ALE. 



ALEHOOF. 



pounds and three ounces of butter, and the ' 

 Alderney cow, in the same length of time, gave 

 only fourteen gallons of milk, but which made 

 six pounds and eight ounces of butter. 



Very useful cattle may be bred by crossing 

 these cows with short-horned bulls. The late j 

 Mr. Hunter also produced a very beautiful cow 

 from the Alderney by a buffalo, which is said, 

 in the Middlesex Report, to have kept plump 

 and fat, both in summer and winter, on much 

 less food than would be sufficient to support a 

 beast of the same size of the ordinary breed. 



ALE (Sax. eale). A liquor obtained from 

 the infusion of malt and hops by fermentation. 

 Ale differs from beer chiefly by having a 

 smaller proportion of hops. There are differ- 

 ent sorts of ale brewed, such as strong ale, 

 table ale, pale ale, and brown ale. The pahe 

 ale is made from malt which has only been 

 slightly dried, and is generally considered as 

 of a more viscid quality than the brown ale, 

 which is produced from malt that has been 

 roasted, or very hard dried. (Miller.) See 

 BK>:II and BHKWIXO. The fertility of the soil 

 in grain, and its being not proper for vines, 

 put the Egyptians upon drinking ale, of which 

 they were the inventors. (Arbuthnnt.) 



A liquor made fnun fermented barley is 

 mentioned by Herodotus (1. ii. c. 77) : the 

 earliest manufactured kind of intoxicating 

 liquid was probably, however, mead. Tacitus 

 notices the use of beer by the Germans. Pliny 

 Inscribes it as common to all the nations of 

 the west. It has long been a favourite bever- 

 age of the inhabitants of England. Our Saxon 

 and Danish forefathers drank beer to excess. 

 They regarded it as the drink allotted to those 

 admitted into the Hall of Odin. Ale is named 

 amongsr; the laws of King Ina ; and it was 

 long th? custom, when the Norman princes 

 were on the throne, to regulate its price by 

 statute; thus, in 1272, it was ordained that a 

 brewer should sell two gallons of ale in a city 

 for a penny, or three or four gallons for the 

 same price in the country. 



Hops were apparently first used for beer in 

 Germany, and in the Dutch breweries about 

 the year 1400 ; but they were not used gene- 

 rally in England until about the year 1600. 

 Henry VIII., in 1530, even forbade the brewers 

 to mix hops in their beer ; and yet, according 

 to Beckmann (Hist, of lav. vol. iv. p. 336), 

 plantations of hops had begun to be formed in 

 England, A. B. 1552 : The distinction between 

 ala and beer is thus stated by Dr. Thomson: 

 "Both are obtained by fermentation from the 

 malt of barley, but they differ from each other 

 in several particulars, ale is light-coloured, 

 brisk, and sweetish, or at least free from bit- 

 ter; while beer is dark-coloured, bitter, and 

 much less brisk. Porter is a species of beer, 

 and is what was formerly called strong beer. 

 The original difference between ale and beer 

 was owing to the malt, from which they were 

 prepared. Ale malt was dried at a very low 

 heat, and consequently was of a pale colour ; 

 while beer or porter malt was dried at a higher 

 temperature, and had in consequence acquired 

 a brown colour. This incipient charring had 

 developed a peculiar, and agreeable bitter 

 taste, which was communicated to the beer 



along with the dark colour. This bitter taste 

 rendered beer more agreeable to the palate, and 

 less injurious to the constitution than ale. It 

 was manufactured in larger quantities, and 

 soon became the common drink of the lower 

 ranks in England. When, during the wars of 

 the French Revolution, the price of malt was 

 very materially increased, the brewers found 

 out that a greater quantity of wort of a given 

 strength could be procured from pale malt, 

 than from brown malt ; the consequence was, 

 that pale malt was to a considerable extent 

 substituted for brown malt in the brewing of 

 porter and beer. The wort now, however, 

 was paler, and wanted that agreeable bitter 

 flavour which characterized porter. The por- 

 ter brewers endeavoured to remedy these de- 

 fects by several artificial additions, such as 

 burnt sugar, quassia, &c., and most of which 

 the chief London porter brewers have, I be- 

 lieve, long since discontinued." Brewers are 

 obliged, under the 6 Geo. 4, c. 81, to take out 

 an annual license, for which they pay if txretv- 

 ers of strong beer, 



Barrels. L. f, 



Of not exceeding .... 20 10 



Of exceeding 1,000 and not exceeding - 2.000 3 



10.000 20,000 30 



30,000 40,000 60 

 Exceeding 40,000 75 



Considering the increase of population in 

 England, the consumption of beer has not 

 materially increased since 1787, as the follow- 

 ing table of the beer brewed in this country in 

 various years will show. 



The number of barrels of beer exported 

 from England is considerable and increasing, 

 amounting in the years ending the 



5th of January, 1826 to 53,013 barrels. 

 1828 59,471 



__ 1830 74,902 



(M'Culloch's Did. of Com.) 



ALEHOOF (Hedera terrestris. From ale, 

 and hoopt, head). Ground-ivy, so called by 

 our Saxon ancestors, as being their chief in- 

 gredient in ale. This wild plant creeps upon 

 hedge banks, at the foot of trees, and in every 

 shady place, flowering in spring. It takes root 

 at every joint, like the strawberry runners, 

 and its leaves are roundish and notched at 

 their edcres, becoming a purple colour as the 

 spring advances. Its flowers are blue, and its 

 roots fibrous. This plant has a peculiar and 

 strong smell ; and it is best gathered when in 

 flower. It is an excellent vulnerary or wcund- 

 herb, applied outwardly, and taken inwardly. 

 An ointment made from alehoof, or ground- 

 ivy, is very healing to ulcers and fistula. The 

 decoction of the herb drank daily for a con- 

 tinuance is deemed useful for cleansing the 

 stomach, promoting the proper secreticns, and 

 sweetening the blood. [The old writers are 

 full of commendations of the medical vir^ac* 

 of ground-ivy, which are extolled for a great 



