Some links for your information and entertainment:
Click here for some brief info on the site of Worshipful Company of Brewers
Click here for some more info on beer on the site of 'Life in Elizabethian England
and
Click here for information on Elizabethian homebrewing
:angry:
True: Click here (Wikipedia) or here (Office of Naval Research, with video's)...
I'm not sure anyone visiting the festival will have access to such a (working) weapon, although it would make a rather... errr... interesting sea-battle.