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- Caroline Boswell: And there 
were different strengths

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of drink at this time.

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You had small beer, which would 
be a weaker beer,

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often brewed by pouring 
additional hot water

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on top of the original mash 
from the first brew.

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You had middle beer, 
which would be, you know,

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the first batch of relatively 
strong beer.

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And then you had strong beer.

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And this was really what we 
would call high-gravity beer.

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And of course, people at the 
time drank all three kinds

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depending on the time of day 
it was.

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You probably drank small beer 
in the morning,

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and then maybe middle 
and strong beer

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over the course of your day.

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And a lot of it depended 
on your occupation.

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For a long time, historians 
assumed that poor people

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and especially day laborers, 
perhaps farmhands,

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drank only small beer, 
but in fact,

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they often drank strong beer 
because,

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part of the reason drink was 
an everyday necessity

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was that it's, as we know, 
high in calories, right.

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And so, actually, 
landowners would fight

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for the best farmhands by 
offering the strongest beer

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because that would actually 
be part of your pay.

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And this would be, you know, 
legendary

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or it would be passed down by 
rumor that such-and-such a farm,

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if you labored there, had the 
strongest beer on offer.

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And now, people have asked me, 
well, how exactly was it

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that people were able 
to be productive

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if they were drinking 
particularly strong beer?

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And that is a question

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that historians have not quite 
answered yet.

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[audience laughing]

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Let's talk a little bit, 
something about the name.

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Public house, they weren't owned 
by the state,

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despite the fact they're called 
public houses.

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They were public houses because 
they were open to the public.

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Right, and so, therefore, 
they had to provide

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very specific services 
to be licensed.

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And that's where the name "pub" 
comes from.

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It's a short version 
of "public house."

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They very specifically had 
three different types

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of drinking establishments.

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They had inns, they had taverns, 
and they had ale houses.

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Inns were large establishments.

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Innkeepers were relatively 
wealthy.

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Sometimes they even participated 
in local politics.

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And they catered to 
a wealthier clientele.

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You're not gonna find your dukes 
or kings here.

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The toffs don't go to where 
the ordinary people hang out.

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But still, you're gonna be 
talking about

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relatively wealthy people.

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And they're gonna be 
attending inns

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largely because they need 
sustenance, right,

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and they need a place to stay.

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So inns, in order to be 
licensed,

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obviously had to offer 
accommodations to people.

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They had to have stables, 
which again,

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suggests they're wealthy 
clientele

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if you can afford a horse.

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And, of course, you had 
to have food.

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But additionally, 
what people wanted

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was access to private rooms.

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Not just to sleep, 
but to socialize

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because they didn't necessarily 
want to mix

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with the general population

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that might be attending the inn 
at any given time.

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And so, they very much cater to 
a specific, more elite class

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and as such they offer 
more beverages

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than, say, an ale house.

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They're gonna offer wine 
in addition to beer,

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ale, and potentially cider 
and perry,

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depending on what part of 
England you're in.

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Taverns, again, catered to 
relatively well-to-do,

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as they would call them, people 
in the early modern period.

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They specifically sold wine,

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though you could, of course, 
purchase beer there as well,

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but you went to the tavern 
to purchase wine.

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And wine was more expensive 
in England than beer

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because it was not produced 
there.

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And so, it was again, 
wealthier merchants

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who would be able 
to afford this.

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So they're largely going there 
to purchase their wine.

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And in fact, sometimes 
you would go

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just to simply purchase it 
and take it home, right,

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because most people did not make 
their own wine.

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In fact, the vast majority 
of people did not.

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Taverns, much like inns,

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also had to offer a degree 
of accommodations,

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though that wasn't their primary 
purpose like an inn.

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The lowest and most prolific 
of all of these

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kind of drinking establishments 
was the ale house.

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Ale houses were far less 
permanent structures

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than taverns or inns.

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Oftentimes, they were simply 
someone's house

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that had opened up 
as an ale house

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in part to supplement income.

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But they were definitely much 
smaller, less affluent places.

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Their primary purpose, of 
course, was to offer beer.

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Originally they offered ale,

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but ale had more or less 
been replaced,

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since ale is unhopped beer 
in England.

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This is the Medieval image

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and you can see 
what's going on here,

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is this woman, 
who is an ale wife,

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right, she runs an ale house,

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is welcoming her new customer, 
who is clearly a monk,

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he's quite thirsty, 
very happy to see

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that she has ale available 
for him.

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And how does he know this?

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Well, at this time, if you were 
going to sell ale

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and you didn't do it regularly,

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the way in which you signaled 
the fact

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that you had a fresh brew ready

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was that you put the ale stake 
at the top of your house.

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Which in this case is this 
broom, so it's an ale stake,

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hanging out to signal to 
passersby:

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"Hey, we're open 
for business today.

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"Come on in, we've got 
a fresh brew."

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And this, obviously, is the 
precursor to the pub sign,

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right, which becomes a more 
permanent fixture in the future.

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But this was how ale houses 
tended to operate

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in the Medieval era.

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Eventually, they'll become more 
permanent structures,

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but the illegal ones, kind of in 
and out, as you might imagine,

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depending on when they were 
unearthed

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by the local authorities.