For this ambitious liquid time capsule, we used ingredients and traditions plucked from Egyptian hieroglyphics.

Ta Henket is brewed with an ancient form of wheat and loaves of hearth-baked bread, and it's flavored with chamomile, doum-palm fruit and Middle Eastern herbs. To ferment this earthy ancient ale, Sam and friends traveled to Cairo, set out baited petri dishes and captured a native Egyptian saccharomyces yeast strain.

"It was the strangest picnic I've ever been on," he said.

We first brewed Ta Hanket as an addition to our Ancient Ales lineup in late 2010. It enjoyed a full bottled release in December 2011.