Richard's Markham's Ordinary Ale
From EastKingdomWiki
| Full Recipe Name | ||||||
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| Ordinary Ale | ||||||
| Recipe Source | ||||||
| The English Housewife | ||||||
| Brewer | ||||||
| Richard Heyworth | ||||||
| Panel Information | ||||||
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| Beverage Information | ||||||
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Brewing Details
- Brewer: Richard Heyworth
- Recipe Source: The English Housewife (1623)
Original Recipe
...and it is held that to draw from one quarter of good malt three hogsheads of beer is the best ordinary proportion that can be allowed, and having age and good cask to lie in, it will be strong enough for any goodman’s drinking.Now for the brewing of ordinary beer, your malt being well ground and put in your mash vat, and your liquor in your lead ready to boil, you shall then by little and little with scoops or pails put the boiling liquor to the malt, and then stir it even to the bottom exceedingly well together...cover all over with more malt. . . and so let it stand an hour and more in the mash vat. . .This done. . . let the first liquor run gently from the malt, either in a clean trough or other vessels prepared for the purpose, and then stopping the mash vat again, put the second liquor to the malt and stir it well together; then your lead being emptied put your first liquor or wort therein, and then to every quarter of malt put a pound and a half of the best hops you can get, and boil them an hour together. . . then let your wort drop or run gently into the dish with the barm which stands in the gyle vat; and. . . tun it up into the hogsheads being clean washed and scalded...when it hath purged a day and a night, you shall close up the bung holes with clay, and only for a day or two after keep a vent-hole in it, and after close it up as close as may be.
Redaction
A quarter of malt (8 bushels) is ground and put into a mash vat. Water is heated to nearly a boil, and added slowly and gradually to a portion of the malt, stirring to mingle the grains. After, the rest of the malt is added on top. The mash steeps for an hour, is run out of the tun, and is boiled with 1.5 pounds of hops for an hour. The boiled liquor is mixed with yeast (“barm”) in a fermenter (“gyle vat”), allowed to rise, and then tunned into vessels (three hogsheads) to ferment. After the initial vigorous fermentation, the vessels are stopped up.
Ingredients
- 4 quarts Maris Otter pale ale malt
- 1 quart Crystal 20 malt
- 4.75 gallons Woburn, MA tap water
- 0.5 oz whole-leaf East Kent Golding hops
- 2 packets Nottingham Ale Yeast
- 1 oz oak chips
Process and Notes
- Crush grain, add ½ to strainer bag in Igloo cooler mash tun
- Heat water to ~160 F
- Add water gradually using 1 quart Pyrex measuring cup
- Stir using long-handled wooden spoon
- Add rest of the grain on top, stir more
- Let steep for 1 hour
- Drain into stainless steel kettle, boil with hops for 1 hour
- Cool, pour into glass carboy, sprinkle dry yeast on top
- Add 1 oz oak chips
- Ferment for 3 weeks; rack, prime, bottle
Serving Container
I served this ale in a Tudor-style bombard pitcher. This is a leather tankard that would hold 2-4 pints of beer and would be used at an Ale House when beer would be brought up from the cellar to drink. Some would have a metal rivet driven into the side that would indicate where “1 pint” was, so you could pour from the pitcher until you reached that point. Historically, leather bombards were lined with either boiled Resin of the birch tree, Brewer’s Pitch, or Beeswax. This leather bombard (that I purchased from a company called Hidebound) uses an epoxy resin to (as they say) “echo the historic use of resin whilst having the visual appearance of Brewer’s pitch.”
Notes
This was my first-ever beer I've brewed, and I followed the recipe and redaction created by Magnús hvalmagi
References
- The English Hous-wife. 1623. Markham, Gervase. Page 112.
Panel Results
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- Final Score: 67