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Trains, now on Uber. T's and C's apply. Check the Uber app. This is Scientific American's 60 Second Science.

I'm Suzanne Bard.

Some 5,600 years ago, people in the Egyptian city of Hierokinopolis did something that's still a very popular activity today.

They brewed and drank beer. We know this because archaeologists examining the area near the ruins of a cemetery

for the elite discovered a structure containing five ceramic vats that would have been heated from

below. Residues in the vats confirmed that they had once made beer.

And it's estimated that if these five vests were operated at the same time,

325 liters would have been produced which is equal to

650 cans of but wiser. Texas Tech University microbiologist

Momen El Masri he says this ancient beer would have tasted very different from what our modern pallets are used to.

The Egyptian beer makers did use malted wheat and barley in the brewing process, but no one had mastered carbonation yet, so the resulting brew was a flat, unfiltered

malt beverage with a low alcohol content.

El Mossry's colleagues recently sampled thick dark deposits from the hereinopolis vats.

The chemical analysis confirmed that they were indeed the product of beer making and not some other

fermented food. The tests also revealed other ingredients ancient Egyptians put in their beer.

The researchers found a high concentration of the amino acid proline, which is abundant in dates and some other fruits.

This results suggest that dates could have been used or incorporated in the beer for flavor.

And maybe to add some sweet notes.

Hopps, which act as both a flavoring and a preservative,

weren't added to beer until medieval times.

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