[Sca-cooks] OT - brewing book

[Philip & Susan Troy]

Also sprach Devra at aol.com:
>Good Gentles,
>
>Do any of you know of the following book?  It has been offered to me
>as an item I might sell, and I know very little of brewing....
>
>"The Complete Practical Brewer", 1852, by M.L. Byrn. Not to be confused
>with the "Practical Brewer" from the Master Brewers Association, this
>book is an early American brewing book.  It contains period recipes,
>discussions on process, and a dedicated chapter to the production of
>porter.

First off, I'll say right away that I have not seen this book.
However, I'm of two minds about a source like this. While it's great
for the SCA's brewing community to learn to brew in a more authentic
fashion than by using modern recipes, kits and spray-dried malt
extract or syrup, I am also concerned that such a source could
contribute to a sense that many brewers in the SCA have, which posits
that brewing being a period art form, anything you can brew is, de
facto, period. It's bad enough that the majority of brewing
competition judges seem to measure everything according to standards
set by either Guinness or Bass, neither of which is even remotely
medieval in style, and then there's the free use of things like
chocolate (note that I didn't say chocolate malt, which use in period
brewing I question too;  I said _chocolate_) in brewing recipes
frequently tripped over in the SCA.

And this being a source from 1852, it will have enough of the cachet
(is that the right word?) of being _old_, while still being more or
less similar to modern brewing methods (cane sugar, maltodextrin
and/or lactose as occasional adjuncts, etc.), to send a confusing
message about period brewing.

On the other hand, we're supposed to be big boys and girls, and it
does sound like fun... I would probably buy a copy, although I don't
tend to do 19th-century brewing in the milieu of the SCA.

Adamantius