In the summer of 1775, George Washington and the fledgling Continental Army was unable to effectively lay siege to British-occupied Boston because the Royal Navy had a firm command of the sea-lanes and the harbor. All George Washington could do was observe the flow of enemy supplies into Boston harbor and wondered if intercepting a …
Category Archives: Brewing
Beer Recipe: Battle of the Kegs — British Brown Ale
Early in January, 1778, David Bushnell, the inventor of the American Torpedo, and other submarine machinery, prepared a number of “infernals,” as the British termed them, and set them afloat in the Delaware River, a few miles above Philadelphia, in order to annoy the royal shipping, which at that time lay off that place at …
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Doctor Heal Thyself — 18th Century Medicine Gone Wrong
Isaac Newton Stuck a Needle in His Own Eye Isaac Newton voluntarily stuck a needle in his eye in the name of science. The experiment was designed to test optics and color perception. He thought that if he slid a long needle behind his eyeball, between the eye and the eye socket, and started poking, his vision would …
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Early Italian Divorce
In 1791, Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart was working on his requiem mass when he fell seriously ill. From his deathbed, Mozart declared, “I feel definitely that I will not last much longer; I am sure that I have been poisoned.” He went on to claim, “Someone has given me acqua tofana and calculated the precise time of my death.” Mozart …
Why is it called “giving a toast?” — Where’s the bread?
Toasting is an ancient tradition which connotes celebration and good times. Today toasting remains an important practice in many cultures around the world. But why do we call it a toast? How exactly does the word “toast,” as in dry bread, figure into festive drinking? Well, it turns out dunking literal pieces of toast into …
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Making Whiskey
Whiskey’s origin lies somewhere between 1,000 and 1,200 AD when traveling monks migrating across Europe, introduced the distillation practice into Scotland and Ireland. Because of the lack of vineyards in these countries, the monasteries turned to fermenting grain mashes and then distilling them into whiskey. For the next 400 years, whiskey spread throughout the Celtic countries. …
Why did I learn to make beer, wine, and distilled spirits?
People come up to me constantly with this question: “How did you learn to brew?” The short answer – at home – is trivial. The question I want answer is “why did I learn to brew/distill/make wine?” Even though I was born decades after its repeal, I learned to brew as a direct result of …
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There has always been a loophole for the elite.
Okay, I have been on a 21st Amendment stream today and this is clearly NOT an 18thg Century topic but it is germane to the Regimental Brewmeister because after the MAGA folks have outlawed abortion and reading, their next targets will be marijuana and alcohol. So, toughen up your self-publishing, weed growing, and brewing skills …
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On September 18, 1793, George Washington lays the cornerstone for the new US Capitol
The United States originally had no permanent capital city under the Articles of Confederation. Even when the US Constitution was ratified, it included no mention of a national capitol. Congress met in eight different cities including New York, Philadelphia and Baltimore before 1791. In 1790, Congress passed the Residence Act, establishing the permanent seat of …
Be careful what you wish for: Toasting Superstitions
Okay, I get it. Making a toast is a challenge. You must stand in front of the crowd, think on your feet and come up with something witty. It is fun but scary. Then there is the fact that some people choose not to drink – do we leave them out: of course not! But …
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Michael Carver -- Historical Interpreter/Reenactor 