November 17, 2017

1600's Derbyshire Ale

Continuing the research efforts into the ale brewed in Derby, which was apparently quite popular at the time (what with having only around 700 houses, but 120 ale houses and 76 malt houses).

"So, it’s pretty clear that well before coke, Derby malt was a thing and a desired thing. Moved by massive pack horse trains, by water as discussed in the first post or by subterfuge as the Pickfords of Macclesfield illustrate. Folks wanted their hands on it."
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More Seto

Lars' further exploration of Seto culture and their koduõlu ale, which they sampled at a local restaurant.
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Heather

A look into the use of Heather in antiquity!
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"There are certainly more ancient references to heather in Greek and Latin than its adjunct-y friend, meadowsweet. Prior to the first c. BCE, the authors only describe heather as a plant that is worth cutting and lighting on fire. Later, Pliny likens heather to myrica – the name for the family of plants that includes another famous gruit herb, bog myrtle."
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World of Brewing

Hints at a Brewing Museum in England around the 1980s. Dunno if it's heartwarming to know that promotion and the study of brewing history was occurring back in the 80s, or daunting because it closed down...

Beer Sparklers

A brief examination of the cask ale sparkler, a little device used to add foam to ales.

"The sparkler was referred to parenthetically in a 1949 brewing journal article by J.W. Scott, “From Cask to Consumer”. Initially I thought it was a post-1945 invention, or perhaps an expedient to make thin, wartime beer more attractive in the glass."

Beer in Adverts

Examining old newspapers shows the range of beers produced by three different breweries in the early 1900s.

"I was surprised to see that the two Faversham breweries produced both Table Ale and Table Beer. Table anything was pretty rare in England by this point. It had long been dropped by the big London brewers. The examples here must have been pretty low gravity as they're under 30s per barrel. At that price, they's have to be under 1040º."

Georgian Wine

As was hinted at last week, Dr. McGovern and crew provide evidence for wine making in Georgia from 8,000 years ago.
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