your bit to promote antibiotic resistance, and helping make the world a sicker place.

a reply to: Astyanax

Only if we don't drink enough of it.

And in the UK, that is never going to be a problem i assure you.