October 17, 1778, General Charles Cornwallis raised a flag of truce over the fortifications at Yorktown after having suffered not only the combined French and American attack but also disease, lack of supplies, inclement weather, and a failed evacuation. With the French navy in the York River and siege lines advancing on his position, defeat …
Tag Archives: Beer
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. …
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Beer Recipe: “Never Surrender” Welsh Cake Porter
My friend Conner Duffy is actively working to bring another tavern to Fort Mifflin during the upcoming North American Festival of Wales in August of this year. To that end, on May 7, when the Regimental Brewmeister teaches the next 18th Century Brewing Class at Fort Mifflin, we will be brewing a Welsh Cake Porter. …
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“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 …
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Beer Recipe: French Alliance “Myrtile” Lambic
“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 …
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Beer Recipe: Constitutional Debate Stout
Summer in Philadelphia can be hot and muggy. Not a time to be locked in a sealed room with locked doors and windows and 55 other delegates from all over the country trying to fix a system of government that was failing but in the summer of 1787 it had to be done. Something HAD …
Basic Colonial Brewing #7 — Adapting Historic Recipes to your Brewery
When we find actual recipes from the 18th Century, whether they are for food, beer, or even chemical substances like gunpowder and soap, the recipes are vague and ambiguous by modern sensibilities. These instructions were clearly written for experts. Below you will find an example of George Washington’s Small Beer recipe, and unless you are …
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Basic Colonial Brewing #8 — Malting the Grain
Before grain can be used to make beer, the starches stored in the kernel must be converted to fermentable sugars. The grain does this naturally as part of the germination process, so the brewer need only harness this process and then stop it before the grain sprouts to capture the sugars they need for their …
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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 …
Beer Recipe: Boston Tea Party IPA
By 15 December, the Eleanor and the Beaver, also both laden with tea, arrive at Griffin’s Wharf. The law is clear: if the duty on the Dartmouth’s tea is not paid by 17 December, the customs officer is authorized to seize the ship and its cargo. The governor and the tea consignees, seeing a potential …
Michael Carver -- Historical Interpreter/Reenactor 