Molly Pitcher was the nickname of Mary Hays McCauley who is said to have carried water to American soldiers during the Battle of Monmouth on June 28, 1778, before taking over for her husband on the battlefield after he was no longer able to fight. Originally from Carlise Pennsylvania, Mary was married to William Hays …
Category Archives: Brewing
Beer is Good for You
Okay this is weird but as the Regimental Brewmeister I feel compelled to inform you that the Mayo Clinic has suggested (not proved but only suggested) that may be preventative for Alzheimer’s Disease. For those of you who may have forgotten (pun intended), Alzheimer’s often causes memory loss and personality changes. It generally afflicts the …
THE BILL OF RIGHTS: A BRIEF HISTORY #9
Insurrections often are propagated upon misinformation. So too are the most recent band of domestic terrorist who like to hide behind our most sacred American institutions. In this series, I want to explore the Bill of Rights and why some of the hype and hyperbole thrown around by the extremist is not just wrong but …
Basic Colonial Brewing #11 — Managing Heat
A friend of mine recently comment that my 18th Century brewing demonstrations are so much more relaxed than what they see when modern methods are used. WOW! It must be like the duck on a pond – calm above and paddling like mad below. Even when you ignore the added complexity of simultaneously speaking to …
Continue reading “Basic Colonial Brewing #11 — Managing Heat”
Beer Recipe: Valley Forge Spruce Ale
The encampment of Continental Army at Valley Forge (12/19/1777 — 6/19/1778) is known as the time of the greatest suffering. By the end of the encampment, almost a forth of the original army had died of disease, exposure, and privation. The food was said to have been both bad and infrequent. Even though food was …
Basic Colonial Brewing #10 –Making the Brew
Once you have wort, its time to actually “brew” (from the Dutch brouwen: to bubble or effervesce) the beer. I hope by now you realize that a lot more work goes into preparing to brew than actually brewing the beer. When I do demonstrations, someone always remarks that brewing takes a long time but in …
Continue reading “Basic Colonial Brewing #10 –Making the Brew”
Beer Recipe: Redcoat IPA
In our modern lives, we rely on the police and the powers of government to protect our property and our most important institutions. When crimes occur, we expect our elected officials to take action and secure the peace. Consider how you would feel if your town were taken over by criminals, thugs, and miscreants? Now …
“Beer” Recipe: Massacre at Cherry Valley Lambic
We like to think of the American Revolution as a war fought by high-minded gentlemen and their armies who followed a sort of civilized warfare. These gentlemanly rules of war that allowed for prisoners to be taken and even paroled. Sometimes they were even granted the privilege of marching out with “drums beating and colours …
Continue reading ““Beer” Recipe: Massacre at Cherry Valley Lambic”
Basic Colonial Brewing #9 — Mashing and Decoction
The first major step in brewing beer is to extract the fermentable sugars and starches from the malt kernels. This process is called mashing (from the German maisch: to mix). The basic idea is to harness the enzymes already present in the grain in order to digest the complex inert starches into fermentable simple sugars. …
Continue reading “Basic Colonial Brewing #9 — Mashing and Decoction”
“Beer” Recipe: John Adams — Breakfast Cider
Apple juice was fermented because before we had refrigeration, it was hard to stop that from happening — apples would just ferment naturally. When English colonists first arrived in North America, they enthusiastically embraced the wide range of wild fruits they found growing, from grapes to berries and of course, begam to make wines and …
Continue reading ““Beer” Recipe: John Adams — Breakfast Cider”
Michael Carver -- Historical Interpreter/Reenactor 