The May beverage of the month -- another candidate for the Pennsic Period Roundtable -- gives you plenty of room for experimentation, exploration, and interpretation. It comes from De origine et situ Germanorum (Germania) written by Publius Cornelius Tacitus in the first century. Whether Tacitus ever met a German is up for debate, but his poetic treatise does give us a drink to explore.
The text and translation here come from this site, stanza 23 (XXIII).
Potui humor ex hordeo aut frumento, in quandam similitudinem vini corruptus. Proximi ripae et vinum mercantur. Cibi simplices; agrestia poma, recens fera, aut lac concretum. Sine apparatu, sine blandimentis, expellunt famem. Adversus sitim non eadem temperantia. Si indulseris ebrietati suggerendo quantum concupiscunt, haud minus facile vitiis, quam armis vincentur.
Out of barley out of grain they ferment
A beverage winelike in taste and scent
And those who dwell on the bank of the Rhine
Are also known to go shopping for wine
A cuisine with little variety
Fresh game wild fruit and milk caked
Satiates their appetite
But their thirst lacks sobriety
If you allow it to be slaked
Much to their heart’s delight
Providing more booze than suffices
They’ll be unarmed by their own vices
From the text, it's tempting to go straight to a barleywine -- is that where your brewing will take you?