Chicken Carcass In An Apple Cider?

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Here we go

In order to make this, the Complete Housewife instructs us to take 10 gallons of ale and a large cock, the older the better. Parboil the cock, flea [flay?] him, and stamp him in a stone mortar till his bones are broken (you must craw and gut him when you flea him), then put the cock in 2 quarts of sack [16th century dry spanish wine], and put to it 3 pounds of raisins of the sun stoned, some blades of mace, a few cloves; put all these into a canvas bag, and a little before you find the ale has done working, put the ale and bag together into a vessel; in a week or 9 days bottle it up, fill the bottles but just above the neck, and give it the same time to ripen as other ale.

(Pg 96,The Complete Joy of Homebrewing 3rd ed, Papazian, 2003)



:icon_vomit:

LOL - 'The Complete Housewife' was a recipe book written in the 18th Century - a time in which you could probably almost eat a chicken raw and get away with it. These days, because of intensive farming, virtually all store-bought chicken is going to be infected to some degree with either Campylobacter or Salmonella which is why such an emphasis is placed nowadays on making sure chicken is completely cooked through. As someone who has had a severe case of gastroentiritus caused by campylobacter please let me assure you that a good dose of gastro caused by either of these bacteria is going to make you wish you were dead.

All in all, by far the most likely outcome of mixing a smashed-up, PARTIALLY cooked, intensively farmed, commercially available chicken with fermenting beer is going to be a severe case of food poisoning and anything from 7 to 14 days unable to move more than 6 feet away from a toilet.
 
Budget cock and oat beer recipe:

Ingredients:
wild oats
cock
20L water

1) Using the cock, sow the wild oats in sufficient quantities to accumulate enough yeast for the brew
2) Add wild oats and yeast to water
3) Steep cock in fermenter for 30 mins

Notes: Remember to only use cock in your beer PRE-BOIL. Some cocks have been all over the place, and you never know whats on them.
 
Hi all,

I have been hanging around this forum since i have been brewing but have never joined as alot of the conversations going back and forth were a tad too advanced for myself. But upon reading this post this morning, i had to join and throw my 2c in.

On my last trip to the UK to visit family and for a wedding i was introduced to traditional scrumpy down Sommerset way and I actually quite liked it

I asked what it was made of and told "apples and things you dont want to know about" which i took to be a jibe as i was considered a Grokkle(tourist) much like our drop bears etc. I pushed further and was told the process which to my horror included Various meat products. I again thought they were having a go but the inn keeper who was my uncles childhood friend then asked if i would like to see for myself as they processed all their own cider and a few ales on site.
To cut a long story short i witnessed two things. 1) a barrel being emptied of dregs for re use and from the barrel strips of gray material maybe the size of 2 fingers coming out(told it was meat although i still did not believe it) and 2) a fresh lot being made which to my horror included chunks of cut meat being thrown in.

Apparently as all the cider is OPEN fermented(all wild yeast through barrel hole? which remains off all process) and the meat helps preserve and STOP infection in some way as it dissolves and shrinks in on itself
Im no expert , it sounds ridiculous and if i had not seen it with my own eyes i would not believe it but there you go. I did not find out what meat it was as i was in shock but i will email my uncle and see if he knows.

Anyways hope that has broken the myth for a few ppl
 
Apparently some of the older 'craft' producers in sommerset throw in road kill. There has been some discussion about this on the cider digest and cider workshop email lists. It probably explains why a lot of UK 'craft' cider tastes like absolute sh!t, but then some of it s really good.

So basically in the UK traditionally they did throw chickens into cider, butsome traditions such as this and Morris dancing are best left in the past.
 
Try searching for "Cocked Ale", it was allegedly practiced in Wales and Cornwall, tho I suspect it might have been talked about more than actually done perhaps to keep the visiting English away from the better ales.

There is a tribe in the Andes Mountains of Peru who inoculate their beer with the faeces of babies (before they are weened) tests show it contains a very pure yeast culture.

I don't think i want to experiment with either practice thanks.

MHB

Where's your sense of adventure man?

I think the woman up the road is still breastfeeding, now how should I approach this :unsure: :lol:
 
L As someone who has had a severe case of gastroentiritus caused by campylobacter please let me assure you that a good dose of gastro caused by either of these bacteria is going to make you wish you were dead.

I spent a week with campylobacter, and if there is any chance of getting that from this cider approach, then I wouldnt go anywhere near it, cos it really does make you wish you were dead, although it is also a good way to lose 6 kg.
 
Good timing this thread.

Had a few beers with some homebrewers I met for the first time Friday night, one of them (the oldest) professed (at the prodding of the others) to having made chook-ale where the bones of a roast chicken had been thrown into the boil and left in with the ferment.
 
I'll eat my words but I won't be running to drink a dead chook cider.

If a traditional brewer in a traditional brewery gave me some to try, I'd have a crack but not at home. Interesting idea about the fining qualities and the resistance to infection mentioned by two different posters.
 
It doesn't surprise me that newborn-babies faeces is used.

I've used bird-shit before and it is an excellent and very available source of both nutrient and yeasts.

I'd only throw a whole bird in the fermenter if it was a BIG fermenter and if the bird was home-grown, so I could have some degree of quality control.

Or you could just chuck some blood and bone in your wort (pressure cook if your anal about these things).

I wouldn't count out animal parts from the homebrew scene just yet, lads.

(@L_Bomb: Haha :lol: Champion!)
 
It doesn't surprise me that newborn-babies faeces is used.

I've used bird-shit before and it is an excellent and very available source of both nutrient and yeasts.

:blink: Come again??? :unsure:
 
Of course, saliva is also a ready source of yeasts and enzymes ... useful in scant-brewing (S. American beverage called chicha uses chewed corn kernels as a base)
Wiki on Chicha Preparation

For anyone who's actually interested in the topic and not just throwing criticism and emoticons around...
 
I think you'd end up with this:

cockdrink.jpg
I knew I'd get to use it eventually
 
Ooh, feeling queasy.

Must...focus on...Mantis' avatar...

There, all better :D
 

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