Use of hops as a flavoring agent
The explanatory titles of the various bake and brew
houses of the Plan of St. Gall contain no direct reference to
the use of hops as a flavoring agent in the production of
beer, but it is quite possible that a tacit allusion to this
plant is hidden in the second half of the title which defines
the Brewers' Granary as the place "where the cleansed
grain is kept and where what goes to make beer is prepared"
(granarium ubi mandatū frumentum seru&ur & qd ad
ceruisā praeparatur).[578]
This granary is ideally located, in
the middle between the Monk's Brewhouse and their
Drying Kiln—which in addition to serving as a facility for
parching fruit and grapes, could also have performed the
function of a monastic oast house.[579]
There is sufficient evidence to make it clear that the
hopping of beer was in the early Middle Ages a widespread
monastic practice north of the Alps. In his Administrative
Directives of A.D. 822 Abbot Adalhard of Corbie addresses
himself in detail to the procedures that should control the
tithing of hops and their distribution among the various
monastic officials placed in charge of brewing.[580]
He makes
it a point to exempt the miller from making malt or from
growing hops (nec braces faciendo nec humulonem) because
of the weight of his other duties.[581]
