The Beer Archaeologist (2011) (smithsonianmag.com)

If this article piqued anyone's curiosity, I cannot recommend The Oxford Companion to Beer highly enough.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Oxford_Companion_to_Beer

Especially if you're an all-grain home brewer, like me. :-)

Those interested in the history of beer should also take a look at Sacred and Herbal Healing Beers by Stephen Harrod Buhner.

http://www.goodreads.com/book/show/157268.Sacred_and_Herbal_...

If you really want to geek out on old beer, you need to read @patto1ro http://barclayperkins.blogspot.nl/

For anyone interested the Discovery Channel did a show with the guys from Dogfish Head [1]. Its pretty interesting to watch too bad they only made five episodes. They actually go to Egypt to find ancient forms of yeast to make beer with.

[1]http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Brew_Masters