Beer from time of Jesus recreated by Israeli brewery

Ever wondered what beer might have tasted like during biblical times? A Jerusalem brewery owner thinks he may have recreated that flavour.

Itai Gutman of Herzl Brewery read that researchers at Tel Aviv University had identified the genetic strain of wheat used to brew beer in the region 2,000 years earlier. He got in touch, and was given several kilograms of the grain, he said in an interview with Reuters.

Gutman used the special wheat to brew up a 20-litre batch of beer, which he shared with his friends.

"We were curious about being able to come up with the first 'biblical' beer," he told Reuters.

But after tasting it, he doesn't plan to make more.

"It's really not the kind of flavour that has a market."

Gutman called the flavour "surprising," with a hint raspberry even though no fruit was added.

According to the Jewish Museum in Munich, beer was introduced to Israel from Egypt by the ancient Israelites.

• Alexander Keith's brew nearly as old as Canada found in ocean tastes 'pretty good'