BrewU 2013

Well, I'm packed and ready to head down to BrewU in the Shire of Frosted Hills. Just waiting for Lord Finan and Lady Sylvia. Hope I didn't forget anything. I'm super excited to see Master Ludwig and other brewing friends, take some classes, and see what others are doing for projects. I'll blog about it when I get there. Here are the event details: http://www.eastkingdom.org/EventDetails.html?eid=2427

East Kingdom Mapping Project (Take 2)

Wow.  I've really learned a lot about ArcGIS Online since my last post.  There is a private/subscription (paid) version and a public (free) version of accounts.  The public version is far more limited in what it can do, but in some ways, it makes an administrator much more concise with the data.  For example, there is a feature limit and file size limit, both of which I was well within.  However, there is also a limit to feature geometry.  In other words, a polygon cannot exceed a certain number of nodes or vertexes.  I discovered that the hard way.  I pretty much ended up deconstructing coastal features and replacing them with maritime zones.  Basically, I merged these zones with the coast line and islands features.  Oy.  What a job that was.  It simplified the geometry A LOT.  I then generalized the vertexes down to 10 meters which made it possible to upload the polygon files.  Anyway, the map link in my previous post is now dead and this is the new one:  http://bit.ly/10KOp80  I don't plan to change it anytime soon.  Enjoy!  =)

East Kingdom Mapping Project

OK.  So I have LOTS of irons in the fire most of the time.  Today's project is mapping the East Kingdom branches.  I happen to be the acting Seneschal for the Barony of Endewearde and I've just finished sending out the "populace polling forms" for recommending out first territorial Baron and Baroness.  Hopefully our members are filling them out and returning them to the EK Polling Deputy.  Anyway, in the course of ordering the official membership list from SCA, Inc., I had to ask for the ZIP code list from the EK Postal Legatus.  I noticed that the list only included 33 ZIP codes out of the 244 reserved for Endewearde.  In my personal life, I work in IT and map stuff (GIS Manager/Analyst).  I was only able to map 28 and 208 ZIP codes, respectively.  I have since learned that ZIP Codes are meant for mail routes (lines) and are not, strictly-speaking, areas (polygons).  HOWEVER, the USPS and Census Bureau came up with a ZIP code area map, which does not include locations (points) for Post Offices boxes or large organizations like colleges and universities.  So it's possible the difference of 5 ZIP codes is because folks use Post Office boxes instead of receiving mail at a street address.

At the same time I was investigating this, there have been local discussions about staring a canton in Endewearde, our good neighbors in the Incipient Shire of Hadchester have asked about releasing Windsor to them, and I've needed to learn how to use a new mapping service by ESRI, called "ArcGIS Online" for my job.  It's a work in progress, but here's what I've come up with so far:  http://bit.ly/YqzIY7  It's not quite where I want it to be, but it's a start.  I'll keep working on it as I fine-tune my knowledge of ArcGIS Online configurations.

EKBG: Rank Score Structure for Guild Ranks

As I've noted in "About Me", I am a member of the Society for Creative Anachronism, living in the East Kingdom, Barony of Endewearde.  I'm also a member of the East Kingdom Brewers' Guild.  The Guild has ranks and uses a rank score structure for grading brewers' work during a paneling.  More information can be found in the EK Brewers Handbook.  I have had the opportunity to panel other brewers' and have struggled with reading the Rank Score Structure.  At some point I hope to have it committed to memory, but for now I need a better cheat-sheet.  I reformatted the Rank Score Structure to reverse the point classes and only include the additional requirements in each class.  There is a four-page version and a two-page version.  I have shared with Lady Sylvia, the EKBG Mistress, so it may or may not appear on the EKBG website.  So, for my fellow judges in the EKBG, ENJOY!

Old Duck Pond Ale - XXX

Nemo vs. Quebec City Winter Carnival

In the couple of weeks leading up to today, Saturday, Feb. 9, 2013, the weather has been cold, but without much snow.  I was planning to go to Quebec City to see Ludwig and the Winter Carnival. Then winter storm 'Nemo' showed up.  Well, so much for planning.  We're expecting 18 to 24 inches of snow.  I'm at home ready to fire-up the woodstove in-case we lose power and waiting to run the snow blower once it stops snowing.  Right now, it's snowing sideways at about 25 mph and gusting to about 35 mph.  At least it's warm inside and a good time to catch-up on some blogging.

Old Duck Pond Ale - XXX (March 2012)

Last February a friend posted a YouTube link to The Discovery Channel's, "How Beer Saved the World", which aired the year before.  About 18 minutes into it, Dr. Gregg Smith, Author and Historian, talks about river water being contaminated by raw sewage and how drinking it would make you sick. The narrator goes on to say that Dr. Charlie Bamforth, Professor of Brewing Science at UC Davis, conducted an experiment taking a sample of water, tainted with fecial coliform bacteria, from a duck pond, brewing beer with it, and thus “turn[ing] deadly water into drinkable beer”.

Hmm.  Really?  I had to investigate this.  It is a common assertion that prior to the advent of beer, people got sick and probably died from bacterial infected water. In The Time Traveler’s Guide to Medieval England, author Ian Mortimer writes, “As most prosperous peasants have an aversion to drinking water—which is liable to convey dirt and disease into their bodies—they drink ale exclusively.”  We now know that when brewing with hops, it requires boiling to isomerize alpha acids to increasing bitterness and shelf-life.  I suppose if one did not have access to a spring or well, between boiling the wort and fermentation to alcohol, ale and beer probably did save lives.  I also wondered what recipe did Dr. Bamforth used and how it tasted?  This was really intriguing to me.

I contacted Dr. Bamforth on February 15, 2012, for any papers, notes, or advice on this project.  Unfortunately he said:

"I hate to disappoint you, but that was pure television.

The producer's aim was that we should demonstrate that the boiling
stage kills off coliforms [sic] and this we most definitely did, of course.
But there was certainly no brew taken to completion - heck, the
cameras were only here for one day. The beer we were drinking was
commercial. I guest they call that artistic licenses. I resisted for quite
a time the notion that we should be ostensibly be filmed drinking this
duck pond beer, but finally relented.

As regards whatever they gave people to drink in the bar in a later
scene, I have no idea. It certainly wasn't anything brewed here and,
truthfully, I had no idea they were going to do that.

In this day and age and with the availability of pathogen-free water
I would certainly not advocate for beers brewed according to that
particular historical precedent.

Kindest regards
Charlie"

Undaunted, I contacted the Maine Division of Public Health Systems, Health and Environmental Testing Laboratory, for help.  They gave me advice on which test to order, how to collect the sample, and detailed instructions on shipping.  I collected several gallons of water from a local pond on an estate.  The isolated location of the pond, away from roads, agricultural land, farm animals, and other sources of inorganic chemicals, yet being close to wildlife, made this the ideal pond for collecting water for brewing medieval ale.  The sample was collected on February 27th and shipped to the lab the same day.

While all of this was going on, I was finishing up some other projects.  I had been interested in all-grain brewing for some time and decided that if I was going to give it a shot, I would need some new equipment.  I made a mash-tun out of a cooler and turned a stainless-steel, half barrel (15.5 gal.) keg into a brew pot with a lid and spigot (I'll blog about that later.).  I was also researching a good, basic, medieval ale recipe to start brewing from and found the work Tofi Kerthjalfadsson (m.k.a. Paul Placeway) had done.  His sources came from Judith Bennett's book, Ale, Beer, and Brewsters in England.  I used the recipe and technique from his fourth batch, but added ¾ oz. East Kent Goldings hops as a preservative.

I have to admit, the pond water was pretty smelly and needed some straining before adding it to the brew pot on March 3rd, 2012.  I used it in the starch conversion process, or "saccharification rest", and then in sparging.  Once I collected about 5.5 gal. of wort and boiled it, the smell went away.  It fermented to almost 8% and I bottled it on March 11th.  In hind-sight, it needed more time in the secondary fermenter.  (Oops.)

Art work by my lovely
Lady Agatha Wanderer.

The lab results were somewhat disappointing.  It was tested for the presence of coliform and E. coli.  The test results were positive for coliform, but negative for E. coli. Coliform bacteria naturally occur in soil, on vegetation, and in outdoor water sources such as ponds. They may not cause serious illness on their own, but are easily cultured and usually used to indicate the potential presence of pathogenic organisms of fecal origin.  While coliform infected water is gross and nothing you would want to drink; the experiment would have been more fun with E. coli.

I tasted the ale on March 31st, 2012.  It was strong and malty, but mostly over carbonated.  In fact, even after chilling down to 40 degrees, the bottles exploded in foam until very little was left in the bottle.  I had to pour out all 50 or so bottles to avoid a catastrophe in my basement later in the spring or summer.  Still, it tasted pretty good and I didn't get sick.

I had a pretty busy brewing and project schedule last year, so I didn't get to try again.  I'll probably give it another go this spring (2013).  I'm hopeful the sample will test positive for coliform AND E. coli.  If it does, I'll have the fermented ale tested before bottling it.

As an aside, through the Middle Ages in England, "ale" referred to beer that was made without hops.  Instead, it was spiced with other herbs and called "gruit".  Beer spiced with hops was referred to "beer".  Later, as hops were more widely adopted, "ale" referred to a strong beer and was spiced with hops.  The two terms have since been used more interchangeably, though Porter and Stout were never referred to as "ales". Also, water, as an ingredient, frequently gives beer its distinctive character.  Martyn Cornell has a great article on the history of water on his website, Zythofphile, that I would recommend reading.

OK, Getting Started, Again

I started this blog with the hope of documenting my SCA-related work, but always seemed to find something else to do. First-off, I work in IT, so naturally I usually have every little to do with electrons in my spare time; hence, my involvement in the SCA, and my love for brewing, archery, and leatherwork. Oh, and tabletop gaming. ;-)

Anyway my very good friend, Lady Sylvia, has been encouraging me to start posting my brewing work. I did some really fun projects last year that I really enjoyed doing and I think others will find quite amusing. Let me just say, co k ale, duck pond ale, and vanilla cream ale. They tasted better than they sound! My dear friend, mentor, and SCA Laurel, Master Ludwig (though he prefers to be called 'Ludwig'), always encourages me be brewing; though maybe more outside my comfort zone with ales and beers. So, it's time I get to it.

Rather than try to figure out a way to back date my blog entries for work I did a year ago, I figure I'll just go ahead and blog about projects I'm working on now and throw in some entries about my previous work. I also just decided to pepper this mostly-about-brewing blog with other archery and leather working projects I'm doing too. Hate to waste the opportunity to share knowledge and spread the good word about fun things to do in the SCA!

So for my first blog, I'm finally getting to carve my kuurna (Scandinavian brewing vessel for Sahti). There is quite the back-story here, but for now, I got the thing debarked. It took about an hour or so to hack off the bark and phloem. After about 10 minutes, my right forearm really started tightening up It's funny what goes through your mind doing time-consuming, repetitive action tasks. I heard a joke the other day. What did the right-eye say to the left-eye? "Between the two of us, something smells." HA! Anyway, my right-arm usually laughs at my left-arm for being completely useless. Eventually, even it had to give in and share the burden. It was a little touch and go while old lefty was swinging the hatchet. It was chopping inaccurately and bouncing away at unintended angles. I was sure to keep myself out of the way so as to avoid a trip to the emergency room. When lefty got tired, righty took over. We took breaks as needed and before you know it, lefty was hitting the mark more often and doing it's share of the work. Yay! So about an hour later, we're done and back inside the warm house typing away at this blog. Let's see if I can post some pictures now...

There we go. Now to work on some leather projects. I'm going to cut out some leather for a really fancy flacket that's in the back of Purses and Pieces. Then line some other flackets with brewers's pitch. I'll post some pictures of those things too.