Martinmas or St. Martin's

Yesterday was St Martin's day. This was significant to the population of England in times past more for the practise of slaughtering one of the family pigs.

Firstly this is when the pig would be at it's fattest after being fed on beech mast and bad fruit. Also the times of dearth are ahead and the family would not be able to feed too many mouths.

Every part of the pig would be used from it's blood to it's intestines. The meat would be salted down for winter consumption, the offal turned into sausages and the head into brawn.

There was not a mass slaughter of animals at this time of year just a reduction of livestock numbers to winter manageable numbers.

This would be carried out through the months of October through December. It was a practise that can be traced back to Saxon times.

December from a Medieval calendar

Ginger ale Update

This brew came out a bit mild.
Next time I do some ginger ale I think I will use more ginger and chop it really really finely.

Ginger Ale / Beer

Whilst making my ale I took the opportunity to syphon off some wort. I added my wild yeast (Alfred) to this liquid and left it to do it's thing.

It took a couple of days to do much but when it did it was lively and very active. It was still happy this morning so I decided to make some ginger ale.

It is at least a year since I have made any but it is a deceptively simple process, with astonishing results.

Firstly peel then grate or chop a couple of ounces of ginger. I find taking the skin off makes a better flavour.

Dissolve 2-3 ounces of sugar in about 2-3 litres of tap water over a slow heat. Do not heat over 40-50 degrees Centigrade.

You can add the ginger any time in this process until this point.

Leave the gingery mixture to steep for an hour or two.

Sterilise your bottles, strainer and funnel.

Cool the liquor to ambient temperature.

When you are ready add your prepared yeast  to the bottles then strain the gingery mixture into this too. Shake and stir! Then seal the bottles loosely and keep it thus for two days.

Then refrigerate it. It will keep for up to two weeks.

Good Luck and enjoy!!

Medieval Ale.

This weekend I had a go at brewing some medieval style ale. This is a far more rustic affair than we are used to!

 

There are no hops in this one. I have never made an ale before and have been desperate to give it a go. Technically an ale is a malt brew without hops (Just malt, water and yeast) and beer is brewed with hops added. Hops adds that lovely bitter flavour as well as helping in the beer's preservation. Hops were not commonly used here until the 17th century.

 

I started with just a two litre batch to get back into brewing again.

 

First heat the water to 75-80 degrees approx. Then add your malt. Let it cool to about 66-68 degrees. Then cover the pot with lots of towels. Pegs may help here.

 

I used a dark roasted malt as that is what I had left. I added some pale malt too.

 

After an hour or two strain the liquid from the malt/grist. I used a linen cloth. Then I re heated the liquid to above 80 degrees, this stops conversion of the sugars and also sterilises the solution. This then has to be cooled very quickly. In days gone by this would be strained into coolers or keelers. I used a wort chiller. (available at a good price from Viking Brewing Equipment on ebay).

 

This was my first use of an immersion wort chiller. It is very fast on small amounts! it took less than 15 minutes.

 

When the liquid is about 20-25 degrees I took a small amount of the wort and mixed it with the yeast. This I then added to the bottle.

I then strained the wort through another linen cloth into the old 2 litre pop bottle.

The I gave it a good shake after putting the lid on the bottle.

 

It will go off very quickly so we started drinking it yesterday night. It tastes like bland beer but a little sweeter. Not as rounded and full bodied but it grows on you. Also it is very cloudy. 

 

It looked inert in the bottle but it was extremely lively when I opened it. But it does taste flat once poured.

 

Everything the ale, wort and yeast touches must be sterilised first. This is the most boring part of the process but very necessary.

 

Because this has to be used quickly I have used some more in my bread today. Not as a leavening agent but as the liquid instead of water.

 

This I hope will be my lunch tomorrow along with a nice lump of cheese when I start at another museum!