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Tuesday, September 2, 2008

Ye Incredibly Olde Beer

In the early '90s, microbiologist Raul Cano took an idea from Jurassic Park and extracted the DNA of an ancient weevil from a fossilized bit of Lebanese amber. Unfortunately, he didn't use this DNA to clone a new race of megaweevils that could rampage through their own theme park, killing everyone in sight and teaching us all a valuable lesson about playing god. Instead, Cano decided to use his knowledge for good. He hoped ancient genetics might lead to new medical breakthroughs and even extracted bacteria from the gut of a fossilized bee in order to create new antibiotics. Unfortunately, this was about as successful as the dino park. But did Cano decide to tuck tail and climb back down the Tower of Babel? Hell no. He revived some ancient yeast and used it to brew a batch of beer. The result is the Fossil Fuels Brewing Co., a company Cano formed with two business partners to distribute his prehistoric beverage around the San Francisco Bay area and, eventually, the world. Apparently the stuff tastes a little like cloves. And scientific hubris. More details here.

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