The History of Beer III – Medieval Europe 1: Production
The importance of beer in medieval Europe cannot be overstated. Beer was indispensable, central to the medieval experience and worldview. So widespread was its consumption, that any changes to its availability, production, or quality could have deep social and economic consequences.
During the initial days of medieval Europe (c. 400 – 900 CE), brewing was still a domestic affair, often undertake by women for the use of their own families with only any excess being sold, but by the 7th and 8th centuries this was beginning to change, the monks were getting involved. At first, they served their communities, but as the significance of their production and sales increased, so did their reach.
Towns and cities began to grow around 1000 CE, and with this growth came a shift towards commercial brewing. With people now living in close proximity to one another, there simply wasn’t enough space to allow for domestic brewing, giving rise to a demand for professional brewers. These brewers produced not just for local consumption, but increasingly for trade. The movement from domestic, to monastic, and ultimately to commercial brewing reflected the trend for urbanization and the development of the market economy. The late Sir Terry Pratchett wrote “Discworld is a world and a mirror of worlds”1 , and beer was a driver of economic change and a reflection of economic change. Boosted by the use of hops and enhanced production techniques and technology, it would not be unfair to think of beer as an early protagonist in the story of capitalism.
Humulus lupulus
Hops are green, conical flowers. OK, that’s enough about hops. No? Ok then. Each cone contains tiny yellow glands called lupulin which have a distinctive bitterness an aroma. In beer they are used as both a preservative, and as a flavouring where they help to balance out the sweetness of malt.
Whilst some monastic breweries had started to use hops sporadically, and as we previously saw, and other groups had used them for centuries, it wasn’t until the 12th or 13th century that the impact of hops on beer really began to be felt. Northern German towns, and Bremen in particular, are credited with mastering the use of hops, and it was from here that their influence spread across Europe.
The revolution in beer production and trade brought about by the use of hops was truly astonishing. Beer was now a commodity suitable for long-distance trade, not just local sales, and breweries became major centres for export economies. As the use of hops required upgrades to the brewing process, the quality of hopped beers increased, and they spread from North Germany as local brewers adopted the same techniques to remain competitive with imported beers. Of course, not every brewer was keen to adopt the new technology. In England, herbed ales remained available for a considerable amount of time, with only the new-fangled hopped beverage being referred to as beer.
Fermentation, lager, and witchcraft empirical research
OK, before we begin, I just want to be clear that nothing I have read implies that people believed that fermentation, or any other part of the brewing process was witchcraft. Despite the presence of bubbling liquids with magical properties being mixed in cauldrons by women, and a lack of a scientific understanding of microbiology and zymology, it seems that people were quite happy to accept it as something that just happened. That is not to say that they weren’t interested in the process, they studied it to improve it, often by trial and error and by doing so they learnt that they could improve consistency by collecting samples of successful batches and adding them to subsequent brews.
Does this mean that you could improves the quality of your homebrew by adding a splash of better beer to it? As someone who has been forced to taste homebrewed efforts, they certainly need the help, but sadly the answer is no. During this period, the main method of brewing was top fermentation. In this process, the wild yeasts (Saccharomyces cerevisiae for the most part) used rise to the surface and form a thick layer of barm, and it is from this layer that samples need to be taken. If you think back to your failed pandemic sourdough starters, you might see some interesting parallels, especially if you were ever gifted a sample of someone else’s starter. But then something changed, the Germans pioneered a new technique, and a new style of beer…
Lager, lager, lager…
Whatever your thoughts are about lager, there can be no doubt that it has become the preeminent style of beer. To understand why, we need to look at the process of making lager and the level of control that that process grants.
As noted above, for most of the medieval period, beer was top fermented, a process that requires warm temperatures (15-24°C), however during the 15th century, German brewers started to experiment with bottom fermentation. This process uses different yeast strains, for example Saccharomyces pastorianus, which are active at around 7-13°C and settle at the bottom of the fermenting vessel. Beers that are produced in this way are aged or “lagered” (from the German word lagern, meaning to store) in cool cellars for extended periods. And the result? Lager! Clearer, milder, and more stable than prior beers, lager was set to take on the world.
Consistency
Although there were continuous improvements in the consistency and quality of beer during the medieval ages, thanks in no small part to the cleanliness and resources of large-scale monastic breweries, German experimentation with the use of different yeast strains and hops, and the economic rewards of producing better beer, too much still relied on trial-and-error. The lack of scientific understanding of the factors at play, as well as the difficulties of accurately controlling the process made the learning curve long and slow. Taming the beast that is fermentation was a huge challenge, but this period laid the foundations for more scientifically informed brewing in the centuries to come.
And what of “terroir”? Well, as we know, despite the push for consistency, the characteristics of locally sourced ingredients, and local yeast strains, ensured that regional beer styles were here to stay, or at least they were for now…
- Pratchett, T. (1998). The Last Continent ↩︎
