[Sca-cooks] Brown Ale -

[Gretchen Beck]

--On Sunday, June 07, 2009 7:33 AM -0700 Susan Fox <selene at earthlink.net>
wrote:

>     The nut-brown ale, the nut-brown ale,
>     Puts down all drink when it is stale!
>     The toast, the nutmeg, and the ginger
>     Will make a sighing man a singer.
>     Ale gives a buffet in the head,
>     But ginger under-props the brain;
>     When ale would strike a strong man dead
>     Then nutmeg tempers it again.
>     The nut-brown ale, the nut-brown ale,
>     Puts down all drink when it is stale!
> 
> 
> 
> John Marston (1575?-1634)
> 
> My read on the line "puts down all drink when it is stale" means, even
> when it's gone bad, it's still better than anything else around.

The OED would disagree:

Stale (adj) :    1. Of malt liquor, mead, wine: That has stood long enough
to clear; freed from dregs or lees; hence, old and strong. Obs. 
...1586 COGAN Haven Health ccxviii. 221 Good ale..must be..made of good
corne, well sodden, stale and well purged...

It also includes a quote from Chaucer:
c1386 CHAUCER Sir Thopas 52 Notemuge to putte in ale, Whether it be moyste
or stale. 

So, moist would be the opposite of stale, new and old, perhaps still a
little sweet vs dry?

toodles, margaret