SC - Scottish Feast Question

[Bonne of Traquair]

sca-cooks at ansteorra.org wrote:
> Hopping beer presumably started around the 12th or 13th Centuries, somewhat
> after the Viking period.

> > > Hm. Hildegarde of Bingen (1098-1179) wrote in her _Physica_ (1151-1158) of hops 'its bitterness inhibits some spoilage in beverages to which it is added, making them last longer', and later mentions a recipe 'if you want to prepare beer from oats, without hops...' (this is from the translation by Priscilla Throop). So unless the translator or intervening sources have altered the text, one presumes that hopped beer was known in Germany by 1160. < < < <

My recollection of reading about the life and impact of Hildegarde 
on socio-politcal atmospheres suggets that she was not in the center of what you might call the mainstream.  She often wrote about things that were considered hgeretical or pagan.  Not that they are to be discounted, but further exploration would be suggested to determine what faction of the culture she is describing was using these items and to what degree they generalized. 12th century Germany wasn't all that kind to a woman who sang in the churches and wrote about herbal healing of the tribal 'barbarians' as well as spoke out to raise visibility of women in a very male dominated time, so one may need dig deeply to find how it all fits together.

niccolo difrancesco