History Lesson

Last night I half watched, half dozed thru a show on the History Channel about beer brewing. It came on at midnight, give me a break. But it seemed quite good, and featured Jim Koch from the Boston Beer Company, Sam Calagione from Dogfish Head, and the home brew club the Maltose Falcons. I am bummed that I was too sleepy to see the whole thing. I am sure it will air again, so I am putting my DVR on the case. In the meantime, here's the synopsis of that episode of Modern Marvels from the History Channel's website:

It's one of the world's oldest and most beloved beverages--revered by Pharaohs and brewed by America's Founding Fathers. Today, brewing the bitter elixir is a multi-billion-dollar global industry. Join us for an invigorating look at brewing's history from prehistoric times to today's cutting-edge craft breweries, focusing on its gradually evolving technologies and breakthroughs. We'll find the earliest known traces of brewing, which sprang up independently in such far-flung places as ancient Sumeria, China, and Finland; examine the surprising importance that beer held in the daily and ceremonial life of ancient Egypt; and at Delaware's Dogfish Head Craft Brewery, an adventurous anthropologist and a cutting-edge brewer show us the beer they've concocted based on 2,700-year-old DNA found in drinking vessels from the funerary of the legendary King Midas.