hi everyone welcome to tasting history
I'm your host max Miller and today in
Los Angeles it's a little chilly so
little overcast it's very odd but it's
fortuitous because it is the perfect
weather to make one of Tudor England's
favorite ale house brews hotbed be kind
of sounded Australian is meant to sound
English but there it is hot buttered
beer today on tasting history now I'm
sure most of you have read or seen Harry
Potter so of course you know butter beer
but this is not JK Rowling's butter beer
though I do love that JK Rowling goes to
historic references for so many things
in the Harry Potter books butter beer
being one of them that butter beer was
drank by a bunch of eleven and twelve
year olds so probably not highly
alcoholic maybe a little bit as it is
England but you know in the stuff that
you get at Harry Potter world really
nothing like this recipe the recipe
we're using today comes from Thomas
Dawson's 1594 book the good housewives
handmade for the kitchen which reads
take three pints of beer put five yolks
of eggs to it
strain them together strain mint mix
back then but anyway and set it in a
pewter pot to the fire and put to it
half a pound of sugar one penny worth of
nutmegs beaten one penny worth of cloves
beaten and one half penny worth of
ginger beaten and when it is all in take
another pewter pot and brew them
together and set it to the fire again
and when it is ready to boil take it
from the fire and put a dish of sweet
butter into it and brew them together
out of one pot into another now the
thing about most medieval and
renaissance recipes is we have to guess
at a lot of this stuff because they
weren't terribly specific but this
recipe is awesome because with the
exception of exactly how much clove or
ginger or nutmeg you got for a penny we
can basically recreate it exactly as it
would have been done in Tudor times I'm
Way excited about that so let's get
started what you'll need is three pints
which is about 1500 milliliters or 48
ounces of good-quality British ale a
quarter teaspoon of ginger 1/2 teaspoon
of cloves 1/2 teaspoon of nutmeg
at 225 grams of Demerara natural brown
sugar now you can use just regular dark
brown sugar if you can't find Demerara
because finding Demerara sugar is not so
easy in the US then five egg yolks and
one stick of unsalted butter diced first
take your five egg yolks and beat them
with the sugar until light and frothy
then set that aside
pour the Ale into a saucepan now the
recipe calls for a pewter pot but who
has that I want one but I don't have one
yet Christmas list so I'm just going to
use a deep saucepan needs to be fairly
big for the amount of beer that we're
putting in there but you can also use
stock pot or a Dutch oven anything works
just as long as it can go on top of the
stove so pour the Ale into the saucepan
and try not to let it get too frothy
then stir in the ginger the cloves and
the nutmeg
and heat over medium heat until the
mixture comes to a light boil then turn
it down and simmer on low for about two
minutes now if you do want to make this
for kids if they're having a Harry
Potter party or something like that you
can heat the beer up to 285 degrees
Fahrenheit which is about a hundred and
forty degrees Celsius and let it boil
for 20 minutes you'll burn off almost
all of the alcohol at which point you
can serve it to children be like a rum
cake but if you're serving this to
adults don't do that two minutes is more
than enough you want to keep that
alcohol in there once it's simmered for
about two minutes remove the pot from
the heat and add in your egg and sugar
mixture stir it in then return the pot
to low heat until the liquid starts to
thicken now this takes about five to
seven minutes if you don't really see it
thickening that's okay it's not gonna
actually thicken that much don't turn it
up because if you turn it up to medium
heat you can actually scramble the eggs
or you can burn the sugar and then
you've just wasted three pints of of
good aunt
so once you've simmered it on low for
five to seven minutes stir in the diced
butter until it melts then frock the
butter beer with a hand whisk then still
on low let it simmer for another ten
minutes now while that's simmering you
really got nothing else to do so go
ahead and hit the like button subscribe
and listen to me chat yup about beer I
don't know why that keeps coming out as
Australia we really want to do English
anyway beer
[Music]
now beer or Alport er lager all of it
was pranked by pretty much everyone in
Tudor England every day and by some
accounts the country was essentially a
giant frat house there was a big problem
with binge drinking Queen Elizabeth the
first even issued a ban on double-double
beer which had an extremely high alcohol
content now don't get me wrong she was
no teetotaler
because in 1593 her own household went
through 600,000 gallons of beer it's
good to be the queen
now you're probably starting to wonder
why does this drink exist who thought it
was a good idea to put spices and utter
and eggs into beer and I'll tell you
it's because beer was so important to
the diet back then that it was extremely
well regulated by the government there
was actually an official post of ale
taster or ale Connor so if you owned a
tavern and you had a cask of ale that
was starting to smell a little funky
throw some nutmeg in there some cloves
heat it up put an egg in it now it
tastes great but you couldn't do that to
every task of ale most people wanted
just regular ale and that's why they had
the ale Connor the a O'Connor would go
from tavern to Tavern to test the
quality of whatever beard that was being
sold if he deemed it unworthy you got a
fine or maybe a day in the stocks and
had the Ale cord over your head or in
some extreme circumstances you would
actually be dunked into the river which
because a lot of people didn't swim back
then could mean death so you know make
good ale now while it's called the ale
taster there are anecdotes and they
might just be anecdotes of ale Conor's
wearing leather breeches they would go
to the different ale houses pour the Ale
out onto a wooden bench and then sit in
it after a while once the ale dried they
would stand up and if their breeches
stuck to the seat then that meant there
was too much sugar in the beer they
would be fine now again that might just
be an anecdote old wives tale there's no
way to tell because according to most
contemporary accounts and to the
official ale pasters oath the best way
to taste the ale was to
the Ale and speaking of tasting RL
should be just about done so after your
10 minutes of simmering is done remove
the saucepan from the heat and allow the
butter beer to cool to a warm but
drinkable temperature then whisk it up
again or if you want to follow the exact
recipe you whisk it by transferring it
from one cup to another very quickly but
I don't have a scullery maid on-hand to
clean up all the cups so I'm just gonna
use a whisk pour the butter beer into a
glass and serve warm here it is oh I'd
be it it's actually really good it's
really good it's quite nice really nice
I don't even know how to explain it it's
like creamy beer with with spices
but it's really really good now if it's
a hot day and you don't really feel like
a warm beer you can have it chilled and
which is actually really nice you can
take one part milk and one part the cold
beer mix them together delicious now the
recipe and the ingredients are all in
the description down below so while I
sit here and drink three pints of butter
beer all by myself make sure to hit that
like button subscribe and if you make
your own butter beard leave me a comment
and tell me how it went and as always
join me next time on tasting history