Diego Velázquez -The Three Musicians Weak Ale

Weak Ale

For 2 1/2 gallons of ale:

Ingredients:

4 2/3 lbs., Hugh Baird brand English Pale malt 1 1/2 lbs., oats (rolled) 13 qts., water 1 pkt, Danstar brand Nottingham ale yeast 1 pkt, Danstar brand Windsor ale yeast results as of batch 4 (Dec. 3 1998) indicate that this is the best yeast mix after all. 1/4 oz., Light Oak chips

I would leave this out for future batches - see below about Oak Sanitize an insulated tun (I used my 10-gal. Gott mash-lauter tun), and a fermentation vessel (a 4-gal. food-grade plastic bucket with lid). Also sanitize a strainer if needed to separate liquid from grain.

Boil water. Crush the malt, then mix it well, while still dry, with the oats.

Open up the insulated tun and place it on the floor near the stove (where the boiling water is). Pour 2 quarts of water into the tun from a reasonable height, moderately slowly. (The idea here is to let the water release some heat in water vapor while pouring -- see the techniques section below under mashing.)

Pour all the dry grain into the lauter tun.

Slowly pour 3 more quarts of boiling water over the grain. Don't stir. Put the cover on the tun and let it stand for 10 mins. Then add 1 more quart of boiling water. At this point, there should be a very small amount of visible liquid. Put the lid back on and wait 20 more mins.

Now take the lid off and stir it all up. It should be about the consistency of fairly thick porridge. Put the lid back on and do something else for a while -- at least an hour and a half. (I went out for a beer with some friends for 3 1/2 hours.)

Open up the tun and stir in 3 more quarts of boiling water, and stir. Close up again and wait 25 more mins.

Finally, add remaining boiling water (4 quarts -- don't worry about pouring it in from a height). Stir well.

Set up the sanitized fermenter. Open the mash tun valve (or otherwise start straining out the wort, that is the liquid part, from the grain. (Unlike modern methods, I did not recirculate the liquid in any way.) The first gallon should go quickly; straining the last gallon should be done somewhat more slowly in order to get most of the liquid out.

Close the fermenter and let the wort cool overnight.

Rehydrate both packages of yeast according to the package instructions (being careful to use water that has been boiled and cooled, and a glass that has been sanitized in some way). Pitch the yeast into the wort, and shake, stir, and otherwise agitate the wort in order to aerate it.

Let the ale ferment for a day; the yeast should have started, and activity should be well under way. Boil the oak chips in approx. 1 cup water. When the water is the color of a cup of tea, take off heat and allow to cool some. Pour off water, then add approx. 1/2 cup of water back into chips. Raise this to a boil again, then allow to cool; it should be just barely darker in color than normal water. Add this oak-water to the wort.

Let the ale ferment for a couple more days. Draw off and serve.

Observations on the product, Sep. 26, 1998

The ale was first served when still young (i.e. not done fermenting). Surprisingly, and counter to the conjectures of some historians, this ale was not sweet. Much of this lack of sweetness could be explained by the ale being (deliberately) weak.

It tasted somewhat like "liquid bread" -- much more so than more modern beer. It also had a fair amount of tannic taste; much more than could be explain by the addition of oak. I suspect this was mostly due to the final addition of boiling water just before straining out the liquor. This would tend to have the effect of extracting tannins from the hulls of the barley.

It was presented on a fairly hot day; several people commented on how refreshing such a drink could be in such conditions. It also seemed to have a fairly low alcohol content, though since I did not do a specific gravity measurement on it, I could not say what the true strength of the ale was.

#medieval #drankies #ale