Wari Beer

Abstract

Between 600 and 1000 AD, the Wari state expanded across the Andes. Wari beer was one of the quintessential ways in which Wari identity was promoted in provincial centers hundreds of kilometers from the Ayacucho heartland. Based on excavations at the far southern provincial Wari brewery at Cerro Baúl, we take a production sequence approach to beer preparation, to evaluate the nature of Wari brewing as state practice. We investigate each step of the brewing process, from ceramic container manufacture through plant processing, mashing, and fermentation, in different spatial venues used at Cerro Baúl in the production of Wari chicha de jora y molle. This method provides us with insights into the practice of Wari state brewing and into the corollary activities being undertaken in the same spaces. In so doing, we establish the nature of craft production of beer-making in Wari state contexts, and how it is differentiated from contemporary and later household contexts of beer production in the region.