Experimental Archaeology – Good food and good drink.

Over the last few weeks at the Bradford Kaims we have been continuing our brewing experiments. Our first two batches, from week 2, were left in the hedge line following the removal of the barley and the addition of hawthorn flowers. Initially very little activity took place after a week in the hedgerow, but once placed in a warmer environment (one of our caravan awnings) fermentation began! Within a few days our first batch reached an alcohol percentage of 5% and our secondary batch reached 3%!

“Successful batch – didn’t taste bad either!”

Since then we have attempted another batch, which following the mashing stage we sieved out the barley and separated it into two containers, one with heather and one with elderflower. The two different flower types were selected as different sources of natural yeast to see if that had an impact on the fermentation process but also to…