ABOVE ALL

From the introduction to Country House Brewing in England 1500-1900:

To what extent, for example, was beer a staple drink at different times and for different classes of people? Did household beer retain its appeal longer for country households than others? Can we see in their accounts illustrations of the process by which beer-drinking moved away from being a staple to its more modern position as a luxury? Were drinking patterns episodic or daily? Were servants restricted to weak beer or were they allowed stronger drink? Were there other issues of gender or status which divided beer-drinkers? To what extent was the beer allowance system supervised? Who were the brewers? Were they male or female? What were the reasons for building private brewhouses? Were they provided by only the wealthiest country house owners? Why did they bother to make their own beer when they could have bought in their supplies? More technically, when did permantent built-in boilers become coommon? Or when did hand pumps begine to lighten heavy labour? Or lead-linings come to the 'aid' of hygiene? Today we accept almost without question a picture of brewing in the past as being a highly seasonal activity; is this accurate? Above all, how strong was the drink, how much did people drink -- and were they in a permanent alcoholic haze?

THE NUT-BROWN ALE

Cup found in the ruins of glastonbury abbey

The nut-brown ale, the nut-brown ale,
Puts down all drink when it is stale!
The toast, the nutmeg, and the ginger
Will make a sighing man a singer.
Ale gives a buffet in the head,
But ginger under-props the brain;
When ale would strike a strong man dead
Then nutmeg tempers it again.
The nut-brown ale, the nut-brown ale,
Puts down all drink when it is stale!

John Marston (1575?-1634)

OBJECTIONS TO BREWING SMALL BEER FROM THE HOPS AND MALT LEFT AFTER BREWING STRONG

Having occasion to dine at a large country inn, in a market town, I requested some small beer in preference to strong. Judge my surprise, when I was informed that there was none to be had, except a pale sort in butts, which, I was told, they sold at the same price as strong. Judge my surprise, when I was informed that there was none to be had, except a pale sort in butts, which I was told, they sold at the same price as strong. Of this, nevertheless, I called for a pint, but could not drink it, for I found it to have been brewed from the malt and hops left from the brewing of strong beer, and boiled with the latter, which had communicated such an unpleasant earthy taste to it, as well as an unwholesome quality, that I could not touch it.

Drink brewed in this manner, I am enabled to distinguish in the dark, if I only taste it, by the earthy, phlegmatic nature of the refuse grains and hops it is made from; for after the malt has been washed with several parcels of hot water, to make strong beer with, what can remain in the grains but much earth? for it is the floury spirituous parts of the malt that are first extracted. And another evil, not less pernicious, is that of adding the refuse hops, which often go through two or several violent boilings in strong beer wort, before the are used for small beer; and the what else remains in them but a rank, ill-tasted bitter, which when mixed in a great degree with such cloudy small-wort, is enough to turn one's stomach, instead of recruiting nature; and which according to the opinion of our eminent physicians, corrupts the blood, cloys the stomach, and brings on sickness.

W. Brande's cites an unnamed individual in his 1830 work The Town and Country Brewery Book, who makes some good points about the production of small beer. It would be good to hear a counter argument, but it's hard to imagine he is wrong, particularly about the reuse of hops.

THE GREATEST CALAMITY

The dark time between the 18th and 21st Amendments

They brewed for other countries as well as their own, and for the small beer they sent abroad, received large returns of Westphalia hams, neats' tongues, hung beef, and Bolonia sausages, red herrings, pickled sturgeons, caviare, anchovies, and everything that was proper to make their liquor go down with pleasure. Those who kept great stores of small beer by them without making use of it were generally envied, and at the same time very odious to the public, and nobody was easy that had not enough of it come to his own share. The greatest calamity they thought could befall them, was to keep their hops and barley upon their hands, and the more they yearly consume of them, the more they reckoned the country to flourish.

Continuing from Bernard De Mandeville's Parable of Small Beer.

MIDGET BREWERY

All the operations of a modern beer-making plant are carried out in a working model eight feet high and covering an area of less than five square feet, recently completed for Birmingham University, England. Call the world's smallest brewery, the miniature establishment will test hops, barley, and yeast, and carry out experiments in brewing research. The model consists of four independent units, capable of producing one gallon of beer apiece from each brew. Brewing conditions in any given plant may be simulated, and it is possible to duplicate any local variety of beer or ale.


From Popular Science Magazine, February 1936. No doubt we are still benefiting from the noble knowledge gleaned from this miniature establishment.

A CURIOUS SURVIVAL

A curious survival of an old-time institution exists in some remote places in England, viz., the official ale-taster. The ale-taster takes an oath to "try, taste, and assize the beer and ale put on sale" in his district "whether the same be wholesome for man's body." The old ale taster's method of "analyzing" beer for the purpose of detecting the addition of sugar to the liquor was rather primitive. Like most men in those times, he wore leather breeches, and, when he went to test the ale for the presence of sugar, a pint of fluid was spilt on a well-cleaned bench, and the taster sat upon it till it dried. if, on rising, the seat of the breeches stuck to the bench, then sugar was present, but if not the beer was pure.

From Popular Science Magazine, September 1879.

A PARABLE OF SMALL BEER

Beer cans forming garage gutter and downspout

In old heathen times there was, they say, a whimsical country, where the people talked much of religious, and the greatest part as to outward appearance seemed really devout: the chief moral evil among them was thirst, and to quench it a damnable sin; yet they unanimously agreed that every one was born thirsty more or less: small beer in moderation was allowed to all, and he was counted an hypocrite, a cynic, or a madman, who pretended that one could live altogether without it; yet, those who owned they loved it, and drank it to excess, were counted wicked. All this while the beer itself was reckoned a blessing from heaven, and there was no harm in the use of it: all the enormity lay in the abuse, the motive of the heart, that made them drink it. He that took the least drop of it to quench his thirst, committed a heinous crime, whilst others drank large quantities without any guilt, so they did it indifferently, and for no other reason than to mend their complexion.

From A Parable of Small Beer by Benard De Mandeville.