The virtues of Saxon ale have already been commemorated, at pp.
66-68. We return to the subject, at a later period.
"It may be remarked," says Mr. Hudson Turner, "that in the thirteenth
century the English had no certain principle as to the grain best suited
for brewing. A roll of household expenses of the Countess of Leicester
shows that Beer was made indiscriminately of barley, wheat, and oats,
and sometimes of a mixture of all. As the Hop was not used we may
conjecture that the produce of their brewing was rather insipid, and not
calculated for long keeping: it was drunk as soon as made. To remove the
mawkish flatness of such beer it was customary to flavour it with spices
and other strong ingredients: long pepper continued to be used for this
purpose some time after the introduction of hops. The period at which
the last-named plant became an ingredient of English beer is not
precisely known. It was cultivated from a very early date in Flanders
and Belgium, where it was both employed in brewing, and eaten in salads;
and from those countries it was imported into England while the produce
of our own hop-grounds was inconsiderable. It would appear, however,
that Hops were used in this country for brewing, in the beginning of the
fifteenth century, as Gilbert Kymer, in his _Dietary_, pronounces beer
brewed from barley, and well hopped, also of middling strength, thin and
clear, well fined, well boiled, and neither too new or too old, to be a
sound and wholesome beverage. It is pretty certain, nevertheless, that
in his time the hop was not _grown_ in England. In ancient days brewing
was almost solely managed by women, and till the close of the fifteenth
century the greater part of the beer-houses in London were kept by
females who brewed what they sold."
Ale, the favourite drink of our Saxon forefathers, has been described as
a thick, sweet, _unhopped_ liquor, and as such distinguished from our
modern _hopped_ "beer." Gerard says: "The manifold virtues in hops do
manifestly argue the wholesomeness of _beer_ above _ale_;" and
conjectures that the origin of this distinction may be due to the use
of the word beer in the Low Countries, from which hops were introduced.
It would appear, however, that beer was known in this country, and
specified as such, before the use of hops; which were not imported till
1524, other bitters having supplied their place.