Earliest medieval mention of hops
Probably the earliest medieval mention of the plant is a
charter of A.D. 768 in which King Pepin the Short deeded
some hop gardens (homularia) to the monastery of St.Denis.[585]
During the reign of Charlemagne and Louis the
Pious the evidence multiplies. Abbot Ansegis (823-833)
lists amongst the annual deliveries to be made to the Abbey
of St.-Wandrille (Fontanella): "beer made from hops, as
much as is needed" (sicera homulone quantum necessitas
exposcit).[586]
Hops were part of the revenues paid to the
Abbey of St.-Germain-des-Prés from several outlying
possessions (The fiscs of Combs-la-Ville, of Marenil and of
Boissy),[587]
and the plant is mentioned in various places in
deeds of the abbey of Freisingen, dating from the reign of
Louis and Pious as well as from later periods.[588]
All of these references to the plant, in conjunction with
the detailed directives issued by Abbot Adalhard on the
tithing and internal distribution of hops leave no doubt
that, at the time of Louis the Pious, hops had become a
customary ingredient of beer produced in the transalpine
monasteries of the Empire.[589]
One of the beneficial effects of its admixture, besides the
distinctive flavor it imparted to the brew, was that owing
to its antibiotic properties it prolonged the life of beer
considerably over that of the older and more perishable
ale.[590]
This was of great importance when storage in bulk
was required and where transportation was involved—as
they inevitably were in the beer economy of a monastic
settlement.
Contemporary sources make it quite clear that not
all the beer consumed by the monks and their serfs
was brewed inside the monastic enclosure. All the larger
outlying agricultural holdings, and many of the smaller
ones, had their own facilities for brewing. The delivery of
a tenth of their home-brewed beer was a standard procedure
in the tithing of tenants. Records of these tithes
appear in the deeds of the monastery of St. Gall from as
early as the middle of the eighth century. Some of the
tenants had licenses to set up taverns, and many of these
continued to pay for their tenancy through the delivery of
beer even later, when all other forms of tithing in naturalia
had been abolished.[591]
