Ninkasi Beer & The Dawn of Civilization

In southern Mesopotamia the Sumerians tended the cradle of civilization. There in the land we now refer to as Iraq they laid the foundation stones to life as we know it. They invented the wheel, the plow and most common tools; they began writing and accounting, created the modern clock and calendar, developed irrigation and… they invented beer.

Nestled between the Tigris and Euphrates rivers, the Sumerians created systems and structures to manage the abundance of agriculture and the first-ever concentration of people. For these people, beer was life. Some believe that beer was in fact the point of civilization. Perhaps the Sumerians discovered the fermentation process by chance. No one knows exactly how this occurred, but it could be that a piece of bread or grain became wet and fermented into an inebriating pulp. What resulted was a liquid that was not only purified and safe to drink, but one that is recorded as making people feel "exhilarated, wonderful and blissful!" They had discovered a "divine drink" which certainly was a gift from the gods.

The Sumerians believed that although their gods preferred justice and mercy, they had also created evil and misfortune and there was little the Sumerian could do about it. The best one could do in times of duress would be to "plead, lament and wail, tearfully confessing his sins and failings." After all, man was created as a broken, labor saving, tool for the use of the gods and at the end of everyone's life they descended into a vile nether-world to spend eternity in a wretched existence as a ghost, or “Gidim.” That beer must have tasted mighty good!

The 4,000 year-old Hymn to Ninkasi, discovered in modern-day Iraq, celebrates the Sumerian goddess of brewing. This poem is a linear description of the brewing process and contains pictograms of what is recognizably barley with bread being baked, then crumbled into water to make a mash and then made into a drink. It instructs the brewer in art of preparing a cereal starch source for the bread; making enzyme-rich malt by soaking barley; the preparation and temperature control of the mash; filtration of wort; addition of flavoring, and fermentation. It is speculated that that baked bread was used as a convenient method of storing and transporting a resource for making beer.

Both men and women of all social classes consumed beer and the Sumerians took their pubs very seriously. The code of Hammurabi, inscribed on a basalt tablet, lays down some strict rules for the administration of beer parlors. Owners who overcharged customers were liable to death by drowning. Clearly, beer was serious business.

Thus was created Ninkasi Brewing. Ninkasi has exploded onto the microbrew scene in Oregon. It is hard to understand how Jamie Floyd has spawned such a fantastic success in this crowded marketplace until one views the story through the lens of the dawn of civilization. At Ninkasi, beer is perhaps not only a way of being but, just as in Sumeria, the point of being. Ninkasi supports the arts, sponsors events and recitals and promotes relationship and community. It seems to this author however that Ninkasi holds a world- view that innately comprehends that people come together in community and participate in the arts in order to enjoy beer. By understanding that beer is, in fact, the point of civilization, Jamie and his crew at Ninkasi take beer making to an entirely new level and energetically tap into our fundamental impulse to drink beer. Jamie’s freestyle approach to brewing and business is made of the same stuff as Janet’s freestyle approach to cooking and David’s freestyle approach to hospitality. It is only natural that Bethany’s Table carries the full lineup Ninkasi beers.

Hymn to Ninkasi

Inscribed on a tablet in 1900 B.C.
Translation by Miguel Civil

Borne of the flowing water (...)
Tenderly cared for by the Ninhursag,
Borne of the flowing water (...)
Tenderly cared for by the Ninhursag,

Having founded your town by the sacred lake,
She finished its great walls for you,
Ninkasi, having founded your town by the sacred lake,
She finished its great walls for you

Your father is Enki, Lord Nidimmud,
Your mother is Ninti, the queen of the sacred lake,
Ninkasi, Your father is Enki, Lord Nidimmud,
Your mother is Ninti, the queen of the sacred lake.
You are the one who handles the dough,
[and] with a big shovel,
Mixing in a pit, the bappir with sweet aromatics,

Ninkasi, You are the one who handles
the dough, [and] with a big shovel,
Mixing in a pit, the bappir with [date]-honey.
You are the one who bakes the bappir in the big oven,
Puts in order the piles of hulled grains,
Ninkasi, you are the one who bakes
the bappir in the big oven,
Puts in order the piles of hulled grains,

You are the one who waters the malt
set on the ground,
The noble dogs keep away even the potentates,
Ninkasi, you are the one who waters the malt set on the ground,
The noble dogs keep away even the potentates.
You are the one who soaks the malt in a jar
The waves rise, the waves fall.

Ninkasi, you are the one who soaks
the malt in a jar
The waves rise, the waves fall.
You are the one who spreads the cooked
mash on large reed mats,
Coolness overcomes.
Ninkasi, you are the one who spreads
the cooked mash on large reed mats,
Coolness overcomes.

You are the one who holds with both hands
the great sweet wort,
Brewing [it] with honey and wine
(You the sweet wort to the vessel)
Ninkasi, (...)
(You the sweet wort to the vessel)

The filtering vat, which makes a pleasant sound,
You place appropriately on [top of] a large collector vat.
Ninkasi, the filtering vat,
which makes a pleasant sound,
You place appropriately on [top of] a large collector vat.

When you pour out the filtered beer
of the collector vat,
It is [like] the onrush of
Tigris and Euphrates.
Ninkasi, you are the one who pours out the
filtered beer of the collector vat,
It is [like] the onrush of
Tigris and Euphrates.