Digging for Britain Malting Site Video

Shadows that fish do not see for the first time, all the fields of eastern England have long supported the serial crops necessary to make that elixir of medieval life. Large quantities of beer must have been produced and drunk, but how is it made and what was made? It tastes like we caught up with some archaeologists in a quest to answer those all-important questions. Now we return east to the North Norfolk coast and the town of Sedgeford, with Roman influence waning, a new culture began to emerge in the early 50th century in Britain. a culture linked to the Germanic tribes along the North Sea and the immigrants who brought with them new habits and customs In 2013, archaeologist Dr Ellie Blakelock found a settlement after a geophysical survey revealed intriguing evidence in the corner of a field in Sford, since then an annual summer excavation for Volunteer archaeologists have helped reconstruct what once happened here.

We found some hot spots that suggested there was some kind of hot work process going on. We originally thought it was going to be GO, I'm working, but when we actually dug in and started working on the

site

. We quickly realized that it had nothing to do with metal working, but something else; in fact, Ellie had discovered an industry of an entirely different kind. It turns out that this huge

site

was part of a huge foundry operation used to manufacture the vital ingredient for the most popular drink of Anglo-Saxon times, beer. What we have here is we have a maceration tank.

This is a clay-lined structure and we believe they were originally the size here and another one that is actually on this side macerating the harvested grain. In this water tank was the first step of the molting process. What you do is you submerge the grain in this water and it soaks it into the grain and begins the germination process, which is so important to the brewing process buried in the soil that Ellie found. tool evidence showing what a large scale operation this was and what we have here is we have a wonderful iron hook and they would have used it to pry the grain in the water and get it out again, the soaked grain then spread out this clay soil continues to germinate, so wait for the little sprouts and the little rootlets to start forming on the grain and that tells you that it is starting to accumulate sugars and starch and that is what is really useful and important for molting and for real life.

When creating beer from it, at least five Kil has also been found at the site. These would have been used to dry out shed grain and stop germination. One reveals an incredible link with the molsters of the distant past, but what is really remarkable is that you can actually see the fingerprints and stains of the Anglo-Saxons from when they actually repaired the oven and it is very nice to be able to almost touch and feel the people in it. the past in a fascinating effort to reveal even more about the ancient Anglo-Saxon molting process. Here PhD student Hannah Caro is using a flotation tank to separate the burnt grains.

Unearthed on site, so here we have a bucket of sediment from the north end of Furnace 2. I'm going to put some in the tank here and The burnt seeds to ignite float to the surface of the water and then collect in the bucket and you can start seeing a lump of charcoal and some seeds down there, which is exciting. Hannah can now identify EX exactly which cereal grains were used to make. The malt using a microscope quite excitingly, these grains are 12,200 years old from the middle of Saxon times, so we have here a big, pretty damaged grain of barley down there, so this is a grain of wheat, this is the most common wheat grain today. and also in the Anglo-Saxon period and with a lot of rye, the most common type of grain at Sedgeford, it is unusual to find a site with such a high proportion of rye, so it is interesting that the discovery of these three seral crops has led to the archaeologists to one conclusion: find all three types of grains, rye, wheat and barley, in almost all of the Sedgeford samples, potentially suggesting that they were grown together in a field and harvested together and then ground together to make beer that was made with all three. types of grains, the high proportion of rye is unusual in British mudding and might say something about the ancient ail makers of North Norfolk.

The fact that we have the Ry here suggests that link to their ancestral lands where they are using Ry. more regularly and probably suggests that what is happening is that the Anglo-Saxons have brought their technology for brewing and for mold making and what we are seeing is a kind of continuation of that process, perhaps the best way . To understand the effect of using all that rye is to brew some beer with it. Dr. Stuart earlier came to meet an expert homebrewer for a taste of the past. Now I like beer as much as the next early medieval archaeologist, so I understand a The Saxon brewing process seems like perfect experimental archeology to me, hello John, hello good fire, you did it.

I understand that you are a historian of Saxon brewing. Yes, I got some early medieval bruises based on the better part of six months of nights in Imperial College and science museum libraries exploring various ancient books and reference books, consulting back and I came up with an idea of ​​some recipes, you have some beer for me to try. I've actually had a bin of excuses here, okay this has traveled a bit. so it has a bit of clay John's search led him to create an Anglo-Saxon beer recipe which, unlike the Sedgeford mash, uses a lot of barley but no Ry.

Barley beer is flavored with honey and a plant that the Anglo-Saxons found on river banks and in marshes. bog Myrtle oh that's not bad isn't that bad? wow that's actually very sweet it's the honey it's not meant to get you it's meant to be a nice, enjoyable drink it's nice I'm I'm surprised at how good John is going to recreate a beer based on the unusual proportions of grains found in Sedgeford: 10% barley, 20% wheat and 70% rye, so this is the rye 2/3 rye, yes, 2/3 rye, yes, and here is Crush rye r is It's much more usual to improve this, this makes the product yes, if you smell it, it has a really aromatic smell AR, it smells exactly like beer and that will be infused into the liquid, we put it with the water and the flavoring and that would be quite good beer or I'm not sure, like I said, I've always done just one prep each time I see how it turns out next.

John has to soak his crushed grain mixture so you have your three grains. In fact, I have rye. the barley and here is the wheat, do it now for about an hour and a half to 2 hours after cooling and fermenting for 4 days. John's experimental Sedgeford R beer will be ready to drink, but another time following a tradition, here's one he made earlier. It is definitely drinkable. I would prefer it to water, but yes, it is very earthy, very earthy, yes, it would need flavoring, so this is a good way to protect your health, as well as providing and addressing it, it would kill it. any parasites, the water is collected through storage or anything else, of course I will try it again just to make sure it tastes better than what I have drunk, the light comes on, whether or not the Anglo-Saxons knew that It was like that. the boiling that made their beer safer to drink than water is fascinating, they moved their grain to such an industrial scale in Sedgeford applauds that Ry Rich Brew is not as Moorish as John's sweet-tasting Anglo-Saxon barley beer, It's definitely wrong, but at least It's not going to kill me, thank God, I won't come home hard, our Anglo-Saxon digs have