UPCOMING EVENT — A Talk on Colonial Brewing

Worcester Historical Society2011 Valley Forge RoadLansdale, PA 19490April 14, 20242:00 pm This program will be a little different from our ordinary brewing demos. I am going to not start a fire and we have plenty of beer that has been previously brewed. I am going to give a talk and go deep on some of the significant …

Sugar Cones or Loaves and the Making of Rum

During Antiquity and the Middle Ages, sugar was rare and expensive commodity.  Beginning in the 15th century, however, sugar cane plantations developed in the West Indies, then South America, particularly in Brazil. Sugar was the top colonial commodity. It was at the root of the ‘triangular trade’, where European shipowners exchanged trinkets for African men, who were then sold as slaves …

Beer Recipe: 3/5th Compromise Brown Ale

Are you a Constitutional Originalist? Do you hold that the US Constitution must be followed EXACTLY as the framers intended when they wrote it? Some in our country hold that the provisions in the US Constitution are perfect and complete guidelines for how our government should operate. These people clearly CANNOT READ! “I am not …

Freedom Means NOTHING Unless You Also Embrace Tolerance

Tolerance implies no lack of commitment to one’s own beliefs. Rather it condemns the oppression or persecution of others. John F Kennedy As Americans we focus a lot on our Constitutional Freedoms.  Frankly, we are far more enthralled with these than most of the rest of the world for in the time since our Revolution, …

Bring Documents to your Reenactments!

Today Americans boast a whoppingly deplorable literacy rate of about 86% depending on how you measure literacy.  Compare this to Colonial New England where, discounting slaves, women, indentured servants, and indians, in a time when books, newpapers, and magazines were largely unobtainable, the literacy rate was almost 60%*.  Today with telephones, television, radio, and various …

If you couldn’t come to Rittenhouse Town on April 8, 2024, you can still invite Dr Rittenhouse to your site for a future eclipse

A total solar eclipse occurs when the Moon’s apparent diameter is larger than the Sun’s, blocking all direct sunlight, turning day into darkness. Totality occurs in a narrow path across Earth’s surface, and we won’t see another total eclipse in North America until 2044.  A partial solar eclipse is visible over a surrounding region thousands …

TWO “OUT OF THIS WORLD” EVENTS

Join David Rittenhouse as he observes the SOLAR ECLIPSE Richard Wall House1 Wall Park Drive, Elkins Park, PA 19027Sunday, April 7 11:00 – 3:00 and Historic Rittenhouse Town208 Lincoln Dr, Philadelphia, PA 19144Monday, April 81:00 – 4:00 pm There were two total eclipses of the sun visible in the occupied regions of North America during …

Basic Colonial Brewing: More on Decoctions

Brewers today have access to highly-modified malts.  We also have modern tools like thermometers which were prohibitively expensive luxuries not available to brewers in the 18th Century.  This means the process of extracting sugars from the grains through mashing were far less efficient in 1770 than they are today.  Decoction is a method to overcome …

UPCOMING EVENT — Observing the Solar Eclipse with David Rittenhouse

April 7, 2024 @ Richard Wall HouseDiscuss Science and see gear1:00 – 4:00pm and April 8, 2024 @ Historic Rittenhouse TownActually SEE THE ECLIPSE! 1:00 – 4:00pm A solar eclipse occurs when the Moon passes between Earth and the Sun in such a manner that the Moon’s shadow sweeps over Earth’s surface. This shadow consists …

“Mama always told me not to look into the eyes of the sun; But mama, … that’s where the fun is.”

“Mama always told me not to look into the eyes of the sun;But mama, … that’s where the fun is.”[i] What fun?  Well on April 8 at 15:23 EDT the sun will disappear from the sky (well in Philly, 80% but that’s amazing!).  Mama warns us to never to look directly at the sun because …