For more information or to ask questions, feel free to contact any member via e-mail, or post a note below.
Guild Members:
Oswyn Swan of Bath - Guild Master
Elisabetha Schlafer von Wurttemberg
Brew series:
January 2016:
(Jan. 31) Brewing Basics: Mead, Cider, and Beer - a SCA and Makerspace collaboration with St John the Divine
July-September 2014:
(July 26) Makerspace Workshop Prep Day 1: Mead
(August 9 or 10) Makerspace Workshop Prep Day 2: Beer brewing
(September 27 or 28) Makerspace Workshop (and packing list to make sure we get everything there)
October-November 2013:
Brew Day Part 1: When Life Gives You Lemons, Brew Everything
Brew Day Part 2: Rack and Roll
Brew Day Part 4: Time to Share the Wealth
Recipe Links:
For those interested in learning more about making beer, mead, cordials, or sodas, feel free to visit some of the following links. Most likely, you'll find more information than you'll know what to do with, and some of it may make you feel inadequate to the task of brewing. Just remember that the art of brewing is as much about experimentation as it is about expertise.
Basic brewing:
Mead:
Our Shire's (and others') Mead Recipes
Cider:
Stovetop Pasteurization to Make Sweet Carbonated Cider
Cordials:
Gunther Anderson's Cordial Recipes (including listings by flavor)
Non-Alcoholic Brewing:
Period Beer:
Recreating Medieval English AlesMore techniques and a touch of food science / food mad science:
Brulosophy's exBeeriment series, including
Blind taste testing gelatin-fined and not-fined beers: Most folks couldn't taste a difference and visually preferred the clearer gelatin-fined one
18 handy tips to make brewing faster and more streamlined
Glossary of Terms:
http://www.foamrangers.com/glossary.html
General Resources:
Medieval/Renaissance Brewing PageBeer Judge Certification Program - Mead Judging Exam Study Guide
Ayreton_Brewing - Ayreton's Brewers' Guild is open to anyone interested in learning more about period brewing. They're in the Chicago area, but have meetings at various events around the region, and are fast becoming the kingdom's guild simply because they're the largest and most active.
Local sources of empty bottles:
As of Feb. 2011, the Black Dog Smokehouse in Urbana says:
- The brewers' guild has an open invite to take empties from their recycling stash whenever empties are needed; talk to one of the wait staff about where the recycling collection is kept.
- Their recycling team picks up on Thursday and Monday mornings, so the most bottles would be available on Wednesday and Sunday nights, but the empties are available whenever they're not swamped by meal rush hours.
- ETA ETA: Huzzah! The secret to plundering the dungeon's stash of recyclables involves passing the grumpy dragon guarding the front gate!
Once you make it through the gate to the food and beverage acquisition part of your quest at the inn, look for the bald man with a beard who likes wearing dark shirts. (Then look for the other three. The one you're looking for currently has the shortest and darkest beard.)
Mike will happily let us take all the empties we can carry. Mark, the one with hair (and this may apparently be a singular description among the male bartenders), is also friendly. I scored FIFTY bottles on Unofficial night. \o/
The Corkscrew in Urbana says:
- They recycle their wine-tasting and bar serving bottles. On Saturday nights, the bottles have not yet hit the recycling bin and we could have the empties then; on Sunday mornings, we'd need to go into the recycling bin (possibly with rubber gloves).
Piccadilly on Neil St. says:
- Their wine-tasting wine bottles are spoken for by another brewer, but they're willing to let us have about a dozen beer bottles a week from their wine and beer tastings on Fridays and Saturdays. Come Saturdays around 4 or later to pick them up. (Dena can do this pretty easily because she lives within a couple blocks.)
Sun Singer on Windsor says:
- They throw out their wine tasting and bar serving bottles because they don't have a place for storage, but can be persuaded to save a day's at a time. Call them early in the day to arrange an evening pickup that same day (likely circa 9 pm).
Friar Tuck in Savoy says:
- We can't have their wine and beer tasting bottles since they need them for credit from the manufacturers.
(Dena's called several other local bars and the Black Dog is the only bar she's found that recycles. Others might be willing to divert bottles from trash for specific periods of time, but would need to make prearrangements with the owners.)