[Sca-cooks] Beverage experiments

[Phil Troy / G. Tacitus Adamantius]

On Feb 13, 2008, at 8:12 PM, jenne at fiedlerfamily.net wrote:

> Well, there's lots of 14th-16th c. garden pictures, etc. of people  
> cooling
> something in jugs placed in containers of water, streams, well- 
> heads, etc.
> But it's not clear what they are cooling, since we can't really see.

Nor can we see how cool the stream is; it's presumably a safe  
assumption it is below 98.6, but how much below, who knows?

> It's certainly possible that fewer of the brewed grain beverages
> (ales/beers) made in period were meant to be served chilled--  
> apparently
> lagers are the most outstanding of category of beers-to-be-served- 
> cold,
> and lagers, using a more cold-adapted and bottom-fermenting yeast,  
> seem to
> have been less common in period.

Yes, and also not very common in England, where a lot of SCAdians get  
their sources from.

> And ales, so says my local beer nerd, are generally to be drunk room  
> temperature.

Your LBN is correct. Of course, we also don't know what "room  
temperature" is, apart from a general range and some clues based on  
what people are wearing, etc. Central heating being a rarity and all...

Adamantius