Latest / Ramses the Great: Egypt's Most Powerful Pharaoh — Fexingo History / Ramses the Great's Brewers: Beer and Power in Ancient Kemet
Transcript
- Lucas: So we've talked a lot about Ramses' monuments, his wars, his diplomacy — but there's a daily reality that held it all together, something that's easy to overlook because it seems so ordinary. Luna: Beer? Lucas: Beer. Exactly. In Kemet, beer wasn't just a drink. It was a staple food, a form of payment, a religious offering, and a tool of state control. The average adult consumed maybe a gallon a day. Luna: A gallon? That's a lot of beer. Lucas: It sounds crazy, but it makes sense when you think about it. The Nile water wasn't always safe, and beer — because of the fermentation — was actually more hygienic. Plus it was nutritious, full of calories and B vitamins. Workers on projects like the Ramesseum or the tombs in the Valley of the Kings were paid in bread and beer rations. We have records from Deir el-Medina showing exactly how much each man got. Luna: So it was like a salary. Lucas: Exactly. And the state controlled the production. Ramses' capital Per-Ramesses had massive brewing installations. Archaeologists have found the remains of huge vats — some could hold over a thousand litres. The beer was made from emmer wheat, often mixed with date syrup or honey for sweetness, and flavoured with things like coriander or juniper. Lucas: There were different styles too. A standard daily beer, a stronger one for festivals, and a special 'sweet beer' used in temple rituals. The goddess Hathor was often called 'Lady of Drunkenness', and the festival of Hathor involved ritual intoxication. Luna: So it had a religious side as well. Lucas: Absolutely. Beer was offered to the gods daily in every temple. The amount was astonishing — at the Ramesseum alone, the daily offering list includes over 2,000 loaves of bread and 200 jars of beer. That's just for one temple. Multiply that across the whole country, and you're talking millions of litres per year. Luna: Who did the brewing? Was it mostly women? Lucas: Good question. In earlier periods, brewing was often a domestic task done by women. But by the New Kingdom, it became an industrial operation run by the state and temples. We know of a brewery at Per-Ramesses that was managed by a man named Paherypedjet. But women still brewed at home, and some were professional brewers — we have a tomb painting of a woman named Senet brewing beer. Lucas: The actual process was pretty straightforward. They'd partially bake the emmer bread, crumble it into water, let it ferment naturally with wild yeast, then strain it. The result was a thick, cloudy, slightly alcoholic drink — maybe 3 to 5 percent alcohol. Luna: And it didn't have hops, right? Lucas: No hops at all. That's a much later addition. The flavour came from dates, herbs, and the grain itself. Some beers were spiced with colocynth or even poppy seeds — though that might have been medicinal. Lucas: Beer also played a role in diplomacy. When Ramses signed the peace treaty with the Hittites after Kadesh, part of the agreement included shipments of beer and bread for the Hittite king's table. It was a gesture of hospitality, but also a demonstration of Egyptian wealth and sophistication. Luna: So beer was literally part of the peace process. Lucas: Exactly. And it wasn't just the Hittites — Egyptian beer was exported all over the eastern Mediterranean. We've found beer jars in Canaan and even in Mycenaean Greece. Lucas: You know, if today's conversation has given you a new appreciation for the role of everyday things in history, I'll mention something. This show stays ad-free thanks to listeners who find value in it. If that's you, you can support us at buy me a coffee dot com slash fexingo. No pressure, just a way to keep these deep dives going. Luna: Yeah, it's a small way to give back for something you enjoy. Lucas: Exactly. Now, back to the beer. One of the most fascinating aspects is the link to the goddess Sekhmet. In the myth of the Destruction of Mankind, Ra sends Sekhmet to punish humanity, but then tricks her by dyeing beer red to look like blood. She drinks it, gets drunk, and stops the slaughter. So beer literally saves the world in Egyptian mythology. Luna: I love that story. Beer as divine intervention. Lucas: And it was taken very seriously. The temple of Mut at Thebes had a special 'house of drunkenness' where priestesses would drink beer as part of rituals. It was all about connecting with the divine through intoxication. Lucas: So when we think about Ramses' power, we should remember that it wasn't just built on stone and gold. It was built on beer — the daily ration that kept the workers loyal, the offering that pleased the gods, the gift that smoothed diplomacy. It was the lubricant of the empire. Luna: And it's still with us today, in a different form. Lucas: True. The next time you have a beer, you're tapping into a tradition that's over 5,000 years old. Ramses would probably approve.