Farmhouse ale Farmhouse ale Farmhouse ale is an ancient European tradition where farmers brewed beer for consumption on the farm from their own grain, hops, and yeast. Most farmers would brew for Christmas and/or harvest time, but in areas where they had enough grain farmers would use beer as the every-day drink. This was in a time when it was safer to drink beer than water. Farmhouse ale has enormous variation in the ingredients and brewing process used, both of which follow ancient local traditions. Today many microbreweries make beers they market as farmhouse ale, but in most cases the connection with
Cock ale a decay'd Nature." A contemporary biographer claimed that King William III preferred Cock ale over wine. The drink's entry in Robert Nares's "Glossary" describes it as "a sort of ale which was very celebrated in the seventeenth century for its superior quality". Also included in that entry is a quote from Ned Ward's "The London Spy", which calls Cock ale "a mixture of small-beer and treacle", although the author continues: "if this be "cock-ale", said I, e'en let "cocks-combs" drink it." Nathan Bailey's "Dictionarium britannicum" (1736) describes it as a "pleasant drink, said to be provocative", a sentiment mirrored by