Brewing the past: A journey into history through beer and film

In September 2021, a unique team of historians, archaeologists, scientists, traditional craftspeople, and filmmaking team came together to recreate and document a beer last brewed in sixteenth-century Dublin.

We know that beer was central to social life and a vital source of nutrition across early modern Europe, but up to now we have had little sense of what the beer itself was really like, how strong it was or how much energy it provided. By reconstructing the recipes, equipment, and techniques used four hundred years ago, the team set out to answer these important questions and to better understand the evolution of brewing.

But this project isn’t just about brewing beer - it’s about the fascinating ways that hands-on experiments with history can give us new insights into how people lived, worked, and enjoyed life centuries ago.

This event features a screening of the short film Drunk? Adventures in Sixteenth-Century Brewing, which captured the team’s journey to recreate the past, followed by a discussion with the film’s director, Prof Shreepali Patel, historian and FoodCult project leader Dr Susan Flavin, and Mark Burton, biochemist and Brewer at Jesus College.

If you’re curious about history, science, beer or how storytelling ties it all together, this is an event you won’t want to miss!

Want to try some Jesus College beer? 

The Jesus College Brewery began brewing beer in 2018. A core range of beers - JPA (pale ale), WEST (lager) and ROOST (stout) - are supplemented with seasonal brews and an APA (American Pale Ale).

We hope you will join us for a drink in the College Bar after the event. All attendees will be given a voucher entitling them to a drink at a reduced cost.

About the speakers

Shreepali Patel is Professor of Multimodal Storytelling at the University of Arts London, where she also leads the Sonic Screen Lab. A filmmaker and multiplatform storyteller, her work is underpinned by over 30 years of film and broadcast industry experience. Her films highlight the convergence of storytelling and creative technologies to develop deep-rooted narrative-driven experiences with a focus on culture, heritage, and identity. She is co-director of the BAFTA & Emmy Award winning Eyeline Films, Visiting Professor and founder of StoryLab. Her more recent documentaries include: The Frontline, Echoes from the Museum, Stories in Transition and the award winning multiplatform experiences, The Golden Window, and The Crossing.

Dr Susan Flavin is an Associate Professor of History at Trinity College Dublin and PI on the ERC-funded FoodCult Project (foodcult.eu). She completed her PhD at the University of Bristol, where she was also engaged on the ESRC project "Ireland-Bristol Trade in the Sixteenth Century" (2006-9). 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 peasant 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).

Mark Burton is a Brewer at Jesus College microbrewery. Mark has won multiple brewing industry awards as Founder of Fellows Brewery, Cottenham and as former head brewer at nearby Cambridge Brewhouse. Jesus College microbrewery brew a range of craft beers including JPA (pale ale), WEST (lager), ROOST (stout), and an APA (American Pale Ale), and have a new set of seasonal beers in development. The brewery focuses on quality, creativity, flavour and freshness.

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