[Sca-cooks] steins and dolmans?

[Phil Troy / G. Tacitus Adamantius]

On May 28, 2011, at 3:13 AM, Stefan li Rous wrote:

> I always think of "steins" as heavy, glass beer mugs. Is that too narrow a definition? Are they even period?

I have no idea of periodicity, but steins, the name suggests, would ideally be some sort of stone or stone-based ceramic vessel; glass or metal versions would be variations on the functional shape of the original concept, which as I say, the name suggests would be some sort of stoneware.

Clive La Pensee, in one of his books on historical brewing (maybe A Historical Companion To House-Brewing?) says that we place far too much importance, as moderns, to clarity in brews, since the usual aging period and the various methods of racking and/or filtration found in most of the old recipes suggests that most of the brews would have been rather cloudy and chunky by modern standards. Essentially, he's saying period folk wouldn't have been too concerned about clarity since the drinking vessels were usually opaque, as in, say, stoneware.

Adamantius (no, really, I really am going to bed now)