The British Food History Podcast · Neil Buttery

Making Medieval Ale at Home with Alison Kay

·43 min·2 clips

Neil opens with a holiday return and a fresh season restart. He introduces Alison Kay and the project of making medieval ale at home. Alison describes how she built her approach by reading older brewing reasoning rather than copying modern brewing habits. She uses historical measurements for malted grain and water as a practical anchor. Commercial yeast stays out of the process. Instead, she leans on natural fermentation and the patience that comes with it. Neil compares that with his own experiments using wild yeasts. He mentions elderflower champagne as a quicker doorway into bubbling drinks. From there he describes pushing a batch further in a demijohn with an airlock. The point was partly alcohol and partly curiosity about what else might grow in it. That leads to the question of cleaning and sterilizing. Alison answers by pointing out that sterilization is a relatively modern idea. Fermented drinks, by contrast, have existed for thousands of years. She notes archaeological evidence for fermentation going back to the eighth century BCE. The discussion also brushes against the argument that people may have settled in one place for ale as much as for bread. Neil and Alison return to the fact that microbes are not a new feature of human life. The modern wariness around bacteria sits in the background, but the episode keeps that fear in perspective. Neil closes with a note about his A is for Apple project and a long-term plan to write about regional food from every UK county. The episode ends feeling like a bridge between medieval brewing and everyday curiosity. It leaves the listener with a clear sense that old drinks can still teach modern kitchens something useful.

As heard by us

A grounded medieval-ale discussion that makes fermentation feel practical.

The episode stays with medieval ale and keeps the modern home fermentation angle close at hand. Neil Butchery and Alison Kay move from malted grain-to-water measurements and wild yeast to the practical question of cleaning versus over-sterilizing, which gives the conversation a…

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