Israeli researchers drink to old times with ancient-style beer

Israeli researchers said Wednesday they had managed to extract yeast from ancient jars and produced a head-spinning concoction with it: beer similar to what the pharaohs would have imbibed. Beer with a six-percent alcoholic strength and similar in taste to a wheat ale was presented to journalists, as was mead at 14-percent strength. Researchers from Israel’s Antiquities Authority as well as three Israeli universities gathered at a Jerusalem pub to announce their findings and called the project a first. “I remember that when we first brought out the beer that we sat around the table and drank, we raised a cup to say l’chaim (a Hebrew toast meaning ‘to life’),” said Aren Maeir, an archaeologist with Bar-Ilan University. “And I said either we’ll be good