Drink like a Philistine: Archaeologists to sell ‘Biblical Yeast’

Archaeological microbiology startup will sell yeast from strains dating back 5000 years.

Walk like an Egyptian? That’s been done. How about getting drunk like a Philistine? You can now live the dream thanks to the world’s first archaeological microbiology startup, which aims to produce and sell ancient yeast strains found in beer pots in biblical Gath, ancient Jerusalem and Ein Besor, an ancient Egyptian site in the Negev.

Primer’s Heritage Yeast was founded in late 2022 by veteran brewmeister Itai Gutman, in collaboration with Yissum (Hebrew University’s technology transfer company) and  the Israel Antiquities Authority. Its purpose: To produce active dry “ancient yeast” for bakers and brewers. Its location: Germany, with intentions to manufacture in North America. Negotiations are apace.

The oldest of the yeast strains is 5000 years old, rescued from pots found at Ein Besor.  Wondrously, back in the lab, yeast cells were detected alive and kicking in the pores of these ancient, unglazed ceramics.

Yeast cells can’t survive for 5000 years in the dark. What survived in the pots was descendants of the original yeasts used in antiquity. Also, note that unlike the beer bottle, these beer pots were not a hermetically sealed environment; sometimes water and nutrients would seep in.

The cells the microbiologists harvested from the ancient ceramics are akin to an invasive species, ke green, rose-ringed parakeets in Israel explained Prof. Ronen Hazan, head of the Institute of Biomedical and Oral Research in the Faculty of Dental Medicine at Hebrew University. “They’re not the same guys who escaped from a cage in Pardes Hannah. They’re the descendants and now they’re everywhere.”

But these little critters are the genuine strains from ancient times, the microbiologists have proved. So, if you make beer and bread from the yeast of Gath, and assuming a similar grain base, you are producing a beer like the one King David might have imbibed, and the sourdough that Goliath may have consumed, before they did battle.

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