Heather Ale

[SteveD]

I like story about the Picts heating their fermented barley porridge over the fire, tasting the condensation on the inside of the roof, and discovering whisky! That one sounds just as apocryphal!

Well, how did the ancients discover the processes that lead to wine, beer and spirits? Accidentally and then empirically, at a guess, as Graham Wheeler hadn't written his books at that time, not long after, mind you , but not then, So, tasting the condensate of the lid of a pot of boiling wash doesn't really seem so far fetched.

[Chiltern Brewer]

I agree, no doubt serendipity did play a part in these discoveries. My point is to be wary of romantic stories dressed up as historical fact.

Distillation for example was more likely discovered in the Middle East and then the knowledge was passed along trade routes into Europe.

[brewsters millionths]

by islamic scholars when they led the world no less.
isn't that a turn up for the books.

[Chiltern Brewer]

by islamic scholars when they led the world no less.
isn't that a turn up for the books.

The truth is often stranger than fiction!