Drink!

[Boreades]

we'll have to go some to get distilling invented before 1100 AD or so. Maybe they were doing it on brochs

And why not?

If you're already smelting metal inside a cosy broch, there's plenty of heat to spare, just right for heating a mash as a side-product. A canny Scot would always approve of more ways to get more products out of the same fuel supply.

[Boreades]

All you need really is a very cold climate and you can freeze distil alcohol.

Scotland leads the way, again?

[Boreades]

And yet again (laddie) Scotland leads the way!

Famously, one 1980s archaeological dig at Kinloch on the Outer Hebrides' Isle of Rhum found apparent residue from a long-evaporated beverage. The pottery it came from dated back about 4,000 years. Microscopic analysis detected pollen grains, which suggested high levels of heather, and some meadowsweet and royal fern. "If you regarded them as a recipe, then you can ask 'what would they make'," says Caroline Wickham-Jones, one of the excavation's archaeologists. "And one of the things was heather ale as a fermented drink – but it might easily have been a mouthwash or something." Still, Wickham-Jones and her team enlisted the help of a Glenfiddich distillery to brew a new ale inspired by this potential recipe. "It was fabulous," she says.

Traces of meadowsweet have also been found in Neolithic beakers at Aberdeenshire and Fife. Still, the Fife specimen was found in a burial site and Alison Sheridan, the early prehistory curator at National Museums Scotland, notes that meadowsweet may simply have been added in order to counteract the smell of decaying flesh.

Or the smell of their socks from treading the mead?

At a building site in London, 2,000-year-old wooden writing tablets have been discovered. They mention a "maltster" or "brewer" named Tertius. The find has been described as the first written record of brewing in London. There are also references to brewing at a famous Roman site, Vindolanda, in the north of England. "There's a letter from an officer asking for more ale for his troops – it's hard to tell whether he's drinking with them or not," says Joshua Driscoll, a PhD student in anthropology at the University of Wisconsin-Milwaukee. It is widely believed that Romans were importing wine to British forts in amphorae. "Some people might extrapolate from that that you had officers drinking wine and soldiers drinking ale," says Driscoll.

The design of drinking vessels also hints that Roman and Medieval Brits were drinking alcoholic beverages, says Jonathan Horn, an archaeologist at the University of Edinburgh. Horn has studied tankards dating from the British Iron Age, the period from roughly 2,800 to 1,900 years ago. The tankards have interesting forms. Some are like little barrels, for instance, and are often ornamented with intricate metalwork and small handles. "A lot of time, effort and wealth were put into these vessels – they clearly just weren't drinking water out of them," says Horn. "We see basically an uptake of these native vessels, specifically, within the Roman army. They're clearly taking on the native drinking culture."

Ale take the high road...

Or, native Brits teaching the Roman army how to drink proper? (like what we do)

http://www.bbc.com/earth/story/20161130 ... rewed-beer

[Boreades]

Breaking news, a new addition to the Mega-Menu at Chateau Boreades, something to soak up the drink.

Barbequed Vole a la Druide des Orcades

Slow Roast Vole, marinated in locally-produced mead.
Served with locally-produced goats cheese and roasted root vegetables.
Wrapped in locally-produced nettle leaves.

All served by the locally-produced Boreadettes.

Inspired by http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/science-environment-37690206

Footnote: the Roast Voles aren't locally-produced.
They are probably illegal immigrants from Brittany.
Just keep quiet about that, alright?

[TisILeclerc]

Borryus

"maltster" or "brewer" named Tertius.

We know him as Tetlyus. A finer maltster there never was.

[Boreades]

We know him as Tetlyus. A finer maltster there never was.

That's something that's always confused me.
Tetley Tea and Tetley Beer.
Why would anyone brew both tea and beer?

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Tetley%27s

Makes one wonder what's in the malt. Or where the Yorkshire tea plantations are hidden. Perhaps somewhere in the Rhubarb Triangle?

[TisILeclerc]

Shhh. Don't mention the rhubarb triangle The stuff of legends. People who enter are never seen again.

Can't beat Yorkshire tea. Not tea bags mind. The real stuff. And bread and dripping of course.

Then off ter t'pub for a Tetley's Imperial.

[Boreades]

Whitbread, heir-apparent to the UK beerage, has realised it can make more profit from water than it can from beer.

Whitbread, the UK’s largest hotel, restaurant and coffee shop operator, is to supply its own water and wastewater services, making it the first major hospitality company to be granted a self-supply licence by economic regulator Ofwat.

Looking after thirsty pilgrims to Avebury and Stonehenge is a lucrative business. English Heritage charges more for small bottles of water than the equivalent volume of beer in the nearest pub. One can only wonder if the "economic regulator Ofwat" was put in charge of the tea-brewing industry, it would have to be renamed "Oftwat"?

[Mick Harper]

Somebody brought out beer-flavoured fizzy water a coupla years ago (called Oasis). It was great for me because it tasted like beer (which I love), was non-alcoholic (migraine-inducing) and had nil calories (flab-inducing). I bought it by the crateful until they withdrew it (no demand).

I used to work for Whitbread and every morning had to walk through fifty dark green Jaguars, the standard executive perk. The executives though weren't too hot on invigilating non-executives so I was able to draft one of my books while working there.

[TisILeclerc]

A spokesman for Whitbread gave an interview in the seventies on the radio about how they planned to make beer that tasted exactly the same whether you were in John o'Groats or Cornwall.

They were well on their way to this goal taking over local breweries and turning good beer into fizzy water when it all went pear shaped. Presumably people preferred beer to fizzy water.

Shame really because Castle Eden had its own brewery, Nimmo's, which wasn't a bad pint really. Sold off for housing of course. Which was probably the aim all along.

You should try drinking your former employer's brew Mr Harper it's non alcoholic from what I hear these days.