[evilduck]

I tried some at the Great American Beer Festival last fall (served by Sam himself!). It's worth trying simply because it challenges your palate, like all DFH products. Your description is pretty spot on, though I can't say it was uniquely good enough to seek out and purchase more of it.

The ingredients are barley, white Muscat grapes, honey and saffron, and their original formulation included thyme, but doesn't include it anymore. With grapes added and lacking hops, it's not "officially" a beer by BJCP style standards (a specialty beer maybe...it's technically a gruit).

[rufibarbatus]

It doesn't have any hops? Well I got that wrong in my description! :-) But maybe that's why I found it so easy to drink after all.

As for whether or not it's officially a beer, I think under Brazilian law a beer is a carbonated beverage made from the fermentation of starch-based produce (heresay—so don't quote me on that). So here it officially is.

(At any rate, it's funny to think that the oldest beer recipes may be "not officially beer.")

[evilduck]

Well yeah, classification by law is different than how the industry itself describes stuff. There's lots of categorical beers that have to be sold as a malt liquor by law in certain states of the US due to high ABV percentages. For example, Oklahoma I think classifies beer at 4.2% ABV, and most styles of beer can approach 6% ABV and still stay within the guidelines, so basically every DFH product is legally "not beer" in that state.

There's also not an official industry group that I'm aware of that enforces and standardizes what breweries can call their product, the style guidelines are for judging purposes and consumer expectations. There's nothing stopping DFH from submitting Midas Touch in a "Pale Ale" or "Stout" category, but they'd surely lose and wouldn't get the increased publicity and recognition that would come with being best in class (although at this point, DFH has a big enough following and reputation that it matters less now than when they were smaller).

[khafra]

I share your opinion of Midas Touch. The DFH ancient brew reconstruction I prefer is Jaihu, based on residue on 9,000 year old Chinese pottery shards. Tastier, and with more primeval appeal.