>A listing of resources, crops, crafts, shrines, wyters etc.
This is what I remember from being a licensee and publican for ten years and helping out CAMRA’s Beer Festival at my venue this year in Derby.
Brewing Beer.
The word ‘beer comes from the Anglo-Saxon word for barley-*Baere*. Barley
is used primary for three reasons
O It is 80% starch, which is converted to fermentable sugar.
O It contains the enzyme *Diastase* that converts starch into fermentable
sugar. All beers have to use some barley for that reason, even though some
beers are made using other grains such as wheat, rice or maize.
O Once malted barley provides a rich flavour.
There are five processes in brewing beer, Conversion, Extraction,
Flavouring, Fermentation, and Conditioning.
Conversion- Once harvested the barley grains are *steeped* (soaked) in water
to stimulate germination. The excess water is drained away and the grain is
keep warm and moist to keep the germination (and the conversion) process
going. The starch is slowly turned into sugar. The germination process is
ended by drying the grain in a kiln turning the grain into *malted barley*
or just *malt*.
[The Minlister brewer could use the same kiln as either Pella potters’ or
Mahome the hearth baker (Worshippers of Mahome make the bread I presume?).
This would save building additional kilns plus the bakers and the brewers
share the yeast as well? ]
There are different malts, *Pale malt* is lightly roasted and gives the
maximum amount of sugar (pale ale gets its name from this), *Crystal malt*
is medium roasted and a small amount is added to some beers to add flavour
and colouring, *Black malt* has its sugars caramelised and are usually added
to make stouts (such as Guinness or Murphy’s).
Extraction is the process to get at the converted sugar. The malted grains are put through a mill and crushed which produces *grist*. Smaller brews would call for the use of a *hand quern* to grind the grain. The grist is then soaked with *liquor* (water) at a temperature of 65°C in *mash tun* for about two hours. The resulting sugary, sweet solution called *wort* (pronounced ‘wert’) can be drained off.
The wort is then poured into a vessel known as a *copper* and boiled for two
more hours. [This copper could be Minlister’s cauldron Karni.] Flowers
from *hops* are added to give flavour, aroma and tannin. In Britain
fertilized seeded hops are used which gives more bitterness hence the word
Bitter to describe a type of beer. Unhopped beer is usually called *ale*
and is known to be sweeter than beer. During the 15th and 16th centuries in
Britain, there were fierce debates about ale (unhopped) verses beer (hopped)
in taverns.
The sweet liquid called *hopped wort* is cooled to 20°C and is assessed for
its potential ABV (alcohol by volume).
Fermentation begins with the ‘pitching in’ of the yeast. If the yeast is top-fermenting (similar to bakers yeast) the yeast forms a foamy barrier floating on top of the liquid called a ‘yeast crop’. Open topped vessels can be used for fermenting the beer that should last about a week. Bottom-fermenting yeast is used in colder conditions in which the beer matures more slowly. As the liquid is not protected from the air it is fermented in closed containers called *lagers* hence the name lager beer or lager.
The beer is conditioned by putting it into wooden casks and racked. The contents settle and enough yeast is left so that the beer continues a slight fermentation, which adds ‘sparkle’ (CO2). Sometimes a little extra sugar is added to encourage this process, which is called *priming* the beer. [This is Minlister’s magic touch].
Beer types are Bitter (seeded bitter flavoured hops are used with crystal malts added), Lager (bottom-fermenting yeast is used along with lots of hops and pale malts), Mild (low in alcohol, lightly hopped and crystal malts used), Pale Ale (pale malts used and lightly hopped), Brown ale (unhopped, sweet and well coloured), Strong Ale (lots of additional sugar is used to add more alcohol), Barley Wine (a strong, sweet beer which is high in alcohol and lightly hopped), and Stout (high roasted black malts are used and are sweetened by milk sugar).
... Aeolia, where the storm-clouds have their home, a place teeming with furious winds from the south. Here Aeolus is king, and in a vast cavern he controls the brawling winds and the roaring storms, keeping them curbed and fettered in their prison. Resentfully they rage from door to door in the mountainside, protesting loudly, while Aeolus sits in his high citadel, sceptre in hand, taming their arrogance and controlling their fury.
Virgil. The Aeneid.
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