A Miscellany of Projects - Gaming, SCA Combat, Arts & Sciences, and Travel

"Yeah, I totally stole this sword, what are you going to do about it?" It is said that, in the district of Sogn, in Norway, there lived a man named Ulf.  This man, who was of good stock, was known for his great good cheer, but toward evening became quarrelsome and difficult, so he became known as Kveldulf, that is, "evening-wolf."  Kveldulf married a woman named Salbjörg, who was kin to Ketill Trout, and had two sons, Thorolf and Grim.  Thorolf was a fair-featured man, well beloved by all, but Grim was remarkably ugly and even in his youth known as Bald Grim, that is, Skalla-Grim.  Thorolf served King Harald Fair-Hair, and when Harald killed him, Grim and Kveldulf fell to quarreling with the king.  The quarrel led to them departing Norway and moving to Borg, in Iceland.  Kveldulf died before they made land, and Grim followed his father's coffin to decide where to raise his hall.  In time, Grim had two sons of his own, Thorolf and Egill.  Thorolf w...

  Earlier this week , I discussed the first round of ice mead results.  Since then I've had a chance to test an easier-to-process method than doing it in a bottle. Procedure The procedure is mostly unmodified.  Since it was the exact same batch as the previous procedure, brewing method was exactly the same. Modifications to Previous Procedure - Apparatus Instead of a 750mL bottle, I used a one-gallon square ice cream bucket.  The square bucket was used to allow easy pour-off when the time came, and because storage of a square bucket in a freezer is an economic use of space. Modifications to Previous Procedure - Materials. I used approximately half a gallon (approx. 2000mL), eyeball measure only, of bochet as a test volume, instead of a 750mL bottle.  This was based on the very small pour-off results from the first batch; I wanted sufficient volume to produce measurable results, instead of the tablespoon of ice mead created the first time. Modifications to Previo...

A couple weeks ago, I posted about the first batch of '21 for brewing.  There isn't a lot to give in terms of update there, except that I ran my bochet past my parents, who aren't mead drinkers, and they liked it.  I pulled a 750mL bottle of the bochet two days ago and put it in the outdoor freezer to see what would happen.  More on that in a moment. Background Before I go any further, I am going to preface this by saying that there are some non-technical general terms I'm going to use that require definitions for my purposes.  "Beer-strength" indicates an alcoholic beverage between 4% and 10% alcohol by volume (ABV).  "Wine-strength" is 10-20% ABV.  "Spirit" is 20% ABV or stronger.  This differs from convention in that I am not separating spirits and liqueurs. Freezing distillation is a historically documentable method for increasing effective alcohol concentration; while distillation as a means of improving alcohol content is traceable t...

 As discussed way back when I started this blog , we laid down eight gallons of mead in January, and another two gallons in a small batch in February.  We taste-tested all three batches of mead, and the results are as follows: Orange blossom honey, no additives - Semi-dry, still minor fermentation occurring, flavor profile well-balanced.  Sweet comes through.  Plan is to save several bottles in dry state, for people who prefer their meads dry, and to back-sweeten, probably a quart of honey to the remaining three gallons of mead. Orange blossom honey, ginger and orange - Dry, but an exceptionally good flavor.  So far this is the best batch that we have done.  Fermentation reaction is complete, no remaining fizz.  Plan is to pull the remaining solids off the top, save several bottles in dry state, and back-sweeten remaining three gallons at same proportions as listed above. Bochet - Sweet, almost but not quite on the point of Neil Gaiman's "sweet pickle...

  I am incapable of offering an unbiased review of anything by Jackson Crawford.  I first became aware of his work back in 2016 or so, when I first started playing in the SCA and his Old Norse work first came across my Facebook feed.  Ironically enough, Crawford's own words played a part in my decision to turn off that same Facebook feed (original text from Crawford's website here ): You will talk yourself into trouble if you don’t think before you speak: Hold that tongue, and think a little, or you’ll find out that it’s a long whip, and it’s gonna hit you from behind. That is from his "Cowboy Havamal," a very loose and informal translation of Havamal , which translates either to "sayings of the High One" or "sayings of the Hanged One" or, given that it's meant to be a collection of the wisdom of Odin, probably both and neither all at once.  The "Cowboy Havamal" is, of all of the things he has published, by far my favorite, and it is ...