Brewing Class at Colonial Plantation

On June 10th, the Regimental Brewmeister will be conducting an 18th Century brewing class at Colonial Pennsylvania Plantation in Ridley Creek State Park in Media, PA. Cost to attend is $100/person but there is a catch. You need to be a member of Colonial Pennsylvania Plantation.

Colonial Pennsylvania Plantation offers a full range of weekend discoveries from workshops, programs on history and farm life, and general 18th Century history Your membership makes it possible not only for us to conduct this important work but gives you a unique and exciting chance to participate directly in the historic skills that made life in the 18th century possible. As a CPP Member, you can visit any weekend, at no additional cost, have exclusive access to members only programs (like Colonial Brewing and this winter’s Colonial Cocktails class) as well as numerous other workshops, lectures, and events.

To start your membership at Colonial Pennsylvania Plantation visit https://www.colonialplantation.org/home/support-us/membership/

Then you can enroll in the Brewing Class at https://form.jotform.com/230644428366156

Details on this program are as follows:

Colonial Brewing Workshop
Saturday, June 10
10 AM-4 PM

OPEN TO MEMBERS ONLY
$100 Members 

In this class, you will learn

• The general history of beer and brewing in America and how the practice rose from a basic task performed in nearly every household to a profession which fed the various Taverns and Alehouse of our new nation.
• The roles of the Colonial Tavern in the social, political, and civic life of early America.
• Why everyone; men, women, children, and slaves; drank beer all day in order to stay healthy.
• What the difference is between the partigyyle, the hoffbrau, and the small beer.  Who drank what and why so many styles from a single batch of malt?
• Why beer was so critical to early life in America and how it fueled the debates that led to revolution.
• How the Royal Navy’s failure to protect Pennsylvania from pirates launched the industry that would create our nation’s oldest professional breweries.
• How beer in the 18th Century was very different than what we call beer today.
• How to make beer with only your five senses and some basic field kitchen equipment including:
  • Mashing the wort
  • Decoctions and extractions
  • Lautering, brewing, and chilling without the benefit of modern appliances.
  • Assessing the progress and quality of your beer without modern instruments like thermometers, hydrometers and clocks.
• Beer Styles of the 18th Century and how to adapt historical recipes to work with modern supplies.

At the end of this class, you will be given the product of your work. Take home and ferment into the Spruce Beer wort you make in this class to ferment and condition into the beer that saved many 18th Century expeditions into the far north and helped the men avoid scurvy and other ailments.