Urban Brewing Essay

The Rise and Decline of Urban Brewing 1100-1700
Justin R. Crossno

“Whether Scurvy-grass, Daucus, Gill, Butler, or Broom,
Or from London, or Southwark, or Lambeth we come;
We humbly implore since the Wine in the Nation,
Has of late so much lost its once great Reputation;
That such Liquor as ours which is genuine and true,
And which all our Masters so carefully brew,
Which all men approve of, tho’ many drink Wine,
Yet the good Oyl of Barly there’s none will decline:
That we as a body call’d corp’rate may stand,
And a Patent procure from your Seal and your Hand,
That none without Licence, call’d Special, shall fail,
To drink anything else, but Strong Nappy Brown Ale.”[footnoteRef:1] [1: Ames; “Contention of Liquors”]

This section of a poem from The Contention of Liquors by Richard Ames shows various types of alcohols arguing their cases for superiority, with ale/beer presenting its case at the end, and overall proving the superiority it held convincingly. There were
several types of beer presented here, most notably the scurvy-grass ale, which was used by sailors in the treatment of scurvy.
Alcohol, but more particularly beer, was the social drink of the Middle Ages and nearly every occasion called for a drink in medieval and Renaissance Europe. “Drinking was a social activity looked on by people with neither suspicion nor awe.”[footnoteRef:2] People of all ages drank different types of beer and there was a vast array of ingredients used to make the golden liquid. People drank ale and beer so regularly because other liquids were unhealthy, unsuitable, or unavailable. In a world where water was often polluted, where milk was converted into cheese and butter, and where wine was too expensive for most people, ale and beer were the most readily available and safest beverages. Beer was an integral part of the diet, a source of nutrition and good health, rather than as a drug taken for recreation.[footnoteRef:3] [2: Unger pp. 2] [3: Unger pp. 3]

Before the urban and commercial explosion of brewing, there were only a limited number of places one could acquire beer; a citizen’s house and the countryside monasteries were often the most popular. Urbanized brewing grew as a result of increased demand for beer. This paper will explore that rise in commercial brewing on several facets; namely the centralization of brewing, the role of women as urban brewing became more popular, and urban brewing’s impact on the environment and social life of the medieval city before the eventual decline of brewing in the early modern city. Most of the research conducted on this topic will be centered London and its outlying suburbs, but will also draw upon a handful of other locations.
I: The Rise of Urban Brewing
Before the twelfth and thirteenth centuries, the monastery brewery was probably the only institution where beer was manufactured on anything resembling a commercial scale.[footnoteRef:4] In fact, the layout of the monastery made it relatively easy for brewing since they tended to be self-sustaining compounds. Since the monastery had to bake their own bread, they already had a readily available supply of grain for brewing. This type of model persisted throughout the history of medieval brewing, with bakeries and breweries being near one another. Larger monasteries often had two separate breweries, one for the visitors and pilgrims, the other “for the brothers”.[footnoteRef:5] Monks introduced a new form of organization to brewing and this form served as a model for later developments and the model for the long-term evolution of the brewing industry. Although commercial urban brewing dominated in the long run, monastic brewing never disappeared altogether. [4: Unger pp.27] [5: Unger pp. 28]

The roots of true urban brewing can generally be traced to the twelfth and thirteenth centuries, when brewers in the countryside began to pack up and migrate to the cities. While in the countryside, home brewers typically faced competition from their monastic counterparts, so it may have been a compelling factor in moving to the cities along with the possibility of more lucrative profits to be gained. “As population and production rose, settlements became larger. This created new urban communities with a market for beer which, over the long run, would prove different from that in the countryside, where beer was often traded or sold between several farms.”[footnoteRef:6] [6: Unger pp. 26]

One of the biggest keys to early urbanization was the role of women. In the late thirteenth and early into the fourteenth century, the bulk of brewing and selling of beer was done by women as part of their household chores.[footnoteRef:7] Typically, the woman of the house would brew their batch of beer and would sell their excess beer to a nearby tavern or inn. Brewing in the early fourteenth century required little specialized skill or equipment, conferred minimal trade identity, and offered only small profits. As such, “it was accessible to women, and compared to the other, even more limited economic options of women, it was a good trade for them.”[footnoteRef:8] [7: Unger pp. 27] [8: Bennett pp. 145]

As the cities continued to grow with home brewers who looked to set up shop, the market for beer continued to become increasing crowded until it reached the point where specialization was required. “First, there were problems of space in the more densely populated urban centers. As towns grew, few residents had the room needed for kettles, troughs, and storage rooms for barrels in addition to the open space required to use as malting floor.”[footnoteRef:9] This forced some brewers to either combine resources with those who had larger scale operations and the ability to run them or they had to leave the trade entirely, both of which translated into larger sales and profits for the larger brewhouses. Consequently, the larger size of the urban brewing market increased possible advantages for bigger and more expensive breweries as well as the ability to innovate the brewing process. With better access to raw materials and better equipment, large urban brewers had more chances than their rural counterparts did to practice and experiment with new brewing techniques. [9: Unger pp. 40]

By the late fourteenth and early fifteenth century, the brewing industry had become largely urbanized and large breweries dominated the market. This was also the time that brewers discovered the ability to use hops as an additive to beer instead of an additive called gruit. Incidentally, since the usage of gruit had ceased, none of the sources are clear on what exactly gruit comprised of. Nevertheless, while the urbanization of brewing was ultimately successful and increased production levels to not only satisfy the needs of the city, but encourage trade, it did come with its share of problems on both an economical and a social level, most notably the areas of pollution impact, the role of women, and the evolution in the social climate of the city.
II: Pollution’s Impact on Brewing Pollution was the second major force driving the need for specialization in brewing. More people and more industry in a small area, such as a town, led to the fouling of water supplies. Since good water was essential to produce drinkable beer as well as cleaning the equipment and barrels, those with access to pure sweet water enjoyed an advantage in brewing.[footnoteRef:10] However, the city government did not make it easy for brewers to access that water. “Officials in London, Bristol, and Coventry in England, for example, made it illegal for brewers to have access to their communities’ public water supplies.”[footnoteRef:11] [10: Unger pp. 40] [11: Unger pp. 40]

While digging through various sources on the relationship between brewing and pollution, there was a point in which London brewers stopped using wood and began using sea coal as a fuel for heating and brewing. Neither Beer in the Middle Ages and the Renaissance nor William Cavert’s The Smoke of London makes it clear exactly when this shift happened, but it happened nonetheless. The closest estimate was around the late sixteenth century, after brewing in London took off thanks to a growing urban market and the influx of skilled immigrant labor. Immigrants from Germany, Belgium, and the Netherlands brought expertise and ambition to an industry ripe for expansion.[footnoteRef:12] Such an expansion occurred in the 1560s and 1570s, causing an increase in fuel prices and making them a significant cost for large-scale brewhouses. In response, brewers turned to the cheaper sea coal. The combination of this shift to sea coal and the large productive capacities of the big brewhouses made London’s breweries the leading emitters of smoke from the 1570s.[footnoteRef:13] [12: Cavert pp. 46] [13: Cavert pp. 46]

The effects of pollution on the city of London remained a hot topic into the 17th century. According to Fueling Beer, “Hell, in the eyes of 17th -century English authors, was like the smoke emitted from a brewhouse chimney.”[footnoteRef:14] A primary example of the concern for pollution occurred in 1624 when Parliament tried to pass a law known as the “Breweries Bill”. If successful, the bill would have established a non-industrial zone in all of Westminster and most of London, effectively kicking all the common brewhouses out. “Common brewhouses” were defined as places where: [14: Cavert, “Fueling Beer”]

“the extraordinary great fires made of sea coal yield such abundance of unwholesome and unsavory smoke and stinks as doth greatly diminish not only the pleasure and delight but the health and soundness of said cities, a thing fit to be redressed in the chief city of this realm, where His Majesty, the prince, the nobles, and other most eminent persons of this kingdom are occasioned to be so often and so much conversant.”[footnoteRef:15] [15: Cavert pp. 53]

Interpretation of this passage from the Breweries Bill suggested that its authors were only concerned about the welfare of nobles and royalty in the places they most often visited. “This sentiment was echoed in the halls of Parliament, where the bill passed with no sign of protest in the House of Lords, but it stalled in the House of Commons fearing that it would damage the estates of many citizens, some of which were well positioned to bury the bill with political influence. The committee within the House of Commons to which the bill was referred to had included the burgesses for Westminster, London, and Southwark, all of which contained substantial brewers who would have been threatened by the bill.”[footnoteRef:16] [16: Cavert pp. 54]

Though the Breweries Bill ultimately failed in Parliament, it did not stop lawmakers from trying to protect the health of the nobility, as noted by a case in 1664 concerning a brewer named John Breedon. He was called before the council because his brewhouse was too close to King Charles’ residence in Whitehall and he should be forced to move it elsewhere. However, instead of resisting the move, Breedon offered “ready and dutiful compliance” even though he explained that the King’s order would ruin his estate. In return for this compliance, King Charles compromised with Breedon and ordered his surveyor to assist him in finding a new location and his Lord Treasurer to help “repair and indemnify the prejudice and loss he may sustain by reason of this, his remove.” Cavert is quick to note that compromises of this type were rare and there were not many examples of brewers being willing to move their brewhouses.[footnoteRef:17] Nevertheless, pollution in London remained a great concern as long as breweries and industry continued to be fueled by coal. [17: Cavert pp. 189]

III: Brewing and Social Evolution – The Role of Women in the Beer Trade Probably the greatest example of the change in the social climate was the role of women in brewing.
It was said earlier that brewing before urbanization was primarily done by women. “Women were so important to making beer that in a number of Holland towns in the middle of the thirteenth century, governments placed a limit on the quantity of beer for which a man could be responsible.”[footnoteRef:18] Judith Bennett describes London in particular; noting that prior to 1300, women were not only responsible for most of the brewing of beer, but also in its sale.[footnoteRef:19] The reasoning for this was because “brewing was still considered a “meager trade” due to the Assize of Ale during the thirteenth and fourteenth centuries where the price of ale was controlled by the price of grain. Since the profit margin was relatively small compared to other industries, brewing in London attracted few men.”[footnoteRef:20] [18: Unger pp. 225] [19: Bennett pp. 10] [20: Bennett pp.
23-24]

Most of the men involved in brewing worked alongside women, indicating that the majority of women who brewed were married. Although there were single-woman and widowed brewers who had taken over the affairs of their husbands’ estates, they brewed far less often than married women. Married women enjoyed a few advantages over their single counterparts. First of which was the fact that they were often better housed than single women.[footnoteRef:21] As discussed earlier, brewing for commercial purposes required a lot of space, so this served the married woman well; more space for brewing meant higher production and profits from ale sold to taverns and alehouses. Typically, married women also had a much easier time at acquiring servants or laborers to assist with the time-consuming process of brewing.[footnoteRef:22] Lastly, married women had access to more capital. It was easy to gain capital for occasional brewing, as shown by the fact nearly 3/4ths of the households in Exeter in 1377 brewed, but there was a lot more investment required to brew commercially.[footnoteRef:23] It wasn’t until after the Black Death ravaged England in the late fourteenth century that a firm commercialism of brewing finally took hold. After the Black Death, brewing expanded, becoming less domestic and more industrial.[footnoteRef:24] [21: Bennett pp. 41] [22: Bennett pp. 41] [23: Bennett pp. 41-42] [24: Bennett pp. 43]

As urbanization grew in London, the opposite happened to the roles of women. The growing popularity of large scale commercial brewing changed the status the woman derived from brewing in critical ways. Husbands had final control over the economic activities of their wives, including commercial brewing. As a result, husbands could tell their wives when, how, and to whom to sell ale, and they could also take the profits from brewing to use as they liked.[footnoteRef:25] Note that women were not totally powerless. In some towns, they still held positions as aletasters in charge of supervising the brewing trade. It took quite a bit more time before the change in roles firmly took shape. Once women lost their footholds in the new urban brewing industry, some accepted it. Married women and their husbands began to renegotiate their respective contributions to commercial brewing, and over time, brewing ceased to be a by-industrial trade of wives and became a professional trade of husbands. “Brewing by single and widowed women became almost non-existent, accounting for only about six percent of all brewers by the late fifteenth century.”[footnoteRef:26] Although such changes in the role of women happened in England, they didn’t take place elsewhere. “While women in England and Scandinavia may have found it harder to be brewers in the fifteenth and sixteenth centuries, women in the Low Countries noticed little change in their involvement in most aspects of the beer trade, at least into the early years of the seventeenth century. Women could inherit breweries and continued to operate them throughout the seventeenth and eighteenth centuries.”[footnoteRef:27] [25: Bennett pp. 35] [26: Bennett pp. 51] [27: Unger pp. 226]

IV: The Social Culture of Brewing – The Evolution of the Drinking Establishment
As much as breweries and brewers were a part of the city, so were the places to drink and socialize. Often in the cities, there were three types of drinking establishment: the inn for the upper class, taverns for the middle classes, and the alehouse for the lower class. Taverns were connected to brewers, often even in the same building as the brewery, or were supplied on some regular basis by certain brewers. As time went on, “more towns developed rules for the operation of drinking establishments, such as fixing the hours and requiring clear signs indicating an alehouse was an alehouse.”[footnoteRef:28] In London, for instance, “the most traditional device used was an alestake, a pole with a bush hanging at the end, which signified that a brewing had taken place and fresh liquor was on tap.”[footnoteRef:29] [28: Unger pp. 50] [29: Clark pp. 67]

Alehouses were susceptible to overcrowding, particularly on days where there was a fair, and the more popular times of the drinking week.[footnoteRef:30] “The clientele of these establishments were mostly male servants, young, and middle-aged men; elderly men were rarely found at the alehouse.”[footnoteRef:31] While alehouses offered an open door to most strangers, the situation was more complex with regard to women. In general, women probably formed only a small proportion of alehouse customers. “Female visits to alehouses were regulated by social convention. Thus, women might go with their husbands to the alehouse, particularly when they were on a journey or if there was a family or neighborhood celebration.”[footnoteRef:32] The social expectation for women was shown in the following excerpt from the poem How the Good Wife Taught Her Daughter: [30: Clark pp. 34] [31: Clark pp. 127] [32: Clark pp. 131]

“And if you be in any place where good ale is aloft,
Whether you are served so that you fall in no blame,
For if you are often drunk, it falls to your shame.
For those that are often drunk, thrift is from them sunk,
My dear child.”[footnoteRef:33] [33: “Proper Behavior for a Young Townswoman” in Medieval Towns, pp. 214]

By the thirteenth century, drinking was a way of life and almost any occasion called for some sort of alcohol to be served. Some of these instances provided for cheap or even free drinking, but they may have come with a hidden price. For instance, “at the Deverills in Wiltshire during the thirteenth century, the scot-ale lasted three days, on the last of which, the bachelors of the village drank gratis(free), provided they could stand; if they sat down, they had to pay. Heavy drinking was the order of the day on such occasions.”[footnoteRef:34] Weddings were another prime example of the culture of celebrating a special occasion with a drink. “At weddings, there was usually a bride-ale; where the bride dispensed ale to the assembled guests in return for gifts. Burials were accompanied by the copious consumption of ale at the wake and the distribution of free drink to the poor.”[footnoteRef:35] [34: Clark pp. 25] [35: Clark pp. 25]

Drinking establishments were not only sources of beer, but became venues for gambling, singing, and other neighborhood activities. As the 1600s came around, the alehouse joined the tavern and inn as an alternative economic center to the open market. Villagers would circumvent the windy and rainy marketplaces and meet customers inside the alehouse to complete deals, also allowing them to avoid the regulations and taxation of the marketplace.[footnoteRef:36] Unfortunately, it is not known if brewhouses in other countries had similar customs or stories associated with them. [36: Clark pp. 138]

V: Conclusion – The Decline of Urban Brewing in the Early Modern City
Commercialized brewing began to decline around the mid to late 16th century as an evolution began to take shape, notably in economics. The competition from other forms of drinking was always present before, but average wages continued to rise, allowing people to buy more expensive drinks, such as wine. Although a liter of beer cost 1/20th of a liter of wine[footnoteRef:37], people believed that since they earned that higher wage, celebration was in order and drinking wine was seen as a symbol of status. [37: Unger pp. 236]

Brewing also saw growing competition from non-alcoholic sources. By the 1640s and 1650s, coffeehouses started appearing; offering not only a new drink, but selling tobacco and newspapers. By the 18th century, you would more likely find an upper-class businessman at a coffeehouse rather than a brewhouse. Brewers tried to circulate propaganda about the dangers to men’s potency from spending time in coffeehouses instead of drinking beer, but to no avail.[footnoteRef:38] [38: Unger pp. 242]

There is a wealth of topics about brewing in the Middle Ages that haven’t been covered here; notably the economics of medieval brewing that dove into the amount of beer brewed at certain times in certain countries, the taxation and regulation of beer, and the sheer levels of consumption of beer as it dominated the drinking market during this time period. For more information on those topics, Richard Unger’s book Beer in the Middle Ages and the Renaissance is highly recommended.