Flash! I just stumbled across an article which had a Northern California brewery making ale with 45 million year old yeast. The taste was apparently unique, not like anything you get in the way of beer or ale today. So I wonder? Did ale in Anglo-Saxon times, taste more like this brew, or was it unique in its own way? Not that they necessarily used 45 million year old yeast; they wouldn't have been able to conceptualize anything that old. But who knows?
Anne G
Jim and I brewed up a batch of Saxon ale one year. No hops.. they didn't flavor ale with hops but instead with bog myrtle or other flavorings. We used heather, which turns out to be a mild hallucinogen. To put it boldly, the ale sucked fiercely. Hops just seem to be what makes beer and ale beer and ale.
ReplyDeleteBy the way, Jim is doing a presentation on home brewing on Wednesday, August 18 at 9 PM Eastern/6 PM Pacific in the "Classroom" at http://www.accessibleworld.org - all are welcome! You can ask questions either via a microphone or just type them in in the text chat area. You can ask him about Saxon ale.
I think I will go ahead and repost the Bllue Lady Tabvvern article about brewing ale.
Nan
Nan:
ReplyDeleteI didn't catch this until today but I will try to remember to go to the website you mentioned at the time you mentioned. One of the characters in my Great Medieval Science Fiction Masterpiece brews ale. I knew they didn't use hops(that we know of) in AS times, though I did at one time, play around with the idea of having the lead female character(the "science fiction" one) sort of discover hops, which grow all over the place, and teach people how to make "real" beer. It didn't fit into what I ended up writing, so it kind of dropped by the wayside, along with some other stuff.
This is a brief information but it's so good everything is very concise, everything was really clear even though it was a few information.
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