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”
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 …
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”
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”
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”
“Myrtille” is French for Blueberry. It is popular in some so-called patriotic circles to make snarky comments about France and the French, We call them “Frogs” and complain about rescuing them from their foreign exploits like Vietnam when they hold us to high moral standards on our adventures. The fact, however, is that the United …
Continue reading “Beer Recipe: French Alliance “Myrtile” Lambic”
Morgan Log House850 Weikel Road, Lansdale, PA 194464Sat. May 4, 202410 am – 4 pm It’s been a while since we had a HANDS ON BREWING CLASS. Come to the Morgan Log House in Lansdale and try your hands at brewing using 18th Century tools and techniques. This is an event where you become the brewer and …
Morgan Log House850 Weikel Road, Lansdale, PA 194464Sat. May 4, 202410 am – 4 pm It’s been a while since we had a HANDS ON BREWING CLASS. Come to the Morgan Log House in Lansdale and try your hands at brewing using 18th Century tools and techniques. This is an event where you become the brewer and …
Morgan Log House850 Weikel Road, Lansdale, PA 194464Sat. May 4, 202410 am – 4 pm It’s been a while since we had a HANDS ON BREWING CLASS. Come to the Morgan Log House in Lansdale and try your hands at brewing using 18th Century tools and techniques. This is an event where you become the brewer and …
Well we’ve reached Pesach and, of course, the dilemma that creates for all Jewish brewers. I could go the route of destroying all my chametz as we are instructed. The problem with that is that beer really doesn’t burn so i would have to have one hell of a party… I had eighteen bottles of whiskey …
Michael Carver -- Historical Interpreter/Reenactor 