[Ansteorra] Re: [Ansteorra-announce] Brewing and Vintning Competition at Lughnasad

[David Hughes]

"Mark.S Harris" wrote:
>
> Greetings Padraig,
>
> I will be off at Pennsic during your event, so this doesn't affect
> me personally, but I'm curious why you are disallowing cordials?
>
> I see this indicated in two places:
> 1) no specific category for this
> 2) you make it illegal to add additional alcohol to a beverage.
>
> I do think this is a good requirement for the categories you
> mention, since the only period version, as far as I know, would
> be some fortified wines such as sherry and introducing non-period
> ingredients including extra alcohol gets us further away from
> creating authentic period beverages.
>
> However, most period cordials appear to be made by soaking spices
> in wine, and sometimes other alcoholic beverages, then distilling
> these.  Because it is illegal (in the USA) to distill beverages
> without a license, the only way to come close to a period cordial
> is to use a previously distilled beverage such as brandy or vodka
> to steep the spices in.

Or to get a license.  There's a special category for research, usually
only issued to universities.  I keep hoping someone is willing to jump
through all the hoops needed for one of these as a matter of
"historical research".
Now, if I hit the lottery, I'd be tempted to endow a chair at T A&M
for "Food and Beverages of pre-Renn. Western Europe" with the
requirement that they secure such a license, and I be permitted to
audit the associated labs <G>.

David Gallowglass
>
> For those who might say cordials were not made in period or that
> distilled beverages weren't period, take a look at the evidence
> given in these files in the BEVERAGES section of the Florilegium:
> bev-distilled-msg(118K)  9/22/00    Medieval distilled beverages.
> Distilling.
> http://www.florilegium.org/files/BEVERAGES/bev-distilled-msg.html
> cordials-msg     (106K)  5/16/01    Period cordials and liqueurs. SCA
> creations.
> http://www.florilegium.org/files/BEVERAGES/cordials-msg.html
>
> And two well-written articles that won high honors at a Middle
> Kingdom A&S event, even though she did not even have her AoA then:
> Apricot-Crdal-art (12K)  6/30/00    "Apricot Cardamom Cordial"
>                                        by Constance de LaRose.
> http://www.florilegium.org/files/BEVERAGES/Apricot-Crdal-art.html
> Kiwi-cordial-art  (10K)  6/23/00    "Prickly Gooseberry, Mango,
> Cardamom,
>                                        Cordial" by Constance de LaRose.
> http://www.florilegium.org/files/BEVERAGES/Kiwi-cordial-art.html
>
> Again Padraig, it is your contest and your event, so I'm not saying
> you have to allow something or not. But I am curious as to the
> reasoning for this. I have posted this to the Ansteorra list in the
> hope that perhaps others will learn something from this message or
> be intrigued enough to pursue things on their own.
>
> THLord Stefan li Rous
> stefan at texas.net
>
> Padraig O'Maolagain wrote:
> > Brewers and Vintners!
> >
> > Bring your best creations to enter in the Brewing and Vintning Competition at Lughnasad!
> >
> > The categories are:
> >
> > Ales and Beers
> > Lagers and Bochs
> > Wines and Meads
> > Non-Alcoholic
> >
> > All alcohol content must be the result of natural fermentation (no added alcohol).  Documentation can be as simple as a list of your ingredients and methods.
> >
> > Prizes for all categories!
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