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!