First attempts at brewing will be ale, since beer is basically ale with hops, so I need to get ale right first.
30 Lótessë
Cleaned tun and bucket. Set 13 quarts water to boil. Crushed malt and mixed with dry oats. Added two quarts of boiling water, slowly, to tun. Poured dry grain into tun. Slowly added three more quarts of water to tun, without stirring. Covered and let sit ten minutes. Added one more quart of water. Covered for twenty minutes. Uncovered and stirred; mix resembled thick porridge. Covered and left for several hours. Opened, added three more quarts boiling water, stirred, closed for a half hour. Added remaining four quarts of water and stirred well. Used tun spigot to strain the liquid (wort) from grain into the fermenting bucket (this took longer than expected, to get all the liquid). Covered bucket and left to cool for until afternoon. Remaining grain was recovered and used to make porridge. Mixed yeast into warm water and added to wort in fermenting bucket. Stirred gently. Covered with air-locker on lid, and left to ferment.
3 Nárië
Opened fermenting bucket late in day, and drew off ale to serve. Ale seems weak, and less sweet than that of Bree, with a bitter aftertaste. Several Eglain tasted it and described it as tasting like a liquid form of slightly-burned bread. All agreed better than Anlaf's but a long way from that of Bree. Would be refreshing on a hot day. Transferred to a barrel. Will attempt another recipe tomorrow.
((OOC note: drawing from Tofi Kerthjalfadsson's notes on recreating medieval English ales))
