Ale recipe from Elizabethan England
Seamus
the one given below, by William Harrison, from the 1570's.
This is an extract from a long treatise, most of which can be found at:
http://www.fordham.edu/halsall/mod/1577harrison-england.html#Chapter%20VI
"But what have I to do with this matter, or rather so great a quantity,
wherewith I am not acquainted? Nevertheless, sith I have taken occasion to
speak of brewing, I will exemplify in such a proportion as I am best skilled
in, because it is the usual rate for mine own family, and once in a month
practised by my wife and her maid-servants, who proceed withal after this
manner, as she hath oft informed me.
Having therefore ground eight bushels of good malt upon our quern, where the
toll is saved, she addeth unto it half a bushel of wheat meal, and so much of
oats small ground, and so tempereth or mixeth them with the malt that you
cannot easily discern the one from the other; otherwise these latter would
clunter, fall into lumps, and thereby become unprofitable. The first liquor
(which is full eighty gallons, according to the proportion of our furnace) she
maketh boiling hot, and then poureth it softly into the malt, where it resteth
(but without stirring) until her second liquor be almost ready to boil. This
done, she letteth her mash run till the malt be left without liquor, or at the
leastwise the greatest part of the moisture, which she perceiveth by the stay
and soft issue thereof; and by this time her second liquor in the furnace is
ready to seethe, which is put also to the malt, as the first woort also again
into the furnace, whereunto she addeth two pounds of the best English hops, and
so letteth them seethe together by the space of two hours in summer or an hour
and a half in winter, whereby it getteth an excellent colour, and continuance
without impeachment or any superfluous tartness. But, before she putteth her
first woort into the furnace, or mingleth it with the hops, she taketh out a
vessel full, of eight or nine gallons, which she shutteth up close, and
suffereth no air to come into it till it become yellow, and this she reserveth
by itself unto further use, as shall appear hereafter, calling it brackwoort or
charwoort, and, as she saith, it addeth also to the colour of the drink,
whereby it yieldeth not unto amber or fine gold in hue unto the eye. By this
time also her second woort is let run; and, the first being taken out of the
furnace, and placed to cool, she returneth the middle woort unto the furnace,
where it is stricken over, or from whence it is taken again, when it beginneth
to boil, and mashed the second time, whilst the third liquor is heat (for there
are three liquors), and this last put into the furnace, when the second is
mashed again. When she hath mashed also the last liquor (and set the second to
cool by the first), she letteth it run, and then seetheth it again with a pound
and a half of new hops, or peradventure two pounds, as she seeth cause by the
goodness or baseness of the hops, and, when it hath sodden, in summer two
hours, and in winter an hour and a half, she striketh it also, and reserveth it
unto mixture with the rest when time doth serve therefore. Finally, when she
setteth her drink together, she addeth to her brackwoort or charwoort half an
ounce of arras, and half a quarter of an ounce of bayberries, finely powdered,
and then, putting the same into her woort, with a handful of wheat flour, she
proceedeth in such usual order as common brewing requireth. Some, instead of
arras and bays, add so much long pepper only, but, in her opinion and my
liking, it is not so good as the first, and hereof we make three hogsheads of
good beer, such (I mean) as is meet for poor men as I am to live withal, whose
small maintenance (for what great thing is forty pounds a year, computatis
computandis, able to perform?) may endure no deepeer cut, the charges whereof
groweth in this manner. I value my malt at ten shillings, my wood at four
shillings (which I buy), my hops at twenty pence, the spice at twopence,
servants' wages two shillings sixpence, with meat and drink, and the wearing of
my vessel at twenty pence, so that for my twenty shillings I have ten score
gallons of beer or more, notwithstanding the loss in seething, which some,
being loth to forego, do not observe the time, and therefore speed thereafter
in their success, and worthily. The continuance of the drink is always
determined after the quantity of the hops, so that being well hopt it lasteth
longer. For it feedeth upon the hop, and holdeth out so long as the force of
the same continueth, which being extinguished, the drink must be spent, or else
it dieth and becometh of no value.
In this trade also our brewers observe very diligently the nature of the water,
which they daily occupy, and soil through which it passeth, for all waters are
not of like goodness, sith the fattest standing water is always the best; for,
although the waters that run by clalk or cledgy soils be good, and next unto
the Thames water, which is the most excellent, yet the water that standeth in
either of these is the best for us that dwell in the country, as whereon the
sun lieth longest, and fattest fish is bred. But, of all other, the fenny and
marsh is the worst, and the clearest spring water next unto it. In this
business therefore the skilful workman doth redeem the iniquity of that
element, by changing of his proportions, which trouble in ale (sometime our
only, but now taken with many for old and sick men's drink) is never seen nor
heard of. Howbeit, as the beer well sodden in the brewing, and stale, is clear
and well coloured as muscadel or malvesey, or rather yellow as the gold noble,
as our pot-knights call it, so our ale, which is not at all or very little
sodden, and without hops, is more thick, fulsome, and of no such continuance,
which are three notable things to be considered in that liquor. But what for
that? Certes I know some ale-knights so much addicted thereunto that they will
not cease from morrow until even to visit the same, cleansing house after
house, till they defile themselves, and either fall quite under the board, or
else, not daring to stir from their stools sit still pinking with their narrow
eyes, as half sleeping, till the fume of their adversary be digested that he
may go to it afresh. Such slights also have the alewives for the utterance of
this drink that they will mix it with rosen and salt; but if you heat a knife
red-hot, and quench it in the ale so near the bottom of the pot as you can put
it, you shall see the rosen come forth hanging on the knife. As for the force
of salt, it is well known by the effect, for the more the drinker tippleth, the
more he may, and so doth he carry off a dry drunken noll to bed with him,
except his luck be the better."
Seamus Fergie
Kel Rekuta
>
> I'd be interested to hear if anyone has tried to duplicate a recipe like
> the one given below, by William Harrison, from the 1570's.
>
> This is an extract from a long treatise, most of which can be found at:
> http://www.fordham.edu/halsall/mod/1577harrison-england.html#Chapter%20VI
I frequently brew a variation of Bryan J. Maloney's
redaction of the 1503 single ale recipe. It goes over very
well with the re-enactors crowd. Most of them drink any
commercial dark ale so they consider a dark, smoky brew a
treat.
I don't mind it, but I'd rather drink a wee heavy instead.
I'm convinced the style is similar to medieval strong
(stale) ale. But that's another story!
Cheers!
Kel
ben w
> I'd be interested to hear if anyone has tried to duplicate a recipe like
> the one given below, by William Harrison, from the 1570's.
>
> This is an extract from a long treatise, most of which can be found at:
> http://www.fordham.edu/halsall/mod/1577harrison-england.html#Chapter%20VI
Long is the word. Damn, that man can ramble.
What I'm going to try to do is translate his recipe into a modern
equivalent. He is brewing a 200-gallon batch so I'll convert to a
modern 5-gal by dividing by 40. Yeah, he's using old Imperial measures
but I think it'll all turn out pretty well in the end.
> Having therefore ground eight bushels of good malt upon our quern, where the
> toll is saved, she addeth unto it half a bushel of wheat meal, and so much of
> oats small ground
Barley weights roughly 50 lbs the bushel, as do oats; wheat is closer
to 60.
Equivalent: 400lbs barley malt, 30 lbs flaked wheat, 30 lbs flaked
oats
Scaled down: 10 lbs barley malt, .75 lbs flaked wheat, .5 lbs flaked
oats
That sounds like a beer recipe already! Given his discourse on the
various kilnings, I think that the barley he uses would be somewhere
in between English Brown and Pale malt.
> clunter, fall into lumps, and thereby become unprofitable. The first liquor
> (which is full eighty gallons, according to the proportion of our furnace) she
> maketh boiling hot, and then poureth it softly into the malt, where it resteth
> (but without stirring)
Add about 80 gals boiling water. 2 gallons, for our purposes. Pour
into the 11.25lb of grain. This is clearly way too hot -- it yields a
175 F strike temperature, but the slow pour, lack of stirring and
other inefficiencies probably ensure that a good proportion of the
malt comes in contact with water at better extraction temperatures.
> until her second liquor be almost ready to boil. This
> done, she letteth her mash run till the malt be left without liquor, or at the
> leastwise the greatest part of the moisture, which she perceiveth by the stay
> and soft issue thereof;
"Sparge". I'd say a single-temperature rest at 150 - 155 for about an
hour and sparging as normal would replicate this process as well as
can be expected.
and by this time her second liquor in the furnace is
> ready to seethe, which is put also to the malt, as the first woort also again
> into the furnace, whereunto she addeth two pounds of the best English hops, and
> so letteth them seethe together by the space of two hours in summer or an hour
> and a half in winter, whereby it getteth an excellent colour, and continuance
> without impeachment or any superfluous tartness.
Boil 90 minutes with three ounces of EKG or Fuggles (2lbs = 32 oz =
approx 1 oz per running, three runnings). I frequently start boiling
while still collecting in another vessel, too, and that's what the
following paragraphs more or less describe. Because of the huge
inefficiencies in the method I'd say the small beer (third runnings)
would be much more similar to the big one (first runnings) than it
would with a conventional sparge, but the average of all the batches
should be about right.
> But, before she putteth her
> first woort into the furnace, or mingleth it with the hops, she taketh out a
> vessel full, of eight or nine gallons, which she shutteth up close, and
> suffereth no air to come into it
If there is a more irritating habit in recipe books of any sort than
describing a sequence of events and then saying "but, BEFORE you do
that, you should first have done this ..." I don't know what it is.
OK, then, we take about two pints of wort and seal it in an Erlenmyer
flask.
> setteth her drink together, she addeth to her brackwoort or charwoort half an
> ounce of arras, and half a quarter of an ounce of bayberries, finely powdered,
> and then, putting the same into her woort, with a handful of wheat flour, she
> proceedeth in such usual order as common brewing requireth.
In this context, "bayberries" are almost certainly juniper berries.
Arras, though, I have no idea except that it probably doesn't refer to
a tapestry.
> in their success, and worthily. The continuance of the drink is always
> determined after the quantity of the hops, so that being well hopt it lasteth
> longer.
Indeed. Much follows about the water, etc., and of course there's no
understanding of yeast. I would nonetheless tender this as my
interpretation:
William Harrison's Loquacious 1577 Ale
For Five Gallons
5 pounds Marris Otter Pale Ale Malt
5 pounds English Brown Malt
.75 pounds Flaked Wheat
.5 pounds Flaked Oats
Mash at 155 F for a good hour. Sparge with 175 F water. Start
collecting about 6-7 gallons, start 3 heating while still collecting.
Decant 2 pints of wort into a flask with a few crushed juniper
berries, seal and set aside.
When the wort has reached a boil, add three ounces of Fuggles, EKG or
similar UK hops.
Set wort aside to cool. Add the contents of the juniper-wort flask.
Either leave it outside, uncovered, for wild yeasties to do their work
or try using a British yeast with some Brettanomyces or other culture,
or just wimp out and use a standard yeast ....
ben
Seamus
>Arras, though, I have no idea except that it probably doesn't refer to
>a tapestry.
>
Apparently it's an alternate spelling of "orris" root. The OED even
quotes this passage from Harrison as an example.
So the next question is: has anyone ever tried orris root
in their beer? In combination with juniper?
Seamus Fergie
David Bourke
> > she addeth unto it half a bushel of wheat meal, and so much of
> > oats small ground
> Equivalent: 400lbs barley malt, 30 lbs flaked wheat, 30 lbs flaked
> oats
Fair enough.
> Scaled down: 10 lbs barley malt, .75 lbs flaked wheat, .5 lbs flaked
> oats
Why the descripancy between the amount of Wheat and Oats?
At first I thought it a typo and you'd missed the 7 off but you
compund this with...
> Pour into the 11.25lb of grain.
and...
> .75 pounds Flaked Wheat
> .5 pounds Flaked Oats
Did you simply make the typo in the Scaled down weights and then copy
those while composing the rest of the recipe/mail?
Regards,
Dave.
ben w
> Nicely worked Ben but...
>
> > > she addeth unto it half a bushel of wheat meal, and so much of
> > > oats small ground
>
> > Equivalent: 400lbs barley malt, 30 lbs flaked wheat, 30 lbs flaked
> > oats
>
> Fair enough.
Actually, that was part was the mistake. It's because the Elizabethan
recipe used volume and I'm converting to weight, and the various
grains have differing densities. Barley weighs approx. 48-50 pounds a
bushel; wheat weighs 60, for oats I've seen values from 36-44 pounds,
average about 40. I used the most convenient approximations in the
scaled-down version but didn't go back and edit this part properly. It
should read more like:
Equivalent: 400 lbs barley malt, 30 lbs flaked wheat, 20 lbs flaked
oats.
> Why the descripancy between the amount of Wheat and Oats?
> At first I thought it a typo and you'd missed the 7 off but you
> compund this with...
> > .75 pounds Flaked Wheat
> > .5 pounds Flaked Oats
> Did you simply make the typo in the Scaled down weights and then copy
> those while composing the rest of the recipe/mail?
There could be other values for the weight-per-bushel of the various
grains. But the 50lbs, 60lbs, 40lbs scale down neatly to 10, .75 and
.5 lbs which is convenient for the homebrewer and certainly close
enough for government work.
ben
ben w
> So the next question is: has anyone ever tried orris root
> in their beer? In combination with juniper?
Thankfully, no. Orris root (they're actually iris roots) has been
mentioned as a preservative and additive to beer and wine throughout
the ages across Europe, though. Said to be quite allergenic.
ben