tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5445569787371915337.post8573155525558390195..comments2024-03-29T05:24:30.793-07:00Comments on Shut up about Barclay Perkins: Real Brown StoutRon Pattinsonhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/03095189986589865751noreply@blogger.comBlogger5125tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5445569787371915337.post-72783659039539186382010-01-10T08:57:16.661-08:002010-01-10T08:57:16.661-08:00Martyn, thanks for that. Kennet ale seems also to...Martyn, thanks for that. Kennet ale seems also to have been associated with Wiltshire, as appears here:<br /><br />http://books.google.com/books?id=QXjRAAAAMAAJ&pg=PT504&dq=kennet+ale+%2B+wiltshire&cd=1#v=onepage&q=kennet%20ale%20%2B%20wiltshire&f=false<br /><br />I've found some other references as well to this effect.<br /><br />I think the river Kennet flows through both Wiltshire and Berkshire which may explain the differing associations.<br /><br />GaryGary Gillmannoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5445569787371915337.post-36318583991763975702010-01-10T06:55:20.279-08:002010-01-10T06:55:20.279-08:00Gary: Kennet ale = Reading ale, as this source, wh...Gary: Kennet ale = Reading ale, as <a href="http://books.google.com/books?id=0y1EAAAAYAAJ&pg=PA177&dq=%22Reading+ale%22&cd=1#v=onepage&q=%22Reading%20ale%22&f=false" rel="nofollow">this source</a>, which says "a great quantity of it is sent annually to the West-End", makes clear, while <a href="http://books.google.com/books?id=I2lHAAAAYAAJ&pg=PA8&dq=%22Reading+ale%22&cd=2#v=onepage&q=%22Reading%20ale%22&f=false" rel="nofollow">this site</a> says Reading Ale "is in high repute, and has been for years."Anonymousnoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5445569787371915337.post-49632420009623529932010-01-10T05:13:33.518-08:002010-01-10T05:13:33.518-08:00Zythophile's remarks convince me the KB must h...Zythophile's remarks convince me the KB must have been a prison but clearly a very different one than we think of today.<br /><br />GaryGary Gillmannoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5445569787371915337.post-73615368684704323922010-01-10T01:49:09.865-08:002010-01-10T01:49:09.865-08:00A very interesting description. Narrative descript...A very interesting description. Narrative descriptions such as this are essential to have a fuller picture of what beers of yore were like. This writer was assessing beers in the way familiar to modern readers of Michael Jackson and many other beer writers. These descriptions are all too rare in the old literature but they do exist. <br /><br />A recent favourite is one I found describing the flavour of one of the old German top-fermented wheat beers. The (English) writer said, non-too-admiringly, that it tasted like a combination of weak cider flavoured with camomile. <br /><br />Recently in New York, at Daniel Boulud's chic beer bar in the East Village, I had a draft Berlin-style wheat beer made in Germany as an attempt to duplicate an early 1800's recipe. And you know what it tasted like? Weak cider flavoured with camomile. (I liked the beer, it was an intriguing taste of history).<br /><br />Heavy wet was a slang term for strong porter, of which Lord Byron evidently was an admirer, proof that porter was not always a working class affection by the way. It pleased "both peer and mechanic", in the well-known phrase.<br /><br />Kennett ale should be explored, I believe it was from Wiltshire. Scotch and Burton ales evidently were quite sweet. This is known from other information but this current description reinforces that. Well-aged October beer seemingly was not that sweet. Or perhaps it was as sweet as the beers not liked by the writer but much more bitter. I am not sure what today would resemble that October, perhaps something like Orval or even Rodenbach since the author liked the smack of old beer although not too sour evidently.<br /><br />I think the description supports the inference of a tavern located in the precincts of a courthouse, despite the term "gaoler" in the poem introducing the piece - after all it is a poem. The term prisoner probably referred to the accused brought on charges before the court, (some of whom would have been detained but not all). And it seems the judges and other court personnel had resort there too - maybe it was an all-purpose dispensary for judicial purposes, which seems odd today to be sure.<br /><br />Porter and the bench have attracted the attentions of other writers. I believe it is in Bickerdyke that I first read (actually it was in Michael Jackson quoting that source) that a certain Judge Maule had a "depreciatory" view of stout, in that he drank it to bring his intellect "down to the level of the rest of the bench". :)<br /><br />GaryGary Gillmannoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5445569787371915337.post-92140141366826720772010-01-10T01:31:13.847-08:002010-01-10T01:31:13.847-08:00A few explanatory notes:
"a glass of the bro...A few explanatory notes:<br /><br />"a glass of the brook-clear Kennett" - Reading ale (made with pale malt)<br /><br />"within the bills of mortality" - very approximately, the area covered by the City of London and the immediately surrounding suburban parishes, north and south of the Thames.<br /><br />"heavy wet" - 19th C (?and earlier?) slang for malt liquor of any sort.<br /><br />"Abbott's Priory" - nickname for the King's Bench prison.<br /><br />"Banco Regis" - "humorous" translation of "King's Bench" in Latin.<br /><br />"whistling shop" - unlicensed alehouse<br /><br />To quote the London Footprints website on the King's Bench prison (which was in Southwark), it "occupied a site of about 4 acres … Besides the 225 rooms there was a kitchen, coffee house, stalls and public houses. The yard provided 3 pumps and racket grounds & fives courts. Women and children were excluded after ten o'clock. Those who could afford it purchased 'Liberty of the Rules' allowing them to live within 3 square miles of the prison." Prisoners had to purchase their own food and drink, hence the need for the stalls and pubs.Anonymousnoreply@blogger.com