Right now, Mumme is in fact the word. No, not the sparkling grape-derived drink with a similar brand name, but rather our new-but-old-but-new historically-inspired ale that hailed originally from Germany.
As you’ll know by now, we love a heritage beer at Beerblefish – our range based on nineteenth century recipes has been around for a few years and we’ve just decided to make our Viking Ale a permanent fixture (with a shiny new label – more to come on that) – and the latest style to take our fancy is from the German city of Braunschweig (or Brunswick in English). This style was called Mumme in Braunschweig, but was often written Mum in England.
In common with many more recent brews, there were two types of Mumme brewed – one was made for the home market and was low in alcohol, while the other was exported – known as Schiffsmumme because it was for shipping.
The people of Braunschweig had started brewing Mumme by the time it was first recorded in the late fifteenth century and it remained popular until the late eighteenth century, at which time its popularity started to wane – helped along in Britain by a high import duty no doubt designed to protect the British brewing industry. An ale called Mum continued to be brewed in Ireland (then part of the UK) but other beers took over and the style was consigned to the beer history books.
Braunschweiger Mumme’s demise predates the national adoption of the German beer purity law, but it is thought that this kind of ale brewed in northern Germany was part of the reason that Bavaria, in the south, introduced the law in the early sixteenth century, in order to protect Bavaria’s own beers from competition – Mumme used ingredients that fell outside the beer purity law, including herbs, spices and stone fruits (usually plums or prunes).
Our Mumme includes prunes, cardamom, cinnamon, camomile and orange peel, which are made into a kind of tea before being added to the wort. It took Michaela and Glenn a few tries to get the combinations and proportions right and they found it was better to brew a tea with each ingredient and then combine them, rather than starting with a mixture of ingredients.
The malt bill for our Mumme includes three types of malted barley (extra pale, crystal 150 and Munich malt) along with dark malted wheat. The only hop is Hallertauer Mittelfruh, which is used for bittering, while the spiced tea does all the work for the flavour and aroma.
The result is a dark, slightly smoky ale with a spicy and fruity edge to it and a silky mouthfeel. At 6.9% ABV, it’s quite robust, but still very drinkable and very different from anything we’ve brewed before.
You’ll find it now in our online shop and it will be available from our stockists very soon. Tried it? Let us know what you think!
