[Sca-cooks] Ale with soup consistency

[Volker Bach]

It may simply be based on extrapolation.I'bve been looking into medieval German beers, and the evidence we have indicates that the earlier we go, the more malt per tun is used. Traded beers appear to have been hugely strong and rich (I talked to a brewer about a sixteenth-century version at the low end of the scale, and he said it would likely come out around 8-10%, sweet and very heavy). If you project that backwards, it is quite plausible that early ales would have been very thick.
Of course there is also the question of filtration. I have read a few references to poorly strained or unstrained ale (never bothered to check the source since it was all about rural England). Other cultures routinely do not strain their brews. But here, I have no documentation. 

Best
Giano

 
 


     Johnna Holloway <johnnae at mac.com> schrieb am 2:25 Sonntag, 19.Juli 2015:
   

 Medieval Market Morality: Life, Law and Ethics in the English Marketplace

includes a passage from Piers Plowman which reads:

"Thikke ale and þ[th]ynne ale; þ[th]at is my kynde thick; thin And noзt hakke after holynesse; hold þi tonge, Conscience!"

You can find the passage here:
http://piers.iath.virginia.edu/exist/piers/docs/B/W/19/scribal/0

Johnnae

On Jul 18, 2015, at 7:11 PM, Terry Decker <t.d.decker at att.net> wrote:

> This may be the "plena cervisia" (full bodied ale) referenced in the Domesday Book.  You might also check Tacitus to check his comments on beer in Germania.  As I recall, he speaks of it being similar to Roman wine (which, IIRC, was commonly sweet and thick).
> 
> Bear
> 
> 
> I was recently given a copy of Georges Duby’s 1961 work, Rural Economy and
> Country Life in the Medieval West. Early on in the book, speaking of the
> 9th and 10th century in England, Duby describes a form of ale that seems,
> at best, unusual. ‘Ale had often the consistency of thick soup and so could
> be counted perhaps more as a food than a drink’. He doesn't cite any source
> for this, but it's an odd enough concept to follow up on.snipped
> 
> Le meas,
> Aodh
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