This site is meant as a gateway for moderns to learn history and historians to make good homebrew. I want it to be a good, clear, accessible resource. I try to explain things in straightforward ways making as few assumptions as possible. And I like to tell an interesting story.
I started home brewing with meads; I got serious about them about the time I started learning to make beer. I have made a few wines and won a few medals with them. I like drinking wine but I have a long way to go before I truly understand how to shape one. That doesn’t mean I’m not going to try.
There’s the history piece: I hang with a lot of people interested in Europe before 1600, and am continually engaged by questions about what it would have been like to make fermented beverages back then. I like to explore modern techniques for my own good and ancient techniques for all us historical brewers.

I’m a long way from knowing everything there is to know about beer…but I’m taking the BJCP class, and hope to (eventually) earn National Certification as a beer and mead judge.
Here’s my guilty admission: I’m a pretty good home brewer of beers, wines, and meads, particularly meads (check my competition record ), and I really love to write about them (check my recent publications). However, the list of beers I genuinely like is pretty short. I love trying new brews, and get excited about special projects. The lure of the adventure! However, the bread and meat is the great beauty in beer and in the people who make it and share it; beauty in daily life and community and all our remarkable richness.
I hope I’ve arranged my search terms and blog categories in such a way that it’s easy for you to find what you’re looking for. If you have any trouble, ping me and send me feedback: elspeth@elspethpayne.com (or use the Contact Form). I’ll help if I can.
Next Up:
Bourbon Barrel Porter
Pinot Pyment
Why do you NEED a mash tun? We are using biab method, bewirng outdoors using our boil kettle as the tun, lidding and wrapping in a moving blanket resting in the direct sunlight holding temp steady for OVER an hour . Just sayn . we started doing 1 batch a month for the 1st 7 months in Jan 2012, we did 4 extract batches then moved on into biab for the last 3, we will do batch 8 & 9 in August, then back to 1 per month til Spring.