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Jesus College Cambridge, Intellectual Forum

On Thursday 15 May 2025, Jesus College Cambridge will host “Brewing the Past: A Journey into History through Beer and Film”, featuring a screening of the FoodCult documentary Drunk? Adventures in Sixteenth-Century Brewing. The event will take place from 19:30 to 21:00 in Frankopan Hall, West Court.

The film documents the interdisciplinary efforts of historians, archaeologists, scientists, and traditional craftspeople to recreate a 16th-century Dublin beer recipe. This reconstruction involved selecting period-appropriate grains, building a replica brewery, and analyzing the resulting beer to gain insights into early modern brewing practices and dietary habits.

Following the screening, a panel discussion, chaired by Dr Julian Huppert,  will feature:

Dr Susan Flavin, Early Modern Historian

Professor Shreepali Patel, filmmaker and Professor of Multimodal Storytelling

Mark Burton, biochemist and brewer at Jesus College’s microbrewery

The panel will explore the methodologies and findings of the brewing project, discussing how experimental archaeology, hands-on reconstruction and creative film-making, can enhance our understanding of historical foodways.

Admission is free, but seating is limited. Attendees are encouraged to reserve their spots in advance. Ticket holders will receive a voucher for a discounted drink at the College Bar, where selections from the microbrewery, including JPA, WEST lager, and ROOST stout, will be available.

Information and Registration

2025-05-11T14:46:48+00:0011 May 2025|Conferences and talks, Events, News|

Talk with Trinity

Brewing the Past: A Journey into History Through Beer and Film
Talk with Trinity | 26 March 2025

Yesterday, we were delighted to present Drunk? Adventures in Sixteenth-Century Brewing as part of Trinity College Dublin’s Talk with Trinity public series at Unit18. This session brought together community members for a special screening of our short film exploring our journey towards recreating historical beer and brewing processes.

The film forms part of FoodCult’s broader mission to uncover the role of food and drink in shaping society, culture, and politics. After the screening, we enjoyed a lively Q&A and discussion with a fantastic and engaged audience.

A huge thanks to everyone who came along—and to Trinity’s Community Engagement team for hosting!

2025-03-27T13:39:22+00:0027 March 2025|Conferences and talks, Events, News|

International Society for Gastronomic Sciences (ISGSS Congress)

On 27th September, Shreepali Patel (University of the Arts London) will present a paper on the FoodCult film-making project at the ISGSS Congress (University of Gastronomic Sciences of Pollenzo). The paper, ‘Weaving complex historical food narratives through sonic and visual artistic practice’ will explore the potential for integrating film and practice-based history to engage diverse audiences. This will be published by the team in coming months.

See here for more information

2024-09-27T11:47:43+00:0026 September 2024|Conferences and talks, News|

Mornings with Simi

Delighted to share our research with radio listeners in Vancouver, Canada this week. Check out the episode on Mornings with Simi on 980CKNW to hear about the differences between 16th century and modern beer.

Listen here

2024-04-23T13:22:27+00:0023 April 2024|Media, News|
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