{{Short description|German beer}} {{multiple issues| {{Expand language|topic=|langcode=De|otherarticle=Braunschweiger Mumme|date=April 2026}} {{expand Georgian|date=May 2026}} }} thumb|100px|right|A bottle of Brunswick Mum thumb|An 1899 advertisement for the Steger Brewery, one of the firms that brewed Brunswick Mum thumb|Advertising approx. from around 1900 for Braunschweiger Mumme, bottled in Brooklyn, N.Y. [[File:Mum Recipe.png|thumb|Recipe "To make Mum" in John Nott's ''The Cooks and Confectioners Dictionary'', 1723]] '''Brunswick Mum''' ({{langx|de|Braunschweiger Mumme}}, {{langx|la|Mumma Brunsvicensium}} or ''Mumia'', {{langx|fr|Mom de Bronsvic}}), is a dark beer originating from Brunswick in Germany, which ranges from weak to strong depending on the brewing method.<ref>{{cite web |url=http://www.braunschweig.de/mummemeile/die-braunschweiger-mumme.html |title=Die Braunschweiger Mumme |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20091217145620/http://www.braunschweig.de/mummemeile/die-braunschweiger-mumme.html |accessdate=2024-04-22 |archive-date=2009-12-17 }}</ref> It was one of the first black beers recorded in history.
==History== Mum originated in the Late Middle Ages.<ref>{{cite web |url=http://www.british-history.ac.uk/report.aspx?compid=58822 |title=Mugwort - Muscovy yarn | publisher =British History |accessdate=2010-03-24 }}</ref> The composition gave the beer a long shelf life that allowed a wide distribution; mum became the most important export from Brunswick and, in the early modern period was shipped to places such as India and the Caribbean. The drink is still sold in Brunswick where since autumn 2008, for the first time in about 200 years, it is produced in alcoholic variants.<ref name=Meile>[http://www.braunschweig.de/mummemeile/ Braunschweiger Mumme-Meile]</ref> Nowadays, an alcohol-free malt extract is also sold as ''doppelte Segelschiff-Mumme''.<ref>{{Cite web |title=Braunschweiger Mumme |url=//www.braunschweig.de/tourismus/ihr-besuch-in-braunschweig/gastronomie/spezialitaeten/spezi_mumme.php |language=German |access-date=19 April 2026 |website=www.braunschweig.de}}</ref>
According to an 18th-century source, a cask of Brunswick mum cost between 40 and 100 rixdollars.<ref>{{cite book |title=A Collection of Voyages and Travels 3rd ed |url=https://www.google.de/books/edition/A_Collection_of_Voyages_and_Travels_Some/Szw3kYM5UEkC?hl=de&gbpv=0 |volume=3 |last1=de Ovalle |first1=Alonso |last2=Monson |first2=William |last3=Baldeus |first3=Philip |author-link3=Philippus Baldaeus |translator=Anonymous |year=1745 |page=[https://www.google.de/books/edition/A_Collection_of_Voyages_and_Travels_Some/Szw3kYM5UEkC?hl=de&gbpv=1&pg=PA596&printsec=frontcover 596] |publisher=London: Printed by Assignment from Messrs. Churchill}}</ref>
==Composition== The 17th-century author David Kellner describes mum as being held in high esteem for its strength, taste and brown color.<ref name="Kellner">{{cite book |last1=Kellner |first1=David |title=Hochnutzbar und bewährte Edle Bierbrau-Kunst |language=de |date=1690 |publisher= Augustus Boëtius |location=Leipzig / Gotha |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=7wadyA8YLZYC |page=138}}</ref> The three types of mum (''Schiff-Mumme'', ''Stadt-Mumme'', ''Erndte-Bier'') mentioned by Kellner are solely composed of barley-malt and hops. It is said that the strongest variety had an almost syrupy consistency, known as ''Schiffsmumme'' or ''doppelte Mumme''.<ref>{{cite book |title=Versuch einer allgemeinen und besondern Nahrungsmittelkunde |url=https://www.google.de/books/edition/Versuch_einer_allgemeinen_und_besondern/_Vs_AAAAcAAJ?hl=de&gbpv=0 |volume=2 |language=German| author=Becker, Johann H. |year=1822 |page=[https://www.google.de/books/edition/Versuch_einer_allgemeinen_und_besondern/_Vs_AAAAcAAJ?hl=de&gbpv=1&pg=PA576&printsec=frontcover 576] |publisher=Stendal: Franzen und Grosse}}</ref>
In contrast to German sources is mum in English literature from the early modern period an unhopped strong wheat-beer, made with the addition of various aromatic herbs.<ref name="Bickerdyke">{{cite book |last1=Bickerdyke |first1=John |title=The Curiosities of Ale and Beer |date=1965 |publisher=Spring Books |location=London |url=https://archive.org/details/curiositiesofale0000john/page/172/mode/2up |pages=172–173}}</ref> The oldest English recipe seems to be published 1682 in ''The Natural History of Coffee, Thee, Chocolate, Tobacco'' by John Chamberlayne and is said to be recorded in Brunswick.<ref name="Chamberlayne">{{cite book |last1=Chamberlayne|first1=John |title=The Natural History of Coffee, Thee, Chocolate, Tobacco |date=1682 |publisher= C. Wilkinson |location=London |url=https://archive.org/details/naturalhistoryof00chamuoft/page/32/mode/2up |pages=32–33}}</ref>
The recipe calls for seven bushels of wheat-malt, one bushel of oat-malt and one bushel of ground beans to make 63 gallons of mum. Eggs are added to prevent the beer from becoming sour. Variations of this recipe are published by later authors, for instance John Nott.<ref name="Nott">{{cite book |last1=Nott |first1=John |title=The Cooks and Confectioners Dictionary |date=1723 |publisher=C. Rivington |location=London |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=P38EAAAAYAAJ}}</ref>{{efn|"Mum, if it be right Brunswick; is a hearty strengthning liquor; and may safely be used sometimes, by such as require strong drink; whose bodies do like, and agree well with it. But our English Mum is not comparable to it; and disparageth the other, being too often sold for Brunswick."<ref name="Maynwaringe">{{cite book |last1=Maynwaringe |first1=Everard |title=The Method and Means of Enjoying Health, Vigour, and Long Life Adapting Peculiar Courses for Different Constitutions, Ages, Abilities, Valetudinary States, Individual Proprieties, Habituated Customs, and Passions of Mind |date=1683 |publisher=Dorman Newman |location=London |url=https://quod.lib.umich.edu/e/eebo2/A50438.0001.001/1:18?g=eebogroup;rgn=div1;view=fulltext;xc=1;q1=The+method+and+means+of+enjoying+health%2C+vigour%2C+and+long+life+adapting+peculiar+courses+for+different+constitutions%2C+ages%2C+abilities%2C+valetudinary+states%2C+individual+proprieties%2C+habituated+customs%2C+and+passions+of+mind |page=119}}</ref>}}
Elisha Coles in ''An English Dictionary'' (1677) states that mum is "a kind of Physical Beer made (originally) at Brunswick in Germany, with husks of walnuts infused".<ref>{{cite book |last1=Coles |first1=Elisha |title=An English Dictionary Explaining the Difficult Terms that are Used in Divinity, Husbandry, Physick, Phylosophy, Law, Navigation, Mathematicks, and Other Arts and Sciences |date=1677 |publisher=London: Printed for Peter Parker |url=https://quod.lib.umich.edu/e/eebo/A33754.0001.001/1:16?c=eebo;c=eebo2;g=eebogroup;rgn=div1;view=fulltext}}</ref> ==Notes== {{notelist}}
==References== {{reflist}}
==Further reading== * Christian Basilius: ''Die Mumme-Fibel der Mumme H. Nettelbeck K.G. Geschichte(n) seit 1390.'' Braunschweig 1999. * {{citation|surname1=Gerd Biegel|editor-surname1=Braunschweig Stadtmarketing|editor-surname2=H. Nettelbeck|title=Das Braunschweiger Mumme-Buch. Geschichte und Rezepte |publication-place=Braunschweig|isbn=978-3-00-029718-2|date= December 2009}} * Andreas Döring: ''Wirth! Nochmal zwo Viertel Stübchen! Braunschweiger Gaststätten & Braunschweiger Bier damals.'' Braunschweig 1997. * Anna Klie: ''Brunswyksche Mumme.'' Braunschweig 1898. * Heinrich Mack: ''Zur Geschichte der Mumme. Insbesondere des Mummehandels im 17. Jahrhundert.'' in: ''Braunschweigisches Magazin.'' Zwißler, Wolfenbüttel 1911,17. * Ernst A. Roloff: ''Heimatchronik der Stadt Braunschweig.'' Archiv für Deutsche Heimatpflege, Köln 1955. * Gerd Spies: ''Das Mummetor.'' Miszellen. Bd 25. Städtisches Museum Braunschweig, Braunschweig 1976. {{ISSN|0934-6201}}
== External links == {{commons category|Braunschweiger Mumme}} * [http://www.bs-mumme.de Official website of Nettelbeck KG, the last mum-brewery] * Chambers, E. (1741). [https://artflsrv04.uchicago.edu/philologic4.7/chambers_new/navigate/2/1700?byte=2315819 Mum. In ''Cyclopaedia'' 4th ed.] * Krünitz, G. J. (1773). [http://www.kruenitz1.uni-trier.de/cgi-bin/getKRArticles.tcl?tid=005_15+opt=1-0#5_14 Braunschweiger Mumme. In ''Oeconomische Encyclopädie''] * Julius Stinde: [https://web.archive.org/web/20090728222836/http://www.ub.fu-berlin.de/~goerdten/stinde93.html ''Zwei Veteranen des Bierstaates'' (1880)] about mum and gose *[https://archive.org/details/curiositiesofale0000john/page/172/mode/2up About mum in ''The Curiosities of Ale and Beer'' (originally published 1889)] by John Bickerdyke *[https://www.google.de/books/edition/The_Art_of_Brewing/9xgZAAAAYAAJ?hl=de&gbpv=1&pg=RA1-PA49&printsec=frontcover Of Brunswick Beer, or Mum] in ''The Art of Brewing'' 2nd ed. (1834) by David Booth
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Category:History of Brunswick Category:Types of beer Category:Culture in Braunschweig Category:Historical alcoholic beverages