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Author Topic: Ale/beer questions
Paul Kenworthy
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posted 03-02-2008 07:42 PM     Profile for Paul Kenworthy     Send New Private Message   Edit/Delete Post   Reply With Quote
quote:
Originally posted by Pieter:
Lindsey,
As Chef De Chamber wrote,the best way to keep your ale cool, may be to place the jug or container in a local stream, brook etc. Of course, one has to remember that beer cold enough to shatter your teeth, is a modern concept (probably American), and in my opinnion, probably done to disguise lack of flavour and poorly made beer. Ale on the other hand was never meant to be served very cold (cool, yes maybe, but not ice cold!).

Beer and ale as we know it today are the result of Louis Pasteur's study of beer yeasts in the 1850s and the development of practical commercial refrigeration in the 1870s. Bottom fermenting yeasts produce a simpler, more consistent product for large commercial breweries. But they need consistent, cold temperatures. If you can afford the cooling equipment, you will get a more reliable product batch after batch. However, bottom fermenting yeasts don't produce as many esters as top fermenting yeasts. That means less can go wrong, but the flavors are much weaker and less complex. That's why so much of the cheap beer today is lager beer.

Finally, cold numbs the taste buds. That is why ice cream tastes better after it has melted a little. If your beer doesn't taste good warm, it didn't taste good cold either, you just didn't notice.

Recommended reading for the medieval beer geeks out there are:

Richard W. Unger, "Beer in the Middle Ages and the Renaissance." Philadelphia: University of Pennsylvania Press, 2004.

Stan Hieronymous, "Brew Like a Monk: Trappist, Abbey, and Strong Belgian Ales and How to Brew Them." Boulder, Colorado: Brewers Publications, 2005.

Neither of these books will give you medieval recipes, because as Unger says, "It was not until the seventeenth century that writers put down on paper what they knew about the technology of brewing." (p. 7)

However, Unger will tell you as much as we know about who was brewing what where and when. And Hieronymus will tell you all the little details about how commercial ale brewing actually works.

Commercial brewing was big business in the Low Countries in the late Middle Ages and knowing how brewing works helps you understand what they were doing. In Hamburg in 1460 the maximum brew size was set by regulation at 35 barrels. A barrel ("fass") held about 175 liters. The brew kettles averaged about 4,200 liters capacity. If you brewed the maximum batch size in Hamburg, that would equal 105 modern US kegs of beer. (Remember that bars use kegs, but most people when they buy beer for a party are really buying "pony" or "quarter" kegs.) In other words, a maximum brew in Hamburg in 1460 would serve 210 US college frat parties.

By the way, the oldest recipe for beer making in the Low Countries is from Ghent in the 14th century. By coincidence my current favorite Belgian is "Gulden Draak" which features the Golden Dragon from the spire of the bellfry in Ghent on its label. The Golden Dragon was put on the spire in 1382.

Cheers,

Paul

[ 03-02-2008: Message edited by: Paul Kenworthy ]

[ 03-02-2008: Message edited by: Paul Kenworthy ]


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Bertus
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posted 03-02-2008 11:50 PM     Profile for Bertus     Send New Private Message   Edit/Delete Post   Reply With Quote
When reading late 14th century accounts / records from the Low Countries, I came across quite some references to Hamburger Bier, so beer from Hamburg.

The plate with text next to the first Golden Dragon, or what is left of it, states that the first one was put on top of the Belfort in 1380. The Dragons skin was repaired numerous times over the centuries and in the 16th century they let the Dragon breath fire with great festivities. It was finally pulled down in 1839 when it was looking awful with only a few of the copper plates and bolts left.

--------------------

Bertus Brokamp


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Paul Kenworthy
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posted 03-03-2008 08:01 AM     Profile for Paul Kenworthy     Send New Private Message   Edit/Delete Post   Reply With Quote
Hi Bertus,

Thanks for the picture of the original Gulden Draak.

For those not fortunate enough to be able to pop over to Ghent, here's a picture of the current dragon from the brewery website www.globalbeer.com

Best Regards,

Paul


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chef de chambre
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posted 03-03-2008 03:20 PM     Profile for chef de chambre   Author's Homepage     Send New Private Message   Edit/Delete Post   Reply With Quote
Belgian ale mmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmm..................

How did we ever do without you Paul?

--------------------

Bob R.


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Paul Kenworthy
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posted 03-04-2008 08:08 AM     Profile for Paul Kenworthy     Send New Private Message   Edit/Delete Post   Reply With Quote
quote:
Originally posted by chef de chambre:
Belgian ale mmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmm..................

Mon Chef,

I don't actually brew at home, I use a Brew On Premises in Natick called Barleycorn's Craft Brew. They have all the raw materials and 15 gallon kettles. You buy the ingredients, and do the boiling and hopping. They put the wort in a fermentation vessel and temperature control it for two weeks. Then you come back and bottle it.

Here's what I propose: you design a 4" x 3-1/2", 300 dpi jpeg for the label. I'll pick a Flemish sour ale recipe. We'll make an appointment with Dan (the owner) and brew up a batch. It will cost us about $175 to produce 72 x 22oz bottles, or about $2.45 a bottle (including the labels, but not counting the cost of bottles) of *official* Wolf Argent Belgian Ale.

The one thing we won't be able to do is age it in oak wine barrels for a year. But with Duchess de Bourgogne running $12 a bottle, it will be very, very good for the price.

Best Regards,

Paul


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Fire Stryker
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posted 03-04-2008 10:33 AM     Profile for Fire Stryker   Author's Homepage     Send New Private Message   Edit/Delete Post   Reply With Quote
I'm sure we can come up with a label. Many people have said that our official logo/badge looks like a beer label.

I say to them.

--------------------

ad finem fidelis


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jboerner
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posted 03-05-2008 01:00 AM     Profile for jboerner   Author's Homepage     Send New Private Message   Edit/Delete Post   Reply With Quote
This is one of the moments when I'm damn glad to live not only in germany, but in frankonia, which is the "beer-richest" region in germany (for those, who don't know, what franconia is: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Franconia and yes, it is located in the state "bavaria" but do never ever call a franconian a "bavarian"!!)
We have literally hundreds of beers, which nearly every single rural restaurant having its own brewery, and lots of them brewed in a very traditional way, with receipes which are hundreds of years old, some do even real "medieval" beers.

Oh and cooling with a jug in a bucket of water works best with pewter jugs in my experience- just like in the sources

--------------------

Diu Minnezīt
Reconstruction of textiles, armour and daily life
1250,1350,1475
Nuremberg and Paris
http://www.diu-minnezit.de

IG Meisterhauw
Reconstruction of late medieval and early renaissance fencing techniques
http://www.meisterhauw.de

Nuremberg in the middle ages
http://www.nuernberg-im-mittelalter.de


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James Bretlington
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posted 03-05-2008 06:49 AM     Profile for James Bretlington   Author's Homepage     Send New Private Message   Edit/Delete Post   Reply With Quote
quote:
Originally posted by jboerner:
This is one of the moments when I'm damn glad to live not only in germany, but in frankonia, which is the "beer-richest" region in germany [

Oh yes, I can vouch for that. I lived in Oberfranken, in Bayreuth, for 4 years, ( and I still speak German with the noticable use of dialect words...).

Literally, you can walk into almost any village in any part of Franken, find the church, and the brewery will be opposite. Great beers, and great food. Nothing beats Hirschbraten and Kloesse with a great Weissbier.

--------------------

Loyaulte Me Lie


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jboerner
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posted 03-05-2008 03:21 PM     Profile for jboerner   Author's Homepage     Send New Private Message   Edit/Delete Post   Reply With Quote
Hi James, then this: http://www.bayreuth1320.de issomething for you Bayreuth actually is arround the corner, and the site is ran by a fellow reenactor.
Though I've to add: when your in franconia, try the dark beer instead...

--------------------

Diu Minnezīt
Reconstruction of textiles, armour and daily life
1250,1350,1475
Nuremberg and Paris
http://www.diu-minnezit.de

IG Meisterhauw
Reconstruction of late medieval and early renaissance fencing techniques
http://www.meisterhauw.de

Nuremberg in the middle ages
http://www.nuernberg-im-mittelalter.de


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James Bretlington
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posted 03-06-2008 07:02 AM     Profile for James Bretlington   Author's Homepage     Send New Private Message   Edit/Delete Post   Reply With Quote
Very nice!

I can still remember the Buergerfest in 2000 when they turned the area around the church into a medieval market.

Personal favourite was Schenkerla Rauch Bier in Bamburg.

--------------------

Loyaulte Me Lie


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chef de chambre
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posted 08-10-2008 07:41 AM     Profile for chef de chambre   Author's Homepage     Send New Private Message   Edit/Delete Post   Reply With Quote
Well,

Paul and Peter have actually brewed the closest they could get to a Medieval Belgian Ale - should be bottled next week, and we are calling it "WHite Wolfe Whitt"

--------------------

Bob R.


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Diana Peterson
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posted 08-29-2008 10:12 AM     Profile for Diana Peterson   Author's Homepage     Send New Private Message   Edit/Delete Post   Reply With Quote
One thing's for sure - if you use a pre-15th century food recipe that calls for ale as an ingredient, you're going to have a hard time making it properly.

When researching food for the Bors Hede Restaurant, Camlann Association did a lot of taste testing. Modern ales make those recipes taste like crap.

Luckily we have a master brewer who can make what we need now (and of course, we don't know exactly what went into 14th century ale, other than it wasn't hops) and we can turn out something nice instead of something foul.

Just a warning in advance.


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