ode to beer

[rone]

The Sumerians had a goddess of beer, Ninkasi. They even wrote a hymn to Ninkasi. That's just plain cool. Someone should set it to music.

Comments

agh

[wednesday]

The CAMRA had (has?) a big campaign centered around Ninkasi. Ninkasi as portrayed by a model in spandex, in poses most appropriate to the cover of FHM or other ladmags. Attributing her purpoted hotness to beer.

This was meant to be the campaign to *draw women into CAMRA*.

It didn't help that they were suggesting "beers for women," which were invariably light and candylike sorts of things. Beh.

[zadcat.livejournal.com]

>When you pour out the filtered beer
>of the collector vat,
>It is [like] the onrush of
>Tigris and Euphrates.

Not, one hopes, just as they are at the moment.

[rimrunner.livejournal.com]

The author of A Natural History of the Rich theorizes that beer was invented before bread.

I don't know how true that is, but the Kalevala contains a ritual for the brewing of beer (the translator's introduction calls it a "coded recipe"), and not one for the baking of bread.

[ronebofh.livejournal.com]

I've heard that before. Perhaps i should get a copy of the Kalevala's recipe and give it to the folks at Anchor, since they seem to be eager to experiment (http://www.anchorbrewing.com/beers/ninkasi.htm).

[dawn-guy.livejournal.com]

That would be Runo 20 of Kalevala. You can get an adequate English translation here (http://kalevala.gov.karelia.ru/songs/song20_e.shtml). The beer starts around line 127, and there's a bit of maiden rubbing wood along her thighs and giving birth to creatures along the way.