Alcohol in Ancient Egypt

People in Ancient Egypt consumed beer, wine and different beverages made of fruit rich in sugar or starch. For example, nadjem was a beverage made of carob.

Beer was a very important drink. Egyptians called it "hqt" ("heqet"). They made it with barley. Bread was also important as it provided the yeast. Instead of hops people used type of wheat known as emmer. Some brewers add dates to their beer to enrich the taste. Women had the important role in brewing business.

Egyptians believed that Oziris had thought them to make beer. Tjenenet was the Egyptian goddess of beer.

Wing in the Israel Museum in Jerusalem

Beer was drank in all segments of the society. Workers in Ancient Egypt were receiving beer every day. They usually got 2 jars of beer. A jar had more than 2 litres of beer. One reason for this was the fact that Egypt is not very rich in drinking water. Water from the Nile was not always suitable for drinking.

Egyptians loved wine or "jrp" ("irep") as they called it. They first imported wine. Wine production started later. Good description of the Egyptian wines were made by several Roman writers. According to them some the best Egyptian wines were Mareotic and Taeniotic. Wine was traditionally kept in clay jars.

Religious and other festivities were occasions were huge quantities of wine were consumed by many. Still in everyday life wine was mainly the drink of pharaohs and rich people. Wine taster was an important duty. A person drank wine from a shallow vessel. Wine was sometimes diluted with some sea water. It was believed that such a beverage tastes better.

References

Drink
http://www.reshafim.org.il/ad/egypt/timelines/topics/drink.htm

Wine & Winemaking In Ancient Egypt
http://panhistoria.com/www/AncientEgyptianVirtualTemple/wine.html

Beer in Ancient Egypt
http://ancientegyptonline.co.uk/beer.html

Images

Brewing in Ancient Egypt, Samuel and Saidye Bronfman Archaeology
Wing in the Israel Museum in Jerusalem (photo by Yoav Dothan, Wikimedia)
https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:Samuel_and_Saidye_Bronfman_Archaeology_WingDSCN4964.JPG