Drunk? Adventures in 16th-Century Brewing – food historian debunks myth that pre-industrial beer was weaker

Posted on: 30 September 2023

Irish workers in the 16^th-century consumed beer very similar to our own modern beverage with an ABV of 5% and up to 270 calories per pint. This surprising discovery is one of many striking moments captured in a new documentary that follows the remarkable journey of Trinity food historian Susan Flavin as she faithfully replicates a beer last brewed in Dublin Castle brewhouse in the 1570s using historic recipes, heritage technologies and ancient grains.

The film Drunk? Adventures in Sixteenth-Century Brewing premiered on the final night of the Arts and Humanities Research Festival part of Trinity’s European Researchers’ Night celebrations.

“Historians have long understood that beer was integral to social life and a vital source of nutrition in early modern Ireland and across Europe. However, until now our understanding of the calorie and alcohol content of historic beer has been based on theoretical calculations. We didn’t know what that beer looked and tasted like. How much alcohol it contained. Or how nutritious it was,” Dr Susan Flavin, School of Histories and Humanities, Trinity, explained.

“To answer these questions a team of historians, archaeologists, scientists, craftspeople and filmmakers built a brewery and using heritage technology and grains we faithfully replicated a beer from Dublin Castle brewhouse recipes in the 1570s. The beer we produced had around 5% ABV (Alcohol by volume) and had up to 270 calories per pint. It had a slightly bitter taste, with a gentle flavour from the hops, and was hazy with a light honey colour. It is a beer with which modern drinkers would be familiar.”

Food historian Mark Meltonville and Dr Charlie Taverner, Post-doc Researcher, in the FoodCult Brewhouse

The European Research Council-funded FoodCult study is the most comprehensive interdisciplinary investigation of historic beer to be carried out to this date. The  case study of the household of Lord Deputy William Fitzwilliam calculated that workers had between 5 and 10 pints a day, providing them with as many as 2,700 kCal a day, Dr Flavin explains. 

“This confirms that beer was a vital source of energy for workers in the 16^th century when people consumed very large quantities both as a dietary staple as well as for leisure. It also contradicts a long-standing notion that pre-industrial beer, particularly beer that was produced for everyday consumption, was weaker than its modern counterpart. This raises new questions about attitudes to intoxication and inebriation in this period.”

Each step of the journey was documented by a film crew who followed the researchers from the archives to the field, and a 16^th-century style brew house in to the laboratory. Director Shreepali Patel commented: “Behind the lens, the crew themselves were surprisingly drawn into the manuscripts, landscape, archaeology, crafts and brewing processes as they adapted to the challenges of filming during covid and communicating the complex historical discoveries, through film, sound design, animation and an original score.”

Dr Flavin added: “While our study primarily offers insight into what early modern beer was actually like, it also show the benefits of ‘radical interdisciplinarity’ and practice-based approaches. By engaging with colleagues in a multitude of fields, from microbiology to brewing science and craft-based historical interpretation, more challenging research questions could be posed, and more complex answers discovered. Simply put, we can’t understand early modern beer without undertaking the actual brewing process and using the ingredients and technology of that period.”

Dr Peter Darby from the UK’s National Hop Collection and Dr Susan Flavin in a field of hops

Dr Flavin added: “While our study primarily offers insight into what early modern beer was actually like, it also show the benefits of ‘radical interdisciplinarity’ and practice-based approaches. By engaging with colleagues in a multitude of fields, from microbiology to brewing science and craft-based historical interpretation, more challenging research questions could be posed, and more complex answers discovered. Simply put, we can’t understand early modern beer without undertaking the actual brewing process and using the ingredients and technology of that period.”

The screening was followed by a discussion with food historian Dr Susan Flavin, food and drinks historian Marc Meltonville and heritage brewer Maurice Deasy from Canvas Brewery, Co Tipperary. The documentary will be published online following screenings in film festivals later this year. 

Dr Charlie Taverner, Dr Susan Flavin, Marc Meltonville and heritage brewer Maurice Deasy on launch night

FoodCult Background: 

The FoodCult study is a five-year project funded by the European Research Council bringing together history, archaeology, science and information technology to explore the diet, eating habits and culinary practices of early modern Ireland. 

“Experimental Archaeology: Brewing” is one strand of the project which adopted a ‘radical interdisciplinary’ approach to investigate the nature, quality and nutritional characteristics of early modern beer, bringing together experts from very diverse areas ­­– craft, microbiology, brewing science, archaeology and history.

The team, led by Dr Susan Flavin, School of Histories and Humanities, Trinity, took as a case study the household of Lord Deputy William Fitzwilliam at Dublin Castle, which housed 100 staff and welcomed numerous guest and messengers. Unpublished records from the Fitzwilliam archive between 1570s and 1590s provide remarkably rich detail documenting the beer-making process in the castle’s brewhouse as well as records of the volumes of beer produced and consumed by the household. This allowed the team to undertake a faithful reconstruction of beer brewed in Dublin Castle in 1570s.

In addition to its investigation on how important beer was to diet in the 16th century, the study sheds new light on the practice of early modern brewing practices, as well as the challenges facing the preservation of historic skills and foods. Details of the study were published in a paper in The Historical Journal earlier this year.

Other areas to be researched by the FoodCult team include the study of animal bones to understand the contribution of animals to Irish diets; mapping food related finds from archaeological excavations around the entire country and examining the skeletons of the individuals who actually consumed the food using isotope and dental calculus analysis. 

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