A biomolecular archaeological approach to ‘Nordic grog’

McGovern, Patrick E.; Hall, Gretchen R.; Mirzoian, Armen

doi:10.1080/21662282.2013.867101

Cited by 39 publications

(18 citation statements)

References 22 publications

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“…The ingredients of "Nordic Grog" from 1500 B.C. included locally available honey (MCGOVERN et al 2013). Originally mead was not a pure diluted honey drink (and is not everywhere today).…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Fermentation characteristics of mead and wine generated by yeasts isolated from beehives of two Austrian regions

Gangl¹,

Lopandić²,

Tscheik³

et al. 2018

Preprint

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Mead is a traditional alcoholic beverage that is produced by fermentation of diluted honey.The mead quality is primarily influenced by the honey variety, although the yeast microflora as the main catalyst of alcoholic fermentation also plays a significant role in the organoleptic and chemical quality of the final product. The impact of the indigenous honey associatedyeasts on the mead properties has scarcely been investigated. To fill this gap the main objective of this work was to assess the metabolic properties of the yeasts isolated from honey and pollen from beehives of northeast Austria.The biodiversity was low and only two yeast species were identified, Zygosaccharomyces rouxii and Candida apicola. The fermentation potentials of these yeasts were estimated in two media, grape juice (since yeasts isolated from honey may be useful for sweet wine production) and diluted honey of similar sugar concentration, and compared with those of the reference strains Saccharomyces cerevisiae; S. uvarum and S. eubayanus. Depending on the fermentation substrate, yeasts differed with respect to their metabolic power, fermentation rate, sugar utilization and production of glycerol and organic acids. During mead fermentation Saccharomyces species showed the highest metabolic turnover, while the fermentation rate did not differ significantly. Addition of assimilable nitrogen to the diluted honey enhanced fermentation rate of S. cerevisiae, but not of the other species.Fermentation of grape juice occurred much faster than that of diluted honey and differences between yeasts were more pronounced. The S. cerevisiae commercial wine strain, adapted to high alcohol concentrations, and S. eubayanus outperformed the others, S. uvarum was comparable with Z. rouxii, while C. apicola had the lowest fermentation rate. Fructophily of Z. rouxii and to a lesser degree of C. apicola was observed in both media. An increased production of glycerol was achieved by S. eubayanus in both media and by C. apicola during the fermentation of honey must. A commercial S. cerevisiae strain, S. eubayanus and Z.rouxii were able to metabolize malic acid in wine. In mead, the S. eubayanus and S. uvarum yeasts showed the tendency of increasing the level of malic acid. Aroma profile depended profoundly on yeast species. This study demonstrates that the composition and complexity of the fermentation substrate determines the activity and the final metabolic outcomes of the studied yeasts.

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“…The ingredients of "Nordic Grog" from 1500 B.C. included locally available honey (MCGOVERN et al 2013). Originally mead was not a pure diluted honey drink (and is not everywhere today).…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Fermentation characteristics of mead and wine generated by yeasts isolated from beehives of two Austrian regions

Gangl¹,

Lopandić²,

Tscheik³

et al. 2018

Preprint

View full text Add to dashboard Cite

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“…The combined chemical, archaeobotanical, and palynological evidence attest to its popularity as early as the 4th millennium B.C. in Scotland and Scandinavia (Dickson 1978;McGovern et al 2013a). This possibility, however, is not addressed by Salque et al…”

Section: Discussionmentioning

confidence: 97%

Charting a Future Course for Organic Residue Analysis in Archaeology

McGovern¹,

Hall²

2015

J Archaeol Method Theory

Self Cite

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Working hypotheses, which draw upon as many relevant disciplines as possible to derive the maximum information from a very limited database, are key to the highly interdisciplinary field of organic residue analysis in archaeology, a branch of biomolecular archaeology. Archaeology and chemistry are most important for effectively developing and testing such hypotheses, but botany, zoology, geology, etc. also need to be taken into account. Archaeologically, the goal is to obtain as many relevant samples as possible from the best preserved and dated contexts, which have been subjected to the least degradation and disturbance by later natural processes and human handling, including washing and conservation treatment. Chemically, molecular biomarkers of natural products need to be defined and identified by the best and most appropriate techniques, together with bioinformatics searches and assessment of degradation. With ever-improving techniques and new data, previously analyzed samples need to be retested and hypotheses possibly reformulated. Consideration of three case studies illustrates this holistic approach to inductive hypothesis generation and deductive testing: (1) new chemical findings that attest to grape wine in amphoras on board the 14th c. B.C. Uluburun ship, the earliest recorded Mediterranean wreck; (2) recently published research on beeswax/mead in Chalcolithic Israel and Neolithic China and Poland; and (3) recent articles on milk products from 2nd millennium B.C. Central Asia and Neolithic Poland. Potential pitfalls leading to weak hypotheses and mistaken conclusions are described, and a more productive approach is proposed.

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“…3) GC-MS analyses, databases and searches: For our experimental methodology in running GC-MS analyses, see McGovern et al [27] and McGovern et al [28]. Compound identification was made by retention time and mass spectrum using NIST 05.…”

Section: Biomolecular Archaeologymentioning

confidence: 99%

Progress for research of grape and wine culture in Georgia, the South Caucasus

et al. 2019

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This communication will provide the latest information about the progress of the “Research Project for the Study of Georgian Grapes and Wine Culture”, managed by the National Wine Agency of Georgia since 2014. Local and foreign institutions continue to work together with the aim of stimulating multidisciplinary scientific research activity on Georgian viticulture and viniculture and to reconstruct their development from Neolithic civilizations to the present. The project is multidisciplinary in nature, merging contributions from archaeology, history, ethnography, molecular genetics, biomolecular archaeology, palaeobotany, ampelography, enology, climatology and other scientific fields.

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A biomolecular archaeological approach to ‘Nordic grog’

Cited by 39 publications

References 22 publications

Fermentation characteristics of mead and wine generated by yeasts isolated from beehives of two Austrian regions

Fermentation characteristics of mead and wine generated by yeasts isolated from beehives of two Austrian regions

Charting a Future Course for Organic Residue Analysis in Archaeology

Progress for research of grape and wine culture in Georgia, the South Caucasus

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