E. Cobham Brewer 1810–1897. Dictionary of Phrase and Fable. 1898.
Lamb’s Wool.
A beverage consisting of the juice of apples roasted over spiced ale. A great day for this drink was the feast of the apple-gathering, called in Irish la mas ubhal, pronounced “lammas ool,” and corrupted into “lamb’s wool.”
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“The pulpe of the rosted apples, in number foure or five … mixed in a wine quart of faire water, laboured together untill it come to be as apples and ale, which we call lambes wool.”—Johnson’s Gerard, p. 1460.
