SC - list newbie/Seasonal food.

[Ted Eisenstein]

sca-cooks at ansteorra.org wrote:
> > > >. . . . In short, there's a distinct possibility these people weren't so much drinking an alcoholic beverage as drinking "liquid bread". < < < <

> In some cases I think they may have been drinking 'small beer' also, at least when fasting, which would have been very low in alcohol. (Small beer is only fermented for a few days.) < 

Some monastic references such as letters suggest that the heavier beers were made during late winter/early spring to offer sustenance during the times of strict fasting during lent (other times as well, but this time in particular).  The small beers were the every-day stuff of any time of year, in general.  Grain orders of huge amounts of oats, barley, wheat and the like are not uncommon at this point of the year in order to brew the substantial beers.

niccolo