18th Century Brewing Instructions

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jwalk4

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While I was taking a break from my studies today I wound up perusing the Perdita Manuscripts site at my school's library and I came across a 18th century cookbook that explained how to brew ale. So I screen captured it (sorry about the poor quality) for you guys to see. After reading through it, I'm sure you'll agree, that you'll never complain about the poor instructions on your beer kits again!

The most accurate date of the book was between 1700-1775.



 
It takes some practice, and it would be easier if the page scans were clearer. Mostly though, the cook book lacks punctuation and uses old spelling.

Somethings haven't changed though, you can tell that recipe calls for some type of sparging since the author calls for "first and second worts". I laughed at some of the ingredients too, "two pounds of raysons", "let it boyle for five howres", "three pints of good 'ist' (Yeast?)"
 
That's pretty cool. Thanks for posting this. If you're able to read it would you be willing to repost the recipe?
 
I've had to decipher a lot of hand writing working for fil's printing company,but this is a whole new level of wtf?...
 
Wow, I'm glad you guys liked the post. I could try and decipher it as best I can if you're interested in reading it, but I won't be able to give it the attention that it deserves for another few weeks or so. I am also worried that even if I did come up with what the recipe says it might not be what you're expecting. In fact, the cook book may not even culminate in what we think of as a "recipe".

My reasons for thinking this are simple. For one, the cookbook appears to use old and inaccurate measurement methods. Just for one instance, the first line of the book appears to call for a "bushel(s) of malt", I googled how many pounds are in a bushel of barley and came up with "48 pounds in a bushel". 48 pounds! And I'm not even sure how much volume of beer a recipe like this would even yield. Therefore you may not be able to recreate the recipe for functionality reasons.

There also does not appear to be any mention of hops in the recipe, which isn’t surprising. Hops only became available to professional brewers in the 1600’s as trading with the Flemish (Belgian / Dutch) increased. The recipe in the cook book posted is not from a professional brewer (the recipe on the previous page is for frying oysters), rather the cookbook appears to come from someone’s home. While old homebrew recipes are cool, it is reported that they usually had very inconsistent results and this beer might taste like some kind of unhopped raison malt liquor (Aka: pretty poor).

So, while I will still try to translate the cookbook for those of you still interested, it will take a few weeks before I can get to it. Lastly, as a caveat to all those hoping to recreate the recipe, you may find that the recipe is not recreate-able for functional reasons and would probably taste pretty ****ty. So if I haven’t disinterested you guys already, I ask for some patience until I am able to give the cookbook my full attention. I currently have a full course load, master’s applications and papers to write, and a part time job. Other than that, I’m glad you guys have enjoyed the post!

Cheers.
 
Subscribed... Thanks again. I.understand your time constraints... I am enrolled in 8 hours at the University, Work a full time job that is about 50 hours per week, have a young family (wife, 2 kids aged 5 and 2.5 years old, cat, dog, etc), and still manage to brew every other week or so.
~Cheers and again, thank you for going through it in you're "free time" as that is valuable tims
 
First and second runnings is probably batch sparging, which is more typical in Britain.
 
It's def going to take some brain work to scale it down once all the words can be understood. I'll have to look through it when he gets time to do it. It has to give water amounts & the like somewhere.
 
This is excellent stuff!

I read a bit of this one: http://books.google.com/books/about/A_Treatise_on_Brewing.html?id=u1FHAAAAYAAJ

It was really cool. The author made excellent notes on each brew day- what time they fired up the tun, ambient temps, etc. Here's a bit of an excerpt:

Notes from brewing Amber Ale, or Two-Penny, January 1793, London. From "A Treatise on Brewing" by Alexander Morrice:

THIS Beer is both pleasant and wholesome and is in as great Request as Porter during the Winter when it is drank warm. It is unquestionably the most profitable of any Malt Liquor as it is sent out to the Customers within a Week from the Time of brewing and usually consumed within
the following one.

Commenced brewing at five o Clock in the Morning.
Thermometer 32 Degrees.

Kinds of Malt
2 1/2 qtrs. West Country Pale
12 1/2 qtrs. Herts Pale
10 qtrs Herts Amber

Cwt Qtrs lbs
Hops 1 0 0
Leghorn Juice 0 0 20
Molosses 0 0 30
Grains of Paradise ground 0 0 4

Charged the Copper fifty Barrels and three Gallons. The first Liquor was all turned over at 169 Degrees. Mash one Hour set Tap at seven o Clock Tap 146 Degrees. Gravity twenty six Pounds 6/10 per Barrel.

Second Copper charged thirty two Barrels and seven Gallons. Turned all the Liquor down at 170 Degrees. Mash Half an Hour. let Tap at eleven o Clock Tap 1 52 Degrees. Gravity eleven Pounds per Barrel.

First Wort in the Copper fifty one Barrels and two Gallons boiled three Quarters of an Hour and came out forty seven Barrels two Firkins and five Gallons.

Charged the Copper for the third Liquor fifty nine Barrels and one Gallon. turned all down upon the Goods at 160 Degrees mashed twenty Minutes Tap 146 Degrees. Gravity six Pounds per Barrel.

Second Wort came into the Copper forty seven Barrels two Firkins and five Gallons. Boiled hard one Hour and came out forty two Barrels and one Gallon Pitched the tun at 64 Degrees. Came into the Square eighty one Barrels one Firkin and seven Gallons Cleansed on the Evening of the third Day using at the Time four Pounds of ground Ginger Half a Pound of Bay Salt and a Quartern of Flour. Cleanse with the Sweets on.





And here's my best effort at a practical modern recipe. I'm sure it could use (much) improvement...

BeerSmith 2 Recipe Printout
Recipe: Untested 1793 London Twopenny ESB
Style: Extra Special/Strong Bitter (English Pale Ale)
TYPE: All Grain

Recipe Specifications
--------------------------
Boil Size: 6.12 gal
Post Boil Volume: 5.62 gal
Batch Size (fermenter): 5.25 gal
Bottling Volume: 5.15 gal
Estimated OG: 1.057 SG
Estimated Color: 13.4 SRM
Estimated IBU: 43.6 IBUs
Brewhouse Efficiency: 72.00 %
Boil Time: 60 Minutes

Ingredients:
------------
Amt Name Type # %/IBU
6 lbs Pale Malt, Maris Otter (3.0 SRM) Grain 1 53.1 %
4 lbs Amber Malt (22.0 SRM) Grain 2 35.4 %
1 lbs Pale Malt (2 Row) US (2.0 SRM) Grain 3 8.8 %
4.9 oz Molasses (80.0 SRM) Sugar 4 2.7 %
2.00 oz Goldings, East Kent [5.00 %] - Boil 60.0 Hop 5 34.9 IBUs
1.00 oz Goldings, East Kent [5.00 %] - Boil 15.0 Hop 6 8.7 IBUs
1.00 oz Liquorice Juice Block (Leghorn) (Boil 10 Spice 7 -
0.50 oz Seeds of Paradise (Boil 10.0 mins) Spice 8 -
1.0 pkg London Ale (White Labs #WLP013) [35.49 m Yeast 9 -
0.50 oz Ginger Root (Primary 7.0 days) Herb 10 -
0.06 oz Salt (Primary) Water Agent 11 -
 
It's def going to take some brain work to scale it down once all the words can be understood. I'll have to look through it when he gets time to do it. It has to give water amounts & the like somewhere.

I thought these recipes would have water amounts and the like as well. But it seems that they just assume that you have the right ingredients in the right proportions already... Take this other cookbook for making mead for example, its easier to read. This book is dated 1697 and is held in the Folger Shakespeare Library in Washington DC.



Apparently they didn't much care for proportions.
 
The last line looks like it says "ten gallons of water is a good quantity". But that's the prpblem with really old cookbooks. The recipes were more of a reminder of what was in it. You were supposed to know how much of what as a good cook or brewer. I hate that part,it's really frustrating.
 
Interesting that ale became beer when you boiled it to add hops. Ale could be no more than 4 days fermented when ready to drink. Wow,that had to be borderline nastie. Not to mention the waste of a lot more grain than our modern processes use. Just mash,cool,add yeast culture,& ferment 4 days. It was thought to be alive,beer was dead. How bout that??:drunk:
 
Agreed!
Also, for the record, "Ale, Beer, and Brewsters in England" is a good book, with good information about medieval brewing culture, but it is very much written from a feminist perspective. I would still recommend though if any one is curious.
 

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