Gode Cookery Presents
True stories, fables and anecdotes from the
Middle
Ages
Establishments for
ale-brewing and selling were common in Anglo-Saxon
times, if not also in Roman, and the proprietors - variously called
brewsters
(from a word of feminine gender in Old English), ale-wives or polewives
(clearly women), bribsters, hucksters, or regrators of ale -
established
their businesses in rural or urban settings, wherever the prospects
looked
good. More humble alehouses opened for business intermittently to
dispose
of surplus household product for profit or when the materials for
brewing
were available, while wealthier alehouses would have been permanent
drinking
establishments. The quantity of ale brewed as well as its quality
undoubtedly
varied enormously among alehouses. The basic procedure was to use
barley
(though wheat, oats, and millet were also tried) which was stepped in
water
until germination took place. The germinated seeds were then dried,
ground,
and infused in water to await fermentation. Various spices, like
long-peppers,
might be added for taste and as preservatives. The resulting ale was
apparently
rather like a thick soup, even chewy if the grinding stage had been
lazily
done, and the taste can hardly have been deeply satisfying. Ale could
not
be effectively preserved, and had to be consumed within a few days of
brewing.
Wine, too, was difficult to keep for any length of time until it began
to be bottled in the sixteenth century. Dreams of substantial brewings
of ale at considerable intervals to supply a wide geographical area
were
beyond the possible.
Ale was so commonplace in
society that the king attempted to impose
some standards on the trade through the Assize of Ale in 1266. Communal
drinking was a common feature of social life, and perhaps should even
be
considered an essential part of some of the rituals that held society
together.
The institutions of the church-ale, brewed to help meet parish
expenses,
and the bride-ale, used to benefit a newly married couple, are two
examples.
Another common sort of charity ale was the was the bid-ale or help-ale,
where ale would be brewed and friendly folk would gather round to
drink,
contributing the money collected from selling the ale to a worthy
cause.
It was a communal drinking session to raise funds, often to help
friends
and neighbours through a crisis time, without compromising the dignity
of the recipient. It was also an opportunity to socialize, and
contributed
to the social solidarity of the participants. Bid-ales seem for the
most
part to have been informal, held at times of the year when pleasant
weather
could be expected. The beneficiary, a respected and usually popular
person,
would actively participate in putting on the event, and people were
expected
to be generous. Charity ales existed in many parts of England as a
convivial
way to raise money for a cause. For instance, the qual called the Cobb,
vital to the prosperity of Lyme Regis, was maintained by annual
infusions
of cash through the Cobb Ale.
Ale was the most common alcoholic beverage available to the lesser economic orders of society, but in some regions cider, mead, and piment were to be found. Various kinds of wine when augmented with honey and spices were known as piment, apparently from the word for apothecaries, pigmentarii, as it was they who had originally prepared the concoctions. Hippocras, spiced with cloves, ginger, cinnamon, nutmeg, and other spices as well as with honey, was a favourite piment, served as a rule at the conclusion of banquets with wafers and dessert. Pleasures and Pastimes in Medieval England. Compton Reeves. New York: Oxford University Press, 1998. |
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