[Sca-cooks] Brown Ale - was, Re: newbee cook attempting feast for the first timeindecember

[Volker Bach]

It's not from Britain, but there is some eidence for roasting malt in iron-age excavations from Germany (Stika, H.P.: Bodenfunde und Experimente zu keltischem Bier, in: Experimentelle Archäologie 19 (1998) pp. 45-54). The author supervised an experimental use of a reconstructed malt kiln. 

von Blanckenburg (Die Hanse und ihr Bier, Cologne 2001) also mentions archeological evidence for later medieval malt kilns in Hanseatic cities where brewing was an export industry. Contemporary sources distinguish between 'red' and 'white' beer, the former probably made from kiln-roasted malts, the latter from mildly dried (Hamburg, a major exporter of 'white' beer, did not use the usual style of kiln). 

Being no brewer, I'm still trying to figure this out in detail, but it sounds like a variety of roasting to me. How close to the fire does it hae to be to qualify?

Giano

--- ranvaig at columbus.rr.com <ranvaig at columbus.rr.com> schrieb am So, 7.6.2009:

> Von: ranvaig at columbus.rr.com <ranvaig at columbus.rr.com>
> Betreff: Re: [Sca-cooks] Brown Ale - was, Re:  newbee cook attempting feast for the first timeindecember
> An: "Cooks within the SCA" <sca-cooks at lists.ansteorra.org>
> Datum: Sonntag, 7. Juni 2009, 4:52
> >>
> >>Do we have any strong evidence for the existence of
> dark malts in  period? I'm pretty sure Digby and Plat
> never specify what kind of malt  to use, or how to make
> it, and Markham tells how to make it, but never  says
> anything (that I can recall) about roasting it; as far as I
> know,  what he's using is raw, white malt.
> 
> At our event today, I noticed that one A&S entry was a
> lovely brown ale.   I asked about roasted
> malts and was told they have roasted malt "as long as there
> have been ovens".  That's not proof thought.
> 
> Ranvaig
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