I forwarded some of the postings on
this thread to some friends of mine in the Society for Creative
Anachronism...Thought some of them might have more information on
medieval/Roman drinking habits. Here's what I got back. Hope it
will help somebody. :)
Regards,
Leslie King
In a message dated 4/15/01 9:43:39 PM US Eastern
Standard Time,
[log in to unmask]
writes:
>> One possible exception to this is the ale
of
>> >>medieval
>> >>>England, which could
have been quite weak in comparison to modern
>beer
>>
>>and
>> >>>beer from the seventeenth century. The main
reason why I think that
>the
>> >>>brew was not piss
weak is the widespread reports of drunkenness.
>>
>>>
>> >>>
Ok
all!,
this is what I know about
beer in the middle ages. There is two or
more types of basic beer. There was
beer that was brewed on a daily basis
for
consumption with in a day or
two. This is where we get the term 'Alewife"
these were woman that did
the brewing. Ale like this would have a very low
alcohol content. It was the
drink of choice for all members of the family.
just enough alcohol to kill
the bad stuff in the local water.
The
second would have brewed for longer and had been mostly for the
rich or made
by merchants as they had space to waste on the barrels. I
would
suggest
that this would have a much higher alcohol content.
Beer than was more like
food. The grains would/might have been free
floating
and a high calorie
drink. I have seen period glass wear with tangs in the
glass to stir the
grain in the beer.
As to Romans drinking. There was the
general social view that to drink
straight wine was uncouth. it was diluted
10 to one for a proper drink.
However remember it was often of a very poor
quality compared to modern
wine.
That did not mean it prevented anyone
from abuseing it.
Aminah