[Sca-cooks] Reference to 'stale' ale.

[Decker, Terry D.]

IMS, there is a description of the Vandal ale pot in Pliny.  I know there is
a description of using ale barm to leaven bread.

I suspect the initial yeasting of such was by exposure to the air (as with
lambics) and that we wound up with ale yeasts because the brewers saved the
dregs of good batches of ale to start the next.  This raises the question as
to when period brewers used open cooling of the wort and when they
inoculated the wort.

As for the words beer and ale, they appear in Old English as "beor" and
"alu" (or "ealu").  I haven't found any references for the derivation of
ale, but beer may come from the Latin "bibere," "to drink."  I also haven't
found a solid definition of precisely what was meant by either word in Old
English.  I suspect the fine distinctions began when the Germans started
producing lighter tasting malt beverages around the 13th Century and the
technical differentiation between ale as top fermenting and beer as bottom
fermenting probably dates from the same time.

Bear

> *Ales* are beers which use an ale yeast, and are
> brewed at warm temperatures, giving them a sweet,
> rich, somewhat floral flavor (particularly if they are
> hopped). <clipped>
>
> Balthazar of Blackmoor