Читать книгу The Curiosities of Ale & Beer - John Bickerdyke - Страница 7

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“Bere is made of malte, of hoppes, and water; it is the naturall drynke for a Dutche man, and nowe of late dayes it is moche vsed in Englande to the detryment of many Englysshe people; specyally it kylleth them the which be troubled with the colycke, and the stone, and the strangulion; for the drynke is a colde drynke; yet it doth make a man fat, and doth inflate the bely, as it doth appere by the Dutche men’s faces and belyes. If the bere be well serued, and be fyned, and not new, it doth qualyfy heat of the liquer.”

The distinction between ale and beer as described by Boorde lasted for a hundred years or more. As hops came into general use, though malt liquors generally were now beer, the word ale was still retained, and was used whether the liquor it was intended to designate was {7} hopped or not. At the present day beer is the generic word, which includes all malt liquors; while the word ale includes all but the black or brown beers—porter and stout. The meanings of the words are, however, subject to local variations. This subject is further treated of in Chapter VII.

The union of hops and malt is amusingly described in one of the Brasenose College alepoems:—

A Grand Cross of “Malta,” one night at a ball, Fell in love with and married “Hoppetta the Tall.” Hoppetta, the bitterest, best of her sex, By whom he had issue—the first, “Double X.”

Three others were born by this marriage—“a girl,” Transparent as Amber and precious as Pearl. Then a son, twice as strong as a Porter or Scout, And another as “Spruce” as his brother was “Stout.”

Double X, like his Sister, is brilliant and clear, Like his Mother, tho’ bitter, by no means severe: Like his Father, not small, and resembling each brother, Joins the spirit of one to the strength of the other.

In John Taylor’s time there seems to have existed among ale drinkers a wholesome prejudice against wine in general, and more especially sack. The water poet writes very bitterly on the subject:—

Thus Bacchus is ador’d and deified, And we Hispanialized and Frenchifide; Whilst Noble Native Ale and Beere’s hard fate Are like old Almanacks, quite out of date.

Thus men consume their credits and their wealths, And swallow Sicknesses in drinking healths, Untill the Fury of the spritefull Grape Mountes to the braine, and makes a man an Ape.

Another poet wrote in much the same strain:—

Thy wanton grapes we do detest: Here’s richer juice from Barley press’d. Oh let them come and taste this beer And water henceforth they’ll forswear.

Our ancestors seem, indeed, almost to have revered good malt liquor. Richard Atkinson gave the following excellent advice to Leonard Lord Dacre in the year 1570: “See that ye keep a noble house for beef and beer, that thereof may be praise given to God and to your honour.”