[Sca-cooks] ale/ol

[Stefan li Rous]

Adamantius said:
> Also sprach Jadwiga Zajaczkowa / Jenne Heise:
> >I'm thinking about drinks, and I'd say maybe barley water as the 
> closest
> >to small beer? Maybe a honey drink to resemble small mead?
>
> Were you present at Southern Region War Camp for the discussion on
> unusual beverages for SCA use? Seeing as it is a Viking-ish event,
> you might make a simple "tea" out of malt (in which case you'd have
> to mash and rack it) or malt extract (in which case you would not),
> suitably flavored with herbs. I'm sure between you and, say, John
> Marshall, you could come up with a nice flavoring gruit. Maybe
> something with sage.
So, what's the difference between this and small beer?
>
> This drink is known as ale (or rather, ol). While it should be
> fermented, it is also spoken of in sagas as being drunk on the same
> day it is mashed, so drinking it flat and unfermented would not be
> much of a stretch at all. If you're not fermenting the stuff, and
> just using malt to flavor and add a little body to the water (which
> will then taste just a tad like Arizona Iced Tea), even using malt
> extract would be well within your budget, I suspect.
If this is different from small beer, then I've not heard of it before 
and would love to see more info.

For some more on small beer, see this Florilegium file:
small-beer-msg    (20K) 11/ 6/03    A weakly alcoholic beer made using 
the grain
                                        from a previous batch of beer
http://www.florilegium.org/files/BEVERAGES/small-beer-msg.html

For s tiny bit on barley tea:
infusions-msg     (24K)  3/26/02    Period infusions. Herbal "teas". 
Barley tea.
http://www.florilegium.org/files/BEVERAGES/infusions-msg.html

If you are specifically looking for non-alcholic recipes there are some 
in this file:
beverages-NA-msg  (80K)  9/ 2/99    Non-alcoholic beverages.
http://www.florilegium.org/files/BEVERAGES/beverages-NA-msg.html

And another lightly alcoholic drink, and perhaps known to some Norse in 
Russia, was kvass:
kvass-msg         (73K)  7/ 4/04    Russian drink made from bread or 
grains.
http://www.florilegium.org/files/BEVERAGES/kvass-msg.html

But small-beer and kvass and probably others are only lightly 
alcoholic. If this is because of the SCA rules on serving alcohol made 
or bought with SCA money, I don't know how little (none?) there must 
be.

Stefan
--------
THLord Stefan li Rous    Barony of Bryn Gwlad    Kingdom of Ansteorra
    Mark S. Harris           Austin, Texas          
StefanliRous at austin.rr.com
**** See Stefan's Florilegium files at:  http://www.florilegium.org ****