Thoughts: Last spring, I caused a near scandal in our small town when I tapped the birch tree in front of our new house. The locals scoffed, thinking I couldn’t tell the difference between a maple and a birch. My husband and I had to go down to the breakfast place to casually mention that…
Category: The North
Kvass
Thoughts: Quirky, but it grows on you. It smells like plain rye bread, so the sweetness of the honey is somewhat surprising at first taste. I thought the mint would be more prevalent, but it reduces to just a hint, combining with the sweetness of honey and apple. There’s some fizziness from the residual carbonating,…
Last Hearth Heather Ale
In our world, heather ale (or Fraoch, the gaelic word for “heather”) was enjoyed by the ancient Picts in what is now Scotland. With various conquests and later laws, the original recipes for Fraoch were lost. As the legend goes, the Pictish king, when taken captive, leapt from a cliff rather than share the secret of…
Maple Cider
Thoughts: I know, I know, natural fermentation is a dicey proposition, and unpredictable at best. But this recipe is very simple, with Amazing results. The flavors are rich and complex, moving from residual maple sweetness to the sour tang of the apples. Appearance-wise, it’s a nice sort of rusty color, darker than normal cider on account…
Wildling Cider
“Before Mance, Varamyr Sixskins had been a lord of sorts. He lived alone in a hall of moss and mud and hewn logs that had once been Haggon’s, attended by his beasts. A dozen villages did him homage in bread and salt and cider, offering him fruit from their orchards and vegetables from their gardens.”…
Game of Brews 