part ye thirdde

Gruit, now here is a thing ,I find that the natural range of the three main semi-psychotropic ingredients of Gruit seems to overlap quite remarkably with the territory of the Brigantes-especially the coastal areas .Sweet Gale (Myrica gale) also called bog myrtle ,is the most elusive nowadays ,yet here I am quite close to its restircted range

Yarrow (see my gallery and herbal notes in the blog-the soldiers herb par excellence ) is adittive number two,and wild rosemary is the third.

Gruit producers had individual formulae and tweaked add-ons (ginger, juniper,aniseed etc).

Now gruit is highly intoxicating,narcotic and very aphrodesiacal-enhancing sexual activity and leading to a euphoric state. So far so good you may say. Gruit was the main ale of Europe for 700 years and hops were unknown as an addittive, the Holy Catholic Church was the official Monopoliser of the production of gruit.

So we se a splendid religious congruity betwen the scriptural exhortation to multiply fruitfully over the earth and the provision of a useful popular drinkable supplement to enhance this laudable aim.

The rise of Protestantism is the rise of the hop- indeed a flavoursome and useful plant , but alas no servant of Priapus. Indeed the sobriety of Luther is paralleled by the somnolence of the hopped beer drinker, and of course the destruction of a rival creeds fund raising mainstay.

Pantagathus has linked in an article on his site http://www.thenectarofgods.com/index.asp and you can check Buhners essay via a second link.

Bremetenacum Veterenorium was therefore a very well sited Roman settlement if local beer was available to the Sarmatian veterans...