Recreating A Medieval Style Ale

[caleb]

I would like at some stage to have a go at brewing a medieval style ale.

FACTS (as far as I know... please feel free to comment/correct as needed)

"Ale" in those days referred to an unhopped beverage, vs "beer" which was hopped or otherwise bittered with herbs. It was only with the advent of bottom-fermentation that the distintion changed. It is this unhopped style of ale I would like to create. I know people sometimes used herbs in ale, but it was considered the sign of true "London Ale" that it was unflavored with hops or any other herb.

I believe that malt in the middle ages was what was called "brown malt" and the process didn't allow the fine degree of control that today gives us the range from Pale Pilsener Malt right through to Black Patent. So it would have been roasted dark-ish, but not black. It was also "wood fired" so I assume this would have imparted a smokey taste, like the "smoked ale" kits I sometimes see for sale.

They didn't sparge, but used the first mash for a strong ale, and subsequent ones for weaker beers (small beer). By the third mash of the same grain, you got something suitable for refreshment at breakfast. :icon_cheers:

Yeast would have been multi-strain, and probably included lacto-bateria. I believe they used to sell "new" and "old" ale (sound familiar). New ale was fairly fresh - only a few days old, before it had soured. Old or "stale ale" had been aged and soured. The two were often blended to taste.

Carbonation would have been light and based on natural conditioning in a cask, like real ales today. Probably beer was often flat, but I'm willing to let mine carb up a little.

RECIPE

I plan to do a half batch around 10-12 litres, because it is experimental. It will most likely be an extract based brew, as I don't have the equipment or space to do a full mash, nor do I want this to be the brew I learn on, for obvious reasons.

So, how to achieve something approximately like the ale described above?

I'm thinking starting with a pale liquid malt for a base (Say 1x1.5kg can).

Then, steep some grains to get the right flavor and color profile. Maybe a blend of light and dark for a complex malty taste and dark color. Without hops, obviously the malt is going to make or break this, and I'd want a good flavor here. I'm thinking of using some "smoked grain" to get that original wood-fire malted effect.

Yeast - some mixed strains? At worst, pitch a few different dry brands, but that sounds boring. Maybe keep some of the "British Cask" Wyeast I have going at the moment, and or reculture something from a bottle or three. Any suggestions?

Should I add some oak chips for that authentic wooden cask taste? Or is this a misnomer, and even then casks would have been lined with pitch and not adding any oak flavor to the ale?

Now I've heard horror stories of SCA types trying to make a totally authentic ale, to the point they try to malt their own barley acording to spec, and the like, and of course fail miserably because they have no idea what they're doing (first ever brew... malt your own... :blink: ) Or doing something like adding bread yeast (for that authentic multi-strain effect) and ending up with nail varnish flavored beer.

So, I'm not trying to be 100% ye olde worlde authentic, just get some idea of what an old style unhopped ale would have been like, while trying to make it as good as I can. Hopefully it'll still be a good drink and something I can enjoy!

 

[buttersd70]

You might find this to be an interesting read....
link

 

[SpillsMostOfIt]

I've got a fair bit of yarrow growing in the garden which I intend using next year when it flowers as a bittering agent in a gruit. Dunno how I would get it to you though...

 

[JonnyAnchovy]

I'm very interested in seeing how this turns out. I'm all for these kind of experiments!

 

[KingPython]

Yeast - some mixed strains? At worst, pitch a few different dry brands, but that sounds boring. Maybe keep some of the "British Cask" Wyeast I have going at the moment, and or reculture something from a bottle or three. Any suggestions?

http://www.craftbrewer.com.au/shop/details.asp?PID=2886

Might be the go. No affiliation etc.

 

[MVZOOM]

You might find this to be an interesting read....
link

awesome, read that and the associated link. Just finishing a book set in the 13th century, which has numerous references to ale, and it's importance for the wider community.

Cheers - Mike

 

[quantocks]

Ale ingredients were varied and plentiful: oats, barley, rye, and spelt or wheat were the stuff of a peasants daily diet. Flavorings included those herbs that could be found in the countryside or cultivated in the English garden: rosemary, fennel, thyme, rose hips, yarrow, parsley, sage, hyssop, savory, chamomile, purslane, and mint, to name but a few. Spices such as cinnamon, cloves, cubeb, nutmeg, and ginger were also added to spike the flavors and give interest to common fare. To bitter the sweet beer, juniper, mugwort, wormwood, or tansy might be added. When flowers and other leafy herbs or fruits were added to the brew it almost certainly provided necessary yeasts, but barm (yeast froth) was scraped off the top of the fermenting beer, saved, and used to make bread or promote the next batch of brew.

http://jeriwesterson.typepad.com/my_weblog...hing-for-m.html

 

[white.grant]

Great idea Caleb, this would be "really real ale". Keep us posted. Would love to see a pic in the what's in your glass thread.

Regarding your remark about bread yeast Mosher includes a recipe for Devon White Ale that includes coriander, ginger and caraway in the grout and is fermented with a quarter cake of bread yeast, very low alcohol around 2.5%.

Apparently the style is medieval but survived until the 19th century -- as things change very slowly in Devon, it was almost certainly better than un-brewed water at that time though I'm wondering what its going to taste like.

cheers

grant

 

[caleb]

You might find this to be an interesting read....
link

Thanks.

I had actually read that quite a while ago, but it was good to reread and refresh my memory.

Brings up a few more points:

Ale wasn't boiled, as without a hop addition no need for a boil after the mash. This also meant there was no "hot break" and thus the ale remained cloudier than boiled beer.

Grains other than barley were common - particularly oats. Might be a good idea to do a mini-mash with some rolled oats, by the sound of the article.

They seem very pessimistic about the ability to replicate it based on extract though... ARE malt extracts actually boiled? I though they were evaporated differently...

 

[buttersd70]

ARE malt extracts actually boiled? I though they were evaporated differently...

In the case of coopers, and therefor I presume most other brands (although it is a presumption)....

We brew beer, malt extract and home brew worts in the same way. All worts are boiled and produce hot break which is then removed in the whirlpool. Rather than being cooled down for fermentation, the malt extract and home brew worts are centrifuged and transferred to evaporators where all but around 20% of the water is removed. At this stage the malt extract and home brew is packaged then cools down but does not throw cold break material because the extract is too dense for it to precipitate.

Once you add water, the wort becomes thin enough for the break material to precipitate. This break material is completely harmless to the brew and will settle out during fermentation.(snip)

NB....italics added by myself.

edit: caleb, are you not doing AG atm? I presumed form other posts that you were....

edit v2....thanks for reminding me about this article.....I was going to give this a try, but forgot all about it....maybe a small batch for the SA mid year swap?

 

[caleb]

edit: caleb, are you not doing AG atm? I presumed form other posts that you were....

edit v2....thanks for reminding me about this article.....I was going to give this a try, but forgot all about it....maybe a small batch for the SA mid year swap?

Ah, so the extract we buy IS probably boiled - sounds like a long boil too, if it gets to the honey like consistency of extract.

So, when extract is added to the boil, why does it foam up then leave a lot of "miso soup" like particles floating around... I always thought this WAS the "hot break", and these particles were protiens which would coagulate and fall to the bottom later. Yet according to Coopers, extract is already boiled to hot break point. Am I mistaken...

And yeah, I am an "extract brewer". Actually I thought from some of my posts that was pretty obvious... where did I mislead you. I mean, I understand the THEORY of mashing grain, but when it comes down to the logistics of actually doing it, I just think....... well........ nah......... and grab a few jars of extract. In my defense, I did pretty much invent my extract brewing method while staring at the shelf in the LHBS one day, and only later discovered it was a "legitimate" method. I swear!

Ah, and King Python, that yeast looks great. Not sure I'd buy it just for this, but maybe if I did an Imperial Stout for long term aging, then pitched this onto the yeast cake, it'd be good.

 

[Pumpy]

Great idea caleb i love all that medievil stuff

pic courtesy of the Sealed Knot

Pumpy

 

[boingk]

This is going to be interesting, wouldn't mind seeing one of these take off to see how it goes. One thing I'd be interested in is shelf life, as with no hopping there isn't a huge amount of preserving going on with isocumulones and what-not. Alcohol will do the trick to a point, from a strength, but I'm not sure how this one will go long-term.

Be interesting anyway, I'm pulling up a stump.

- boingk

 

[white.grant]

At Newcastle Uni (early 1980's) there was this club, the "Society for Creative Anachronism" and they would have jousts and broad sword battles on campus and they had huge fun. Their offical aim was to maintian ancient traditions but I reckon it was just an excuse to biffo. The broad swords where made out of timber but they had kick arse armoured suits and chain mail. AFAIK they still get together out Lithgow way, the lucky bastards.


Anyway I reckon that we could have a lot of fun with a medieval brew day, it could encompass all things mead, gruit and ale and maybe revive some ancient styles. Who's up for wearing a codpiece - I bet Fatgodzilla is.....

 

[notung]

Very interested to hear how you go on this mission! I recall somebody on here planning an historical-styled brew to dispense from a plastic cube. Perhaps that was you Caleb?

I have recently dried and stored some yarrow from the garden for a future brew. I'm also growing alecost (costmary), betony and wood germander with the idea of making a nice gruit (along with yarrow). Very excited...

Alexandre Bessette from www.gruitale.com has got wonderful readings on medieval brewing and uses Mosher's method of making herbal tinctures. This way you can play around with flavouring after bottling, to acheive the perfect gruit.

 

[WildaYeast]

Thanks for this post; enjoyed the read. Don't know that I'd try to go there anytime soon, but would be happy to try a glass.

My wife was heavily involved in the original Rennaisance Faire in California and has recently been chatting with the old clan. I'm sure there's a brewer (or several) amongst them. Will see if she can turn anything up...

WY

 

[buttersd70]

Ah, so the extract we buy IS probably boiled - sounds like a long boil too, if it gets to the honey like consistency of extract.

So, when extract is added to the boil, why does it foam up then leave a lot of "miso soup" like particles floating around... I always thought this WAS the "hot break", and these particles were protiens which would coagulate and fall to the bottom later. Yet according to Coopers, extract is already boiled to hot break point. Am I mistaken...

If you reread what I posted, you see that it is cold break, which is unable to preciptate due to the density of the goop. (the evaporation stage is done under vacuum, believe.)

Full context is here.

 

[muckanic]

There seem to be a few assumptions in some of these historical brewing links that I would question. The adjuncts were unmalted - how do we know that? If they were, and the malt was poorly diastatic from over-kilning, then there was presumably considerable unconverted starch in the brew. The herbs just added flavour - in fact, many herbs (particularly those with a high essential oil content) are anti-bacterial, anti-fungal and even anti-viral. If the brewers of the time were against boiling hops, then presumably the herbs were cold-steeped in the ferment, or possibly added to the mash tun. That would impact amount of essential oil extracted. I am surprised no-one has mentioned the addition of fruit, either as a sweetener at drinking time, or as a brew extender. England is chockers with stuff like blackberries, and elderberries can be used to simulate hop astringency. For that matter, there is the question of whether cider, perry, mead and ale ever intersected?

For a lacto source, look no further than grain, especially unmalted wheat. This is where the bugs would have come from originally. Lastly, I am wondering whether American distillers dreamt up the idea of fermenting on the grain all by themselves, or whether they may have taken a cue from abandoned Brit provincial brewing practice? I suspect the Brits may not have invented this technique, as their whiskey mashes are all sparged AFAIAA.

 

[Airgead]

What period are you aiming for? I've done a few brews for my historical fencing club. I'm using a range of sources from late 1500's-> early 1600's as that's the period our core style comes from (Silver's English Shortsword from his Paradoxes of Defence and Brief Instructions on my paradoxes). Also, what country? I'm assuming English.

Home made brown malt is easy. As for smokey flavour, most (good) malt for fine ales and beers (as drunk by gentlemen) was kilned using straw rather than wood as it gave a less smoky flavour and for the best ales only the sweetest (ie: untainted by smoke) portions of the malt were selected. The nasty smokey stuff was used for lower class brews. I just roasted mine a little in the oven (till it goes a manila folder type colour in the centre of the grain) and added a few % of smoked malt for just a tiny hint of smoke. The roasting also kills the enzymes so you'll need to use a portion of pale malt to get it to convert. Apparently you can buy commercial brown malt that still hase some enzymes left but I've never seen it here.

Single infusion mash. You can go parti gyle if you like. that was traditional. Often 3 runnings (batch sparge). A strong ale/beer, a table ale/beer and a small beer/ale.

For yeast I'd use a classic English strain. Some of them go back a long way. If you read a source like Digby, even by the early 1600s they added specific yeasts and had a clear separation between yeasts for wine, mead, ale and beer. Any souring would have been picked up from the wooden kegs. It could have been either lactic or acetic. You could add a small amount of lacto but I suspect that would get too strong too quickly. Maybe just chuck in a pinch of raw flour after fermentation finished and let it build up slowly. if you drink it quick (like they did) chances are you may never taste it. The old/new beer thing was I believe an 1800s thing rather than medieval.

I was making beers not ales (ale=gruit, beer=hops) as beer was taking over in the late 1500s after importation of hops into England was legalised. The best hop back then was something known as Canterbury whitebine. Sadly this is no longer in existence but its direct descendant is good old EKG. I believe the traditional ingredients for gruit were yarrow, bog myrtle and sweet gale. I have also heard of heather and mugwort being used. They also used to throw in some really wild stiff like henbane and nightshade but I wouldn't recommend that.

Hopping rates were quite high. I have a figure from the 1700s somewhere in Lbs/barrel but it worked out at around 30IBU. Dry hopping was very common as a preservative.

The last batch I made I used 70% brown malt. 30% pale malt. I think it was 30 IBU worth of EKG as a single addition plus about 30g dry hopped. Came out dark brown in colour. Tasted a lot like a brown ale but higher bitterness. I let it carb naturally is a cube (I vented it every day to release pressure) and gravity served. Went down a treat after our last prize fight.

Cheers
Dave

 

[Margrethe]

As one of those odd SCA types, I'm watching this thread with interest. Yes, there are many groups of us (We all form a Kingdom) and there are many places we play around Oz, and the US- the world in fact! We've invaded!

In association with making my mead and other such drinkages, I intend on having a go at making beer/ale too. I'm going to contact our Brewers Guild and see what I can come up with anything that might be useful here I was recently well impressed with a ginger beer that some SCAdians brewed themselves for an event (They ran the tavern) and oh boy was it good! So I'm going to see if I can get that recipe too!

*pulls up a comfy log*

Edited for typo disease related stupidity.