13th - 16th Century Grainbills by Town (reference)

[seymour]

I discovered a very cool reference chart I just had to share:

Quoted from Beer in the Middle Ages and the Renaissance by Richard W. Unger, p.160

TABLE 6. PROPORTIONS OF GRAINS FOR THE PRODUCTION OF BEER,
THIRTEENTH THROUGH SIXTEENTH CENTURY, IN PERCENTAGES

Town ......................Date.......Wheat.....Oats.......Barley
London.....................1286.......17..........66..........17
Nuremberg................1305.................................100
Ghent......................1300s......50.......................50
Lier (kuit).................1440.......43..........35..........22
Lier (hop)..................1440.......20..........60..........20
Brussels (wagebaard)....1447.......27..........46..........27
Hamburg...................1462.......10.......................90
Lille........................c.1500.....23..........45..........32
London.....................1502?......14..........14..........72*
Bavaria.....................1516................................100
Antwerp (kuit).............1518......73..........15..........12
Antwerp (klein)............1518......13..........47..........40
Lille.........................1546......12..........70..........18‡
Hannover...................1526......33.......................67†
Antwerp (kuit).............1536.......8...........49..........43
Antwerp (knol).............1536......18..........45...........37
Antwerp (half stuuyvers)..1536......18.........40...........42
Antwerp (cleyn bier).......1530s.....13.........47...........40
Antwerp (strong)...........1530s.....20.........40...........40
Lille..........................1546..................20...........80‡
Hamburg (Weissbier)......1500s.....10.......................90

Sources: Arnold, Chronicle (Customs of London), 247; Bing, Hamburgs Bierbrauerei, 254; Bracker, "Hopbier uit Hamburg," 29; Campbell et al., A Medieval Capital and Its Grain Supply, 205-6; DuPlessis, Lille and the Dutch Revolt, 124 n. 13; Lŏhdefink, Die Entwicklung der Brauergilde, 18; Maitland, Domesday Book and Beyond, 440; Peeters, "Introduction," in combined facsimile edition of Lis and Buys; Soly, "De Brouwerijenonderneming van Gilbert van Schoonbeke," 340-44; Uytven, "Haarlemmer hop," 345.

*Called "malte" by Arnold and presumably barley malt
†Said to be in the Hamburg style.
‡Temporary restrictions to meet grain shortages.

[far9410]

helluva lot of oats!

[jimp2003]

That is a very cool chart Seymour. Thanks for posting!

It would be interesting to do a small batch experiment with one of the high oat percentage brews just to see how they turn out. I guess hops would not feature in the really early ones...

[seymour]

helluva lot of oats!

Exactly. I think modern-day brewers have developed tunnel vision regarding their precious two-row barley. More food for thought from the same book, Beer in the Middle Ages and the Renaissance by Richard W. Unger, p.157

"Though beer could be made from literally any grain, the usual components were oats, wheat, rye, and barley. The combination of the four could be and was adjusted according to availability, price, season, and the desired results. By the late thirteenth century, the food grains the canons of St. Paul's Cathedral in London got from their manors were by volume 46 percent wheat, 46 percent oats, and 9 percent barley. Most of the wheat went to make bread and any left over, along with virtually all the oats and barley, was malted for making ale. Monks at Westminster Abbey, on the other hand, consumed by volume 31 percent wheat, 44 percent oats, 24 percent barley, and 2 percent dredge; the barley, dredge, and much of the oats went for brewing. Dredge was a mixture of barley and oats. In 1289 before Christmas, the household of an English bishop used wheat, oats, and barley together, but in the following March it was wheat and oats only. From 1412 to 1413 the household of an English noblewoman used equal parts of barley and dredge except in January and February when barley malt was the sole ingredient. Placotomus in 1549 called beer made with wheat "white beer" and that with barley "red beer." The latter, he claimed, did not remain sweet as long as the former. In 1588 Tabernaemontanus said any two- or three-part combination of wheat, spelt, rye, or oats was best but conceded that any one alone would be fine. The results from different parts of northern Europe for the Middle Ages and Renaissance show the consistency of diversity, of prominent roles for wheat and oats and the slow move toward barley. Rye did not disappear entirely. It was used more in the north and east and even survived in Estonia as a raw material for beer into the nineteenth century.

Another couple revelations from History of Beer and Brewing by Ian S. Hornsey, Chapter 5, The British Isles and Europe, Anglo-Saxon Britian, p. 244-245:

"…The percentage of early Saxon sites at which both bread wheat and barley are found is more than double that of wheat-only sites. The percentage of late Saxon sites at which bread wheat alone is found, declines by one half, but there are no sites of either period on which barley is found alone…One conclusion is that archeological evidence does not support the view that barley was the staple crop in Anglo-Saxon England, the balance suggesting larger quantities of wheat. However, Hagan records hulled, six-rowed barley in the highest percentages throughout the Saxon period…

Oats were quite widely grown in Anglo-Saxon England, being recorded from the late 8th century, and were almost certainly used for human consumption…for brewing, and Renfrew reports that in the Orkneys oats were added on special occasions to make beer more intoxicating…Overall, there is evidence that the frequency of cultivation of oats increased over the period of time that the Saxons ruled."

[seymour]

...It would be interesting to do a small batch experiment with one of the high oat percentage brews just to see how they turn out...

Nothing to fear but a sticky mash! I sometimes use rice hulls or the like to overcome that issue.

...I guess hops would not feature in the really early ones...

Maybe, maybe not. Read p. 313 and the section beginning on p. 768 in History of Beer and Brewing by Ian S. Hornsey

http://books.google.com/books?id=QqnvNs ... CDAQ6AEwAA#

The commonly-held belief that hopped Dutch beer first came to England in 1400 is almost certainly wrong. I'm not denying the historical differences between ale and beer, but more and more evidence keeps surfacing which proves hops definitely grew in England and were used to some degree even in English brewing much longer than previously thought.

The bottom line? If you wanna toss hops in your Dredge Ale, what the hell, go for it.

[jimp2003]

Would there be any benefit in using malted oats do you think or would good old porridge oats do the job?

With regard to a stuck mash I think that could be avoided using the BIAB technique...

I am starting to like the idea of this experiment...

[seymour]

Would there be any benefit in using malted oats do you think or would good old porridge oats do the job?...

Well, from what I've been reading, it sounds like brewers typically malted their own cereal grains, regardless of variety. So it's safe to assume it was probably all malted to some degree, albeit much less evenly and efficiently than nowadays.

I've personally malted corn to make chicha de jora, but not yet oats. I occasionally see oat malt for sale, but I've never spent the money. I always just use steel-cut/flaked/rolled/quick/porridge oats which are already sitting in my kitchen cabinet. Combined in the mash tun with modern-day malted barley, I've always found it converts extremely well.

Best of luck, please keep us posted!