Medieval-inspired ale refreshment of choice for modern-day knights
Local brewer Jon Shiner has partnered with the Orange Medieval Faire to make a beer fit for a “Once and Future King”.
The Medieval-inspired beer — currently under ferment at Badlands Brewery — will be exclusively-available at Orange Medieval Faire on Saturday and Sunday, March 19–20.
Named “Excaliber Ale” after the legendary sword of King Arthur, the beer is a return to an older style of brewing; but you won't have to pull a sword from the stone (as Arthur did) to get your hands on one.
“When we bring an event to a new place like Orange, one of the things we like to do is find out all the local artisans, breweries, or people making mead, and work with them to help shine a light on their product,” Orange Medieval Faire organiser and international jouster, Andrew McKinnon explained.
“So I called Jon and said, ‘Listen, would you like to do a medieval brew?’ and he was all over it!”
Although full of enthusiasm for the collaboration now, Badlands Brewing founder and head brewer Jon Shiner, has a slightly different recollection of the initial proposal.
“When Andrew got in contact midway through last year, I thought it was some sort of scam! You know, ‘I'm a knight, I do international jousting, and we'd like you to make a medieval beer’,” said Jon.
“It seemed like a strange opening gambit, but I did a bit of Googling and found out that he was actually for real, and so then we started a process and we are pretty excited to be releasing a medieval-inspired beer at the fair in Orange in a couple of weeks!”
So just what is ‘medieval’ about this beer? Well, Jon explained that before hops became ubiquitous in beer, brewers would use a mix of herbs as a bittering agent.
Known as gruit, the blend would vary but commonly-used herbs included mugwort, horehound, yarrow, St John's Wort, and even common herbs you still see in your kitchen pantry today, like rosemary and thyme.
“For this, we used ancient grains, including rye and wheat and a very-old barley variety, an old English yeast, and we've used old English herbs mugwort and yarrow,” said Jon, who has then added a little taste of the Antipodes to the Old World ale.
“We put a bit of an Aussie native twist towards the end of the boil, where we've used some lemon myrtle leaf and some strawberry gum leaf. So it is definitely medieval-inspired, but we have some nice strawberry-bubblegum and lemon aromatics coming from the Aussie natives.
“We are midway through ferment at the moment, and I'm liking what's happening so, hopefully we've made a good stab at it and, fingers-crossed, we end up with a great beer for people to enjoy in a couple of weeks.”
The inaugural Orange Medieval Faire will see the showground transformed into a medieval-style European village with visitors to witness Viking battles, mounted archery displays, a watermelon-flinging trebuchet, falconry, and the clashing of lances and thunder of horse’s hooves as knights in full armour meet in the lists.
“Trying to organise a medieval faire is like trying to trying to herd medieval cats!” said Andrew McKinnon, who as well as organisng the whole affair, will be donning armour and competing in the jousting tournament.
“But everything is starting to line up and it’s really encouraging is the way the local community has taken on the event and are getting really excited about it and we really look forward to putting on a spectacular event on the day!”
The Orange Medieval Faire will take place on March 19–20 at Orange Showground. For tickets and more information, visit: www.orangemedievalfaire.com.au