Ring O bells

[avtovaz]

I live in widnes, and at the end of the road to me is a pub called the ring ' O ' bells. Its a really old pub from 1600's and talking to the last landlord tommy, he was saying that the road down into widnes from teh pub, there used to be 20-30 houses selling home brewed ale etc. Thats really interesting i think.


DOes anyone have an idea of what could have been brewed? Can anyone tell me what i can do to make some beer from this time. I live in the area, so i recon what these people had to brew from will still be here.





This might be a bit over the forum s head but please any ideas?

[avtovaz]

just remembered tommy said that the brewing ingredience would go threw maybe 3 brews, the first for the adults and the third would be for children to drink. More of water purification purpose ofcause...

[mshergold]

It would likely have been hundreds of years ago when people would brew at home and sell to neighbours (they were deemed 'public' houses), but various changes in law put paid to it. Google 'history of public houses' or something similar. Wikipedia, although it has the potential to be wildly inaccurate, may throw up some source material. Similarly, a trip to your local county records office/reference library may help.

On the subject of making three beers from once batch of ingredients, search 'partigyle' on this forum. From what I understand, the saying 'small beer' comes from the time when water was deemed unsafe for drinking, so women and children drank a weak beer.

If you're interested in brewing old British beers, click here.

[avtovaz]

dont know really what im after brewing its just the same as what may be been sold here. I want to make a brew of some kinda asle so i cna say i have done it, and learn more, but it seems really daunting reading what people do here.


'partigyle' - ill check for that now.


thankyou mate for the reply

[mshergold]

Going to all grain or even extract is daunting, but once you've done a couple it does get easier.