A 1000-year-old brewery has been discovered high up a Peruvian mountain. And its size suggests that its patrons liked to drink. The brewery was built by the Wari people in the mountaintop city of Cerro Ba煤l, between the years 600 and 1000, around 400 years before the rise of the Inca empire.
鈥淭hey must have hosted large-scale, lavish events at which lots of alcohol was served,鈥� says its discoverer Ryan Williams, assistant curator of the Field Museum in Chicago.
Within the brewery鈥檚 remains, 2400 metres above sea level, Williams found more than 20 vats, each approaching 60 litres, as well as large, open-hearth fire pits. He thinks the Wari staged sizeable drinking sessions at least weekly, and has found evidence that their favourite tipple was 鈥渃hicha鈥� beer, made from grains, fruit such as spicy berries, and peppercorns from the Peruvian pepper tree Schinus molle.
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