ALE, a fermented liquor obtained from an infusion of malt, and differing from beer chiefly in having a less proportion of hops. This liquor, the natural substitute of wine in such countries as could not produce the grape, is said to have originally been made in Egypt, the first planted kingdom, on the dispersion from the East, that was supposed unable to produce grapes. And, as the Noachian colonies pierced further into the west, they found, or thought they found, the same defect, and supplied it in the same manner. Thus the natives of Spain, the inhabitants of France, and the aborigines of Britain, all used an infusion of barley for their ordinary liquor; and it was called by the various names of Caelia and Ceria in the first country, Cerevisia in the second, and Cur-mi in the last; all literally importing only the strong water.

“All the several nations,” says Pliny, “who inhabit the west of Europe, have a liquor with which they intoxicate themselves, made of corn and water. The manner of making this liquor is sometimes different in Gaul, Spain, and other countries, and is called by many various names; but its nature and properties are everywhere the same. The people of Spain, in particular, brew the liquor so well that it will keep good a long time. So exquisite is the cunning of mankind in gratifying their vicious appetites, that they have thus invented a method to make water itself intoxicate.” The method in which the ancient Britons and other Celtic nations, made their ale is thus described by Isidorus and Orosius: “The grain is steeped in water and made to germinate, by which its spirits are excited and set at liberty; it is then dried and grinded; after which it is infused in a certain quantity of water; which, being fermented, becomes a pleasant, warming, strengthening, and intoxicating liquor.” This ale was most commonly made of barley, but sometimes of wheat, oats, and millet.

Anciently the Welsh and Scots had also two kinds of ale, called common ale and spiced ale ; and their value was thus ascertained by law: “If a farmer hath no mead, he shall pay two casks of spiced ale, or four casks of common ale, for one cask of mead.” By this law, a cask of spiced ale, nine palms in height and eighteen palms in diameter, was valued at a sum of money equal in efficacy to L.7. 10s. of our present money; and a cask of common ale of the same dimensions at a sum equal to L.3. 15s. This is a sufficient proof that even common ale at that period was an article of luxury among the Welsh, which could only be obtained by the great and opulent. Wine seems to have been quite unknown even to the kings of Wales at that period, as it is not so much as once mentioned in their laws; though Giraldus Cambrensis, who flourished about a century after the Conquest, acquaints us that there was a vineyard in his time at Maenarper, near Pembroke, in South Wales.

Ale was the favourite liquor of the Anglo-Saxons and Danes, as it had been of their ancestors the ancient Germans. Before their conversion to Christianity, they believed that drinking large and frequent draughts of ale was one of the chief felicities which those heroes enjoyed who were admitted into the hall of Odin. See Brewing, and Licensing. Medicated ALES, those wherein medicinal herbs have been infused or added during the fermentation.

Gill ALE is that in which the dried leaves of gill or ground-ivy have been infused. It is esteemed abstersive and vulnerary, and consequently good in disorders of the breast and obstructions of the viscera.

ALE-Conner, an officer in London, who inspects the measures used in public houses. There are four ale-con-ners, who are all chosen by the liverymen in common-hall on Midsummer-day.

ALE-Silver, a tax paid annually to the lord-mayor of London by all who sell ale within the citÿ.