Midas Touch: The return of a brew 2,700-year in the making

They say everything King Midas touched turned to gold. While we can’t exactly vouch for the truth behind that ancient legend, we can tell you a bit about the goodness that filled his drinking vessels. Spoiler alert ... it was pretty off-centered!

We did a little digging of our own and excavated one of our most-requested rarities: Midas Touch. Part beer, part wine and part mead, this “liquid gold” recreation of a beverage enjoyed more than 2,700 years ago first debuted in 1999 and became the brew that launched our Ancient Ales series.

Of course, the story of Midas Touch starts long before 1999. About 2,700 years before, to be exact.

From an ancient tomb to a modern brewery

The story begins in what is now central Turkey, where archaeologists excavated an ancient burial mound associated with King Midas. Inside, they uncovered the remains of an elaborate funerary feast, including more than 150 bronze drinking and serving vessels.

Decades later, biomolecular archaeologist Dr. Patrick McGovern, AKA Dr. Pat, and his team at the Penn Museum analyzed remnants preserved inside those vessels and uncovered what was essentially an ancient recipe hiding in plain sight: a fermented mixture of grape wine, barley beer and honey mead.

In other words, long before we were debating what makes a beer a beer, ancient drinkers were already happily blurring the lines.

When we caught wind of that delicious little piece of history, well ... we wanted in.

No longer ancient history

There was only one thing left to uncover: what did this ancient beverage actually taste like?

Sam teamed up with Dr. Pat using clues uncovered from those ancient vessels to create a recipe featuring barley, honey, white Muscat grapes and saffron. The result landed somewhere between a beer, a wine and a mead, refusing to fit neatly into any one category.  

And with that, Midas Touch was born. It went on to become our first Ancient Ale, kicking off a years-long adventure with Dr. Pat to explore what people were brewing and drinking thousands of years before us.

Ancient Ales, you say?

Midas Touch may have been the first, but it opened the door to a whole world of ancient drinking history.

In the years to follow, we teamed up with Dr. Pat to recreate a handful of long-lost brews, from the 9,000-year-old inspiration behind Chateau Jiahu to ancient Egyptian brewing traditions with Ta Henket and a 3,500-year-old Scandinavian beverage with Kvasir.

The places, eras and ingredients changed, but the idea remained the same: use what history left behind to get a taste of what people were drinking way, way back when.

And it all started with Midas Touch.

So, what does 2,700 years of history taste like?

Pretty darn good, as it turns out.

Clocking in at 9.0% ABV, Midas Touch is medium-bodied and lightly warming, with sweet notes of honey and orchard fruits complemented by a subtle, earthy spice from saffron. Brewed with barley, honey, Muscat grapes and saffron, it finishes crisp and vinous with a light sweetness.

It’s a little beer. A little wine. A little mead ... and 100% deliciously off-centered.  

It’s also managed to build quite the following over its lifetime, with drinkers asking us one question again and again:

When are you bringing Midas Touch back?

Well ... now!

More than 25 years after we first brought this ancient beverage back from the dead, Midas Touch is officially back as part of our Small Batch Series.

It’s available now on draft and in 6pk/12oz cans at our coastal Delaware spots, and is swimming to shelves in DE, MD, NJ, PA and TX in the coming weeks! Track it down near you with our Fish Finder.  

After 2,700 years in the making, we think you’ve waited long enough.