I’m being visited by an out-of-town friend who regards beer with great partiality and erudition. So let’s spend a week enjoying that glorious nectar.

Every USn has heard of voyage of the ship Mayflower, carrying the Pilgrims to what later became the United States. It was beer that determined their landing site. As an early record notes, “We could not now take time for further search or consideration, our victuals being much spent, especially our beer.” And there is a second “beer” connection: the leader of these Pilgrim travelers was one William Brewster.

brewster – a female brewer

Sara [Barton] is one of England's few "brewsters” (the old English word for a female brewer because in early medieval times women did the brewing).
– The Telegraph, Apr. 23, 2005

We’ve previously seen a story of a woman brewing behind her home. “Now Luckie Jamieson had brewed a peck of malt, and set the liquor at her door to cool. Luckie Simpson's cow came wandering by, seeking what she might devour, was attracted by the foaming beverage, smelt, tasted, and yielded to the tempter.” See the link for the upshot.

An interesting sidelight on this is that Samoset, one of the first Native Americans to meet the Pilgrims, walked up to them and asked, in English, for beer.

See http://www.renovationministries.org/English%20text,%20%...s%20of%20America.htm

I was away from home the last several days, and computer-access failed at the hotel. Apologies for the delay. Doubtless you have been impatient for your beer!

spile – a small wooden bung (peg) to plug a cask’s hole or to regulate the flow [also, the same for the hole in a tree tapped for sap]

Often a cask is stopped with a shive, which has a hole in it to accommodate the spile.

[R]eal ale shows complexity and a higher degree of drinkability than you will ever find in an over-chilled, highly carbonated lager or keg ale. [T]rue believers have a certain glazed look in their eyes. Because real ale undergoes a secondary fermentation in the cask, it requires some careful attention from cellarmen who must replace the wooden bung or shive with a porous spile when the beer has reached optimum carbonation
– The Age, Australia, July 4, 2006 (ellipses omitted)

A few days before he thought the sap would begin running, he and Robert would traverse the maple grove, drilling a hole in each trunk, inserting wooden spiles, and hanging buckets beneath the spouts to collect the sap.
– Jennifer Chiaverini; The Sugar Camp Quilt

gastropub – a bar where high quality food is served

"After all,” I said, “ a pregnant girl shouldn’t be forced to go to a bar alone, should she?” “I suppose not,” he said. “Would you settle for a slightly up-scale gastropub?"
- Emily Giffin, Something Blue (ellipses omitted)

What would you say the difference between a "bar" and "pub" is? Or is there one?

HERE is an item of interest for your weeding pleasure.

Two more drinking establishments:

rathskeller – a beer hall or restaurant in a basement
[German Rathaus town hall (Rat council)+ Keller cellar]

estaminet – a small café (Seems to be used only for a café in France and the low countries. I get the sense of ‘small; informal; homey’, and am told that the term was more used around WWI, for the sort of place a young soldier could go to meet the local young ladies.)
[prob. from Walloon èstaminê, staminê cowshed, little café; prob. from stamen post to which a cow is tied at the feeding trough. But there are other theories.]

“Do you speak French, Blundell?”
The Superintendent grinned sheepishly. “Well, sir, not to say speak it. I could ask for a spot of grub in an estaminet, and maybe swear at the garsong a bit.”
– Dorothy L. Sayers, The Nine Tailors

Every college campus has its beer hall, its rathskeller, its underground den of inconsequential iniquity-someplace where the philosophy majors can huddle in the corners hashing over eros and mortality while the athletes sit at the bar discussing fucking and sudden-death overtime.
– James Morrow, The Philosopher's Apprentice

More on college beer practices, as in our last quote yesterday.

beer pong – a popular collegiate drinking-game, which has gone “mainstream” enough to have national tournaments. Play ping-pong with several part-filled beer cups on each side of the table, and when the ball lands in your cup, you must drink that beer.

I went down into the basement to rescue James Leer and found him at the Ping-Pong table, facing Philly Warshaw with a paddle in his hand. They were playing Beer Pong, a hazing ritual to which, in his wild days, Philly had subjected all suitors and young male visitors to the house, myself included.
– Michael Chabon, Wonder Boys

This message has been edited. Last edited by: wordcrafter,

malt – grain that has been sprouted (to convert the seed’s starch into sugar) and then dried. The first step in brewing.

… beer is as sophisticated as wine. [W]ith wine you have red and white varieties based on the grapes used to make them. But with beer, for starters, you have dozens of kinds of malts. You have the pale malts, toasted malts, roasted malts. You have malts that give flavor like toffee and caramel and honey. Then you have hops. They contribute not only a degree of bitterness but can add flavors like citrus, apricot, even a jasmine. Then we haven't even begun to talk about strength. When you add more malt, you add more sugar, which brings a higher degree of fermentation and more alcohol.
– Newsweek (web), May 19, 2008

I thought that some of these might also be of interest:

Wort
Noun - The liquid created by the mashing of malted barley to use in brewing beer;

Krausen
Noun - The foamy, rocky head of yeast that forms at the peak of fermentation.

Verb - To introduce actively fermenting beer that has reached the highest point of krausen to more thoroughly fermented beer. This is usually done to condition or naturally carbonate the beer.

Trube
Noun - Proteins, oils and tannins suspended in wort by cooling or boiling (tastes terrible!)

Very nice, Boojum. Welcome to Wordcraft! You might also enjoy www.realbeer.com, which a few of us here enjoy.

Welcome Boojum. I do hope your name doesn't mean that you are going to "softly and suddenly vanish away".