Dock Ale, a 1694 Recipe to Treat Scurvy

[pyrateleather]

Just picked up Sacred and Herbal Healing Beers, The Secrets of Ancient Fermentation by Stephen Harrod Buhner

I haven't tried any of the recipes yet but there are several from the 17th and 18th century. This one caught my attention since it is not only period but is also a treatment for scurvy... how appropriate!

Dock Ale- 1694

Ingredients:

4 gallons water

4 pounds malt extract

3 handfuls new pine or fir, spring growth

3 handfuls scurvy grass or horseradish, above ground plant

4 ounces sharp-pointed or yellow dock root, dried and ground

peels of 4 oranges

yeast

"Provide four Gallons of Small Ale; instead of Hops, boyl in it three Handfuls of the Tops of Pines, or Firr; after it has done working in the Vessel, put into a Canvas-bag three Handfuls of Scurvy-grass, four Ounces of the Root of Sharp-pointed Dock prepar'd, and the Peels of four Oranges; hang the bag in the Vessel, with something to sink the Bag: After it has stood a Week, and is clear, drink of it for your ordinary Drink. This is frequently used for the Scurvy, and is an excellent Diet-drink."

Edited February 19, 2009 by pyrateleather

[Quartermaster James]

3 handfuls new pine or fir, spring growth

Young pine/fir needles are an excellent source of vitamin C.

You want to gather the young, bright green growth, before it hardens.

4 pounds malt extract

I am surprised that malt extract goes back so far.

Edited February 20, 2009 by Quartermaster James

[michaelsbagley]

3 handfuls new pine or fir, spring growth

Young pine/fir needles are an excellent source of vitamin C.

You want to gather the young, bright green growth, before it hardens.

4 pounds malt extract

I am surprised that malt extract goes back so far.

Would someone mind posting a picture of spruce tips? Since I have been on a pretty heavy brewing and wine making kick lately, and spring is right around the corner, I have been considering a spruce ale... I may even try this recipe, if I can find the correct trees around central Ohio...

I doubt malt extracts go that far back and the above recipe is a modern adaptation, but I seem to recall someone on the Frontier Folk forum posting a reference to malt extract that dated to the 1780s (?), which does put malt extracts at a heck of a lot older than I would have ever guessed.

The source for the citation

pg 132

Inspissated juice of malt

Interest in brewing at sea was stimulated in October 1771

when the Admiralty received news of a product called

‘inspissated juice of malt’. Directions were given for a

quantity of this product to be prepared, and for a trial of it to

be made for brewing beer at sea on Resolution and

Adventure.18

Two different kinds of ‘inspissated juice’ were made; one

from wort and one from beer. Both contained hops, which

would avoid the inconvenience of sending these to sea. One

was fermented, which would overcome the difficulty of

always having yeast available during the voyage. The ‘juice’

was prepared by boiling away most of the water from wort or

beer until it was thick and viscous, a process which took a

week. The resulting concentrate could then be made into beer

at sea simply by mixing it with the necessary quantity of

water, with or without yeast as required, and letting it stand

for a few days.16,18 Given the manner of preparation, it is

improbable that either sort of juice, and especially the juice of

beer, would have contained more than negligible amounts of

ascorbic acid.

Mathias has treated the subject of beer concentrate in

some detail, but principally in the context of extending beer

supplies at sea, not of preventing scurvy.16 Carpenter, who

deals with malt and beer in his history of scurvy, makes no

mention of inspissated juice.1 Watt has said that inspissated

juice was used on Wallis’s Dolphin in 1766-68, but he

confuses dried malt with the concentrate.29 The first use was

undoubtedly on Cook’s second voyage.

When Resolution and Adventure left Plymouth Sound

they carried supplies of both the juice of wort and juice of

beer. The ships’ commanders, Cook and Furneaux, were

instructed to make experiments of their efficacy, and Cook

was instructed to report on this at the end of the voyage.18

The beer brewing activities on the second voyage mainly

concerned the use of inspissated juice of wort and beer.

The juice had its first use on Resolution early in August

1772, in the North Atlantic Ocean. The method employed to

produce the beer from the inspissated juice of beer was to mix

it with cold water then stop it down. In a few days it would be

‘brisk and drinkable’. The inspissated juice of wort required

to be fermented with yeast in the usual way of making beer.

Cook found, however, that from ‘the heat of the weather and

the agitation of the ship’, both sorts of concentrate fermented

uncontrollably in their casks, causing great losses. Further

experiments were made after Resolution left the Cape of

Good Hope in November 1772. The cool southern climate

was more favourable for brewing, although here Cook had to

recommend the use of warm water, and keeping the mixture

in a warm place to maintain fermentation.18

Reports on the use of various antiscorbutic articles during

the second voyage were made by Cook in letters to the

Admiralty Secretary and to the Victualling Board in August

1775. Cook was pleased with the beer produced from the

inspissated juice in cool and temperate climates, but to be

useful in hot climates it needed to be prepared in such as way

as to prevent it from fermenting spontaneously in the casks.30

Interestingly, although substantial extracts from both letters

were included in Beaglehole’s account of Cook’s second

voyage, the sections dealing with the inspissated juice were

omitted.18

16. Mathias P. The brewing industry in England 1700-1830.

Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 1959.

17. Beaglehole JC, ed. The voyage of the Endeavour 1768-1771.

Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 1955.

18. Beaglehole JC, ed. The voyage of the Resolution and

Adventure 1772-1775. Cambridge University Press, 1969

29. Watt J. Some consequences of nutritional disorders in

eighteenth-century British circumnavigations. In: Watt J,

Freeman EJ, Bynum WF, eds. Starving sailors: the influence of

nutrition upon naval and maritime history. London: National

Maritime Museum, 1981: 51-71.

[Quartermaster James]

Norway Spruce Scroll down to the pictures under "methods" and "collecting tips."

Spruce Goose Beer

Edited February 20, 2009 by Quartermaster James

[pyrateleather]

4 pounds malt extract

I am surprised that malt extract goes back so far.

This surprised me too... the malt extract is listed in the list of ingredients but not in the wording of the recipe, it mentions "four gallons of small ale". I am guessing the author substituted the water & malt extract for the small ale... I wasn't really sure what small ale was but upon a quick internet search I found:

From Wikipedia

Small beer[14] (also small ale) is a beer/ale that contains very little alcohol. Sometimes unfiltered and porridge-like, it was a favoured drink in Medieval Europe and colonial North America where George Washington had a recipe involving bran and molasses.[15] It was sometimes had with breakfast, as attested in Benjamin Franklin's autobiography. Before public sanitation, cholera and other water-transmitted diseases were a significant cause of death. Because alcohol is toxic to most water-borne pathogens, and because the process of brewing any beer from malt involves boiling the water, which also kills germs, drinking small beer instead of water was one way to escape infection. Small beer was also produced in households for consumption by children and servants. It was not unknown for workers in heavy industries and physical work to consume double figure (pint) quantities of small beer during a working day to maintain their hydration levels. This was usually provided free as part of their working conditions, it being recognised that maintaining suitable levels of hydration was indeed essential for optimum performance.

Small beer/small ale can also refer to a beer made of the "second runnings" from a very strong beer (e.g., scotch ale) mash. These beers can be as strong as a mild ale, depending on the strength of the original mash. This was done as an economy measure in household brewing in England up to the 18th century and is still done by some homebrewers and microbrewers such as Anchor Brewing Company.

Metaphorically, small beer means a trifle, a thing of little importance. The term is also used derisively for commercially produced beers which are thought to taste too weak.

Edited February 20, 2009 by pyrateleather

[Calico Jack]

boyl in it

excellent source of vitamin C

Alas, as has been discovered since Lind, boiling much reduces any vitamin C content. That is, it destroys it. Lind never did convince the British Navy to stick with Lemon juice for the Scurvy cure. To try to lower costs and increase storage, Lind proposed boiling down the juice into a "rob," which could then be sealed, to be opened and have water added [to reconstitute it]. Of course, it turns out we know now that Lemon Rob has almost no antiscorbutic value whatever.

Poor Mister Lind.