Oakenale

Oakenale is the ale poured at The Avonbourn, the tavern at the outermost edge of the Kella Desert. Aero Ellisvat holds that "nothing beats an Oakenale", especially not the way Reslyn Keiser pours them, and told her once that hers was "the best I've ever tasted".^[1]^[2]

The drink

Oakenale is a brown ale served frothing, in mugs, in tankards and in large jugs, with a head thick enough to leave foam on a drinker's stubble.^[3]^[1] Reagan, who tried it at the Avonbourn with nothing to compare it against but the drinks she had known in Missoula, thought it was not bad at all and that its orangey aftertaste was quite good.^[3] She was less fond of it a few hours later, being sick on the floor of her room upstairs, and blamed the sheer volume of what came up on Reslyn's foamy brown ale.^[3]

At the Avonbourn

Reslyn Keiser brews it and pours it, and the tavern's regulars keep her at it. Aero rates her pouring above anyone else's and says she outdoes herself with the brew.^[1]^[2] Tab, hearing him praise it once too often, told him he ought to take the woman on a date given how much he talked about her ale.^[2]

Payment is a matter between the two of them. Aero flipped a silver yerling onto the bar for a round of three large jugs on the night he brought Reagan and Tab in, and on an earlier visit laid down a few bronze presps that Reslyn would not take, insisting that drunks knew how to spend money well enough to keep the place running.^[3]^[1]

The ale keeps rough company. A night at the Avonbourn can end with tankards juggled and ale rained over the room, and Aero once had a half-broken tankard thrown at his head as he opened the front door.^[2]

Beyond the tavern

Oakenale travels. Aero, sizing up a fire on the desert path north of Varaar, reckoned the crew around it would have spent the evening downing tankards of Oakenale and would pay him and Reagan no attention as they passed. He was right about the tankards.^[4] Whether Oakenale is brewed anywhere but the Avonbourn is not established.