Making Medieval Ale at Home with Alison Kay

Today I am talking with podcaster and blogger Alison Kay of Ancestral Kitchen all about recreating medieval ale at home – and how one adapts the making of them to modern kitchens.

We talked about the difference between ale and beer; the process of ale-making; sterilisation versus good old cleaning; wild yeast; and (most importantly) what the ale tastes like – amongst many other things.

If you can, support the podcast and blogs by becoming a £3 monthly subscriber, and unlock lots of premium content, or treat me to a one-off virtual pint or coffee: click here.

Ancestral Kitchen podcast

Ancestral Kitchen website – including those posts about medieval ale.

Ancestral Kitchen on Instagram: @ancestral_kitchen

Things mentioned in today’s episode

Ale, Beer & Brewsters in England by Judith M. Bennett

Christmas on the Croft, The Scottish Food History Podcast

My YouTube channel with my short video about haggis

Blog posts pertinent to today’s episode

A Trip to the Sarson’s Vinegar Factory

Happy New Year – a review of 2024

Previous podcast episodes pertinent to today’s episode

Recreating 16th Century Beer with Susan Flavin & Marc Meltonville

A is for Anchovy, Alewife & Avocado

Neil’s blogs:

‘British Food: a History’

‘Neil Cooks Grigson’

Neil’s books:

Before Mrs Beeton: Elizabeth Raffald, England’s Most Influential Housekeeper

A Dark History of Sugar

Knead to Know: a History of Baking

The Philosophy of Puddings

Don’t forget, there will be postbag episodes in the future, so if you have any questions or queries about today’s episode, or indeed any episode, or have a question about the history of British food please email me at [email protected], or on twitter and BlueSky @neilbuttery, or Instagram and Threads dr_neil_buttery. My DMs are open.

You can also join the British Food: a History Facebook discussion page: https://www.facebook.com/groups/britishfoodhistory

Mentioned in this episode:

Fruit Pig are currently sponsoring The British Food History Podcast

Visit fruitpig.co.uk for more details of their products and journey, and to access their shop. Grant and Matthew are very kindly giving listeners to the BFHP a unique special offer: 10% off your order until the end of October 2025 – use the offer code Foodhis in the checkout. Time to fill your boots.

Serve it Forth Food History Festival 18 October 2025

I thought you might want to know about the first Serve it Forth Food History Festival is on 18 October 2025 – it’s online, it’s £16 a ticket but you can get 25% off the price using the offer code SERVE25. Visit the website https://serveitforthfest.wixsite.com/info for more information and links to Eventbrite.

I’ve teamed up with fellow food historians (and friends of the show) Sam Bilton, Thomas Ntinas and Alessandra Pino – we are all presenting a session each. I’m kicking off the day in conversation with food writer and cook Tom Parker Bowles. Brigitte Webster, another friend of the show, will also be appearing. To find out more, check out the recently published bonus episode of the podcast all about the festival to find out more information.

The day is being sponsored by the excellent Netherton Foundry. It’s going to be a really fun and exciting day and I hope you can join us.