Be glad you live in modern times.

[bpgreen]

To add to what mashani said, the monks would often fast during lent, abstaining from eating any food. They got all of their nutrition from beer. But the beer they made for that purpose was probably almost chewable. I remember reading about a guy who did this under a doctor's care within the last few years.

Now, we generally classify beers as ales or lagers based on the yeast strains used to ferment them. Long ago, the distinction was between ales and beers. Ales were brewed without the use of hops (I vaguely recall there was either a religious or political or maybe religious/political reason for this) and beers were brewed with hops. What they called ales in those days, we'd call gruits today.

Hops have some antimicrobial properties. So ale would spoil more quickly than beer, which was another reason to drink it sooner rather than later.

Beer, ale, wine, mead, etc were all much safer to drink in those days than water.

[mashani]

Long ago, the distinction was between ales and beers. Ales were brewed without the use of hops (I vaguely recall there was either a religious or political or maybe religious/political reason for this) and beers were brewed with hops. What they called ales in those days, we'd call gruits today.

In places like England, this became a "legal" issue at a point in time where the government/king actually legislated the difference, and then levied a tax on hops, so what amounted to a "Beer Tax". The commercial brewers paid it and kept brewing "Beers" which they sold to city "working folk" who had more money, but less time to make their own. The more poor folks out in the country rebelled and started to brew "real ales" again, IE Gruits, because they refused to pay the man to use hops. So it actually rekindled an old brewing tradition for a while. The concept of "real ale" goes back further then the current CAMRA concept of "real ale", it's just evolved over time to be more close to what we call beer, just more like it used to be (minimally processed, cask conditioned, gravity poured, etc.).

BTW many of the herbs used in gruits have anti-microbial properties too, but not necessarily against lacto. Lacto doesn't like alpha acids very much, so hops did help keep the lacto more at bay. YMMV depending on what gruit herbs were used. And herbs with those properties sometimes get toxic in large quantities, so there were limits to how much could be used without unintended side effects from consumption.

Or perhaps intended sometimes. IE some of the beer laws were also likely attempts to keep the still more paganey/heathen folk (who tended to live out in the country, which is where the term heathen comes from) from making their traditional beverages, which sometimes could become hallucinogenic if they used stuff like henbane or belladonna other similar herbs in it. That would be where the religious overtones got mixed in. And done wrong or consumed in too large a quantity and that stuff would probably kill you, so it wasn't good for sailors on a binge in a port city LOL.

[ScrewyBrewer]

I guess beer was sometimes fermented in open vats where all kinds of bugs and vermin had access to.Wild yeast spores everywhere.

In the Flanders region of Belgium the actual local wild things kind of formed a symbiotic relationship as such with the local brewers. Hot wort was literally put up into shallow open containers on rooftops to cool overnight, which let all sorts of wild things get into the mix, and all become part of what would end up as a blended Belgian sour one day.

As far as I know some people still do this. But Flanders is special, the local bugs make good beer. Someone tried this in my town. They didn't make good beer.

I've seen open fermenters in cobweb filled barns. And beer comes out of them too.

Reminds me of the original Anchor Steam beer brewed in San Francisco. And the brewery using square open rooftop fermenters and bay breezes to cool their wort. Their local bugs also produced delicious sourdough bread too. I guess location actually does matter when it comes to real estate and brewing beer.

[RandyG]

My Father used to tell stories about living as a teen during the Depression.He said that his Uncles who lived in the city would brew their own beer.He said he didn't know what ingredients they used,but said that they just tied a cloth over the top of a 5 gallon crock and left it outside for a week or so and then bottled it. He said he supposed they used baker's yeast,b/c they baked bread. He said that most times they had bottle-bombs. He lived on a farm so his Father had a small cider press and apple trees so it was GrandDads job to supply the Hard Cider. GrandDad also farmed tobacco and made his own chewing tobacco. Dad said on a Saturday evening his Uncles and their cronies would sit on GrandDads front porch,drink homebrew,Hard cider and chew tobacco and speak Pennsylvania Dutch. Man,aren't we all glad for progress? lol. Cheers.

[FedoraDave]

Reminds me of the original Anchor Steam beer brewed in San Francisco. And the brewery using square open rooftop fermenters and bay breezes to cool their wort. Their local bugs also produced delicious sourdough bread too. I guess location actually does matter when it comes to real estate and brewing beer.

So very true. International beers get their distinctive profiles not only from the yeast and hops, but from whatever local water source they use. Genuine Czech pilsners get their distinctive clarity and crispness from the nearly mineral-free water of the region. And Burton-On-Trent's water source is naturally filtered through the limestone of the region, creating "Burtonized" water that makes English brown ale the treat that it is.

While I'm not into engineering my water, many homebrewers do it; some for the challenge of getting closer to recreating the true style of the beer they're brewing, and some just because they're chemistry geeks, and that's where the fun in brewing lies for them.

It's all good, sez I.

[mashani]

My Father used to tell stories about living as a teen during the Depression.He said that his Uncles who lived in the city would brew their own beer.He said he didn't know what ingredients they used,but said that they just tied a cloth over the top of a 5 gallon crock and left it outside for a week or so and then bottled it. He said he supposed they used baker's yeast,b/c they baked bread. He said that most times they had bottle-bombs.

I know there was malt extract sold at grocery stores during Prohibition which overlapped with the Depression. It was sold as a nutritional supplement, or sweetener, or for use in "baking" or the like. Of course mix that with some "baking" yeast, and some water and throw it in a bucket with a towel covering it and...

voilà!

[Dawg LB Steve]

My Father used to tell stories about living as a teen during the Depression.He said that his Uncles who lived in the city would brew their own beer.He said he didn't know what ingredients they used,but said that they just tied a cloth over the top of a 5 gallon crock and left it outside for a week or so and then bottled it. He said he supposed they used baker's yeast,b/c they baked bread. He said that most times they had bottle-bombs.

I know there was malt extract sold at grocery stores during Prohibition which overlapped with the Depression. It was sold as a nutritional supplement, or sweetener, or for use in "baking" or the like. Of course mix that with some "baking" yeast, and some water and throw it in a bucket with a towel covering it and...

voilà!

One of our trips up to Wisconsin to see family we toured Minhas Brewery and I think this was the one that had like a little museum of sorts we went thru before the tour and the had these Malt Extract cans on display. If I remember correctly it said on the cans that you should NOT add yeast and water to the extract cause it may produce alcohol.

[bpgreen]

My Father used to tell stories about living as a teen during the Depression.He said that his Uncles who lived in the city would brew their own beer.He said he didn't know what ingredients they used,but said that they just tied a cloth over the top of a 5 gallon crock and left it outside for a week or so and then bottled it. He said he supposed they used baker's yeast,b/c they baked bread. He said that most times they had bottle-bombs.

I know there was malt extract sold at grocery stores during Prohibition which overlapped with the Depression. It was sold as a nutritional supplement, or sweetener, or for use in "baking" or the like. Of course mix that with some "baking" yeast, and some water and throw it in a bucket with a towel covering it and...

voilà!

The canned malt extract is how Pabst stayed in business during Prohibition. I think this particular brand was available in a handful of grocery stores until fairly recently. I think they now only sell products commercially and mostly for things like baking, etc. My LHBS sells Briess LME in bulk and they told me that some of their biggest customers are bakeries and restaurants.

[Dawg LB Steve]

Yep bpgreen, those were the cans on display!