Beer was central to early modern life — sustaining labour, shaping sociability, and underpinning institutional power. Yet while historians have explored its cultural meanings, the drink itself has rarely been tested. How strong was it? How nourishing? How consistent?

This session centres on a screening of Drunk? Adventures in Sixteenth-Century Brewing, a research-based film supported by the European Research Council and produced within the ERC-funded FoodCultcult.eu. The film follows the reconstruction of Irish beer brewed at Dublin Castle in 1574, moving from archive to brewhouse to laboratory through a collaboration between historians, craftspeople, scientists, and filmmakers.

The experiment yielded unexpected results. This everyday beer fermented to over 5% ABV and delivered calorific values comparable to modern lager, challenging assumptions that early modern beer was weak or nutritionally insignificant. More importantly, reconstruction generated new knowledge. Brewing in practice revealed how much the process depended on embodied skill and accumulated judgement — forms of expertise that remain largely invisible in written records.

The project also extended beyond the initial experiment. The challenges of sourcing appropriate grains and working with pre-industrial technologies led to sustained collaborations with brewers, maltsters, and growers, renewed engagement with heritage cereals, and practical experimentation around low-input production and local supply chains. What began as a historical reconstruction has developed into an ongoing conversation about sustainability, craft, and how working with the past can reshape contemporary brewing practice.

Following the screening, Susan Flavin and Marc Meltonville will join live for discussion and audience Q&A.

Dr Susan Flavin is Associate Professor of History at Trinity College Dublin and Principal Investigator on the ERC funded FoodCult Project. Her work is grounded in interdisciplinary approaches to food and drink history. Recent publications have included work on practice-based approaches to understanding beer consumption (Historical Journal); the role of food in the demonstration of colonial power (Historical Journal with Charlie Taverner); and the cultural representation of food in Irish satire (Food and History). Her co-authored monograph (with Charlie Taverner) on Food and Drink in Early Modern Ireland is forthcoming (Bloomsbury, 2026).

Marc Meltonville is a food historian, author, and historic brewer specializing in the reconstruction of early modern brewing and distilling practices. He spent over twenty-five years as Food Historian for Historic Royal Palaces, leading the recreation of Tudor kitchens at Hampton Court and directing numerous heritage brewing projects. Among his publications is The Tavern Cook, a modern historic cookbook that reconstructs eighteenth-century London tavern dining through the recipes of Richard Briggs. He works internationally with museums, craft producers, and researchers, combining archival research with experimental practice. He is brewer-in-chief on the ERC-funded FoodCult project at Trinity College Dublin, collaborating on the reconstruction of sixteenth-century Irish beer and heritage-led brewing initiatives.

THIS SESSION IS GENEROUSLY SUPPORTED BY:

EVAN TRENT + KERRY WALSH