The Return of Ta Henket 

A few years back we watched what looked like a very promising show on Discovery Channel called "Brewmasters." The first episode we saw followed the expedition of Dogfish Head Brewery (located in Milton Delaware) founder and president Sam Calagione (picture above) and Dr. Patrick E. Mcgovern,

called the "Indiana Jones of Ancient Ales, Wines, and Extreme Beverages," to Egypt.  Their mission was to

harvest an ancient yeast so to include it later back at home brew base for a new Ancient Ale – a series of intricately crafted obscure beers   The brewmaster, along for the ride in Egypt, set out a petri dish in an open field at the outskirts of Cairo in order to pick up free floating ancient yeast!  The yeast strain they caught to make the Ta Henket ale with was extracted from hieroglyphs, so the description goes, which was added to "an ancient form of wheat and loaves of hearth-baked bread and added chamomile, doum palm fruit and Middle Eastern herbs."  The microbrew revolution was now not only about perfecting the traditional craft, but about the experimentation itself and the mysterious possibilities of hop and additive combinations taken to another level. Beer lovers across America now recognize Dogfish Head as an ongoing pioneer. Beer drinkers world wide anxiously await bizarre new concoctions from this small brewery that puts "off-centered"

tastes and textures ahead of mass production and distribution.  The problem though with such limited editions and such fanfare, is that demand for Dogfish had way overcome supply.  Wisconsin lost its shipments for three years…until…this past month.  Calagione ramped-up production just enough for little four-packs to now line the Cheese State's beer cooler shelves. Folks can now sip tricky brews like Burton Baton,

an India Pale named after Burton England, the origin of the first India Pale, with cowboy art on the label created by an artist who is a member of a new age punk band.  In other words, the brewers are thinking about ways to make sipping, instead of guzzling, fun. For this particular style, two threads or batches of beer are combined: an English-style old ale and Imperial Ale.  "After fermenting the beers separately in our stainless tanks, they're transferred and blended together in one of our large tanks. Burton sits on the wood for about a month." It's kind of fun to think that the brew you are sipping was aged on oak (like wine) for a month, or might have once wafted through the same air as Pharaohs.