MillerCoors, other breweries looking to copy Dogfish Head’s ancient ales?
The big news may or may not be that Dogfish Head is releasing Ta Henket on Monday though I found this snippet to be more interesting:
“There’s really a growing interest in re-creations — huge interest, I think,” says Patrick McGovern, a biomolecular archaeologist at the University of Pennsylvania Museum who has conducted the scientific and historical research behind the Ancient Ales. Although he has an exclusivity agreement with Dogfish Head, he estimates that the number of brewers asking him to collaborate on re-creations has doubled or tripled within the past six months. He says he has even been approached by beer-industry giants, including MillerCoors.
The Ancient Ales series is a big part of what has made Dogfish Head a superstar in the beer world and what has made the culinary world take notice as well. Hard to blame these other breweries for trying. Aren’t there other biomolecular archaeologists out there?
via Historic brews being poured once more – The Washington Post.
Breweries: Dogfish Head Craft Brewery
Beers: Dogfish Head Ta Henket
Speaking as an ex-archaeologist, it’s worth noting that like a lot of lab-based archaeological work, you generally need funding to make it happen. Most of what gets dug up ends up in storage, un-studied for decades (or longer); sometimes it’s because the technology to really do things properly isn’t there, but often no one can afford it. I’ve had a number of friends let go from the Penn Museum (where Dr. McGovern works) over the years – not only are their positions far from secure, but having the cash to actually do the work takes grant money or a donor willing to keep underwriting it.
If an industry ‘partner’ wants to get involved financially, most in the academic/museum would welcome it – I know even my undgrad advisor (a paleoethnobotanist) never felt she had the money to do the work that was stacking up, and that was in the 1990s when cash flowed a little more freely into academia. It’s a major reason I got out after grad school, although I’d be happy to dive back in if someone offered me a beer/archaeology job that actually paid!