A keg is tapped in SummerIsle

Alan D. Eames, 59, Scholar of Beers Around the World, Dies

...Alan D. Eames, who cultivated his reputation as “the Indiana Jones of beer” by crawling into Egyptian tombs to read hieroglyphics about beer and voyaging along the Amazon in search of a mysterious lost black brew, died on Feb. 10 at his home in Dummerston, Vt. He was 59...

Eames was a textbook of beer information, fashioning himself as a "beer anthropologist". He claimed the discovery of what he called the first beer advertisement, a 6000 year old stone tablet with the picture of a large breasted, headless woman, holding two goblets of beer in each hand, which states “Drink Elba, the beer with the heart of a lion.” One of his most important claims was that beer in the ancient past was considered a feminine drink, almost always being considered the gift of 'The Goddess' (and not 'The God'). The last article he wrote was about beer and Witchcraft.

The pic above is Ninkasi, the ancient Sumerian Goddess of Brewing. For an interesting account of modern brewers trying to duplicate the ancient beverage dictated by the 'Hymn to Ninkasi', which is basically a recipe, check out Anchor Steams attempt:

...From this moment, we began to feel a thrilling link with brewers of ages past. There was a sense of awe as we began to use the ancient words of the Goddess Ninkasi familiarly. After many thousands of years, bappir, munu, lal, gestin and sim were discussed again in a brewhouse...

I'm sure Ninkasi welcomes Alan to SummerIsle with open arms.