The Best of the worst award this time goes to the Small Ale experiment. In theory you can preserve an ale wort in a tightly sealed sterilized container, for a later brewing. We purchased a plaster bucket with a sealable lid, and duly sterilized it. Into it went the water from re-boiling one of the brewing barley bags, so we could make a weak ale (Small Ale) in the last week to approximate the daily drink. From our resident brewer:
The small ale however was a failure unfortunately when we opened the container to pour into the fermenter it was covered in slime and stank , I was not going to even attempt to strain or go any further with this.
No Small Ale for us!

And sometimes things are just beyond your control - the Inter-Library Loan of the Dame Alice Breyne's household accounts from the 14th century and all the good Barley action that entails arrived the day after the Pentathlon entry was due... and five weeks after the request was submitted, and four weeks after the other books requested at the same time. Still it was interesting, and there will be useful stuff for our wheat entry.
 
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Sometimes you need a little help from your friends.

In this case, none of us are brewers. But fortunately we know people who are! Master Drakey (Baron Drake Morgan, OL, breaker of women's hearts, member of the 'I ate hemlock and survived' club...) a brewing and cooking laurel used to taking the uninitiated through the brewing, helped us via many skype sessions work on a Barley Ale (including a brew-along-adventure), advising on the malting process and the wine experiment from the last round. Thank you Drakey!

Here is the link to the ale work he did for us on his website Dining with the Khan. This website should be a fabulous resource when he is finished, and we strongly encourage you to check it out.

 
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The vine tendril charcoal
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The cyclamen root and barley chaff
And now for something a little less revolting for your medieval beauty regimen: a leave-in conditioner from Trotula. Remember that charcoalized vine tendril? Well, it's back, this time mixed with some barley chaff, the root of the sowbread (cylclamen for the modern gardener), and some ground liquorice root. This is boiled for 15-20 minutes, strained, and rinsed through your hair. Not sure how it would work for blondes, though.
 
The chicken in ale sauce works well (although the sauce does look reminiscent of a Thai green chicken curry, but you can taste the ale). The ale soft cheese - well I'm now onto my second attempt and so far it doesn't look terribly promising (actually it looks downright revolting), but that's because ale isn't a fantastic starter for cheese. - which we knew. The barley polenta still needs to be made, but I need to get some more (edible) cheese for that. 
 
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Burnt barley bread...
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...ground up...
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...with a little salt...
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... and a bear fat substitute (lard)...
Makes one seriously revolting (and stinky) cure for baldness. Thanks Trotula! Now all we need is a victim...
 
OMG OMG OMG We have sprouts! I think tonight we will be heating it to stop germination and we will have malted barely YAY YAY YAY

-- a short while later--

Grain in oven which is sitting at about 33 degrees which from the few discussions on how to advise is the recommended temp , being around 60 to 125 fahrenheit. Will be in there till tomorrow.n That should dryit and stop the germination without cooking it. 

Here's hoping , it smells quite sweet.
 
An update from our intrepid brewer...
It is bottled it is drinkable at this time. It seems to have worked and we have 4 litres bottles and sitting in the cool gararge along with two jars for cooking.

It's sour but drinkable ,very weak I think , not my cup of tea , has a bit of a cinnamon after taste just a hint. I'm still not a fan but I drank some . I am still living so all good.

The small ale however was a failure...