The British army punished its soldiers mercilessly. The purpose was to inspire terror by setting an example. Soldiers were frequently whipped leading to the derisive moniker “bloody backs” by which Redcoat soldiers were frequently known. The most common offence was drunkenness, which could merit 100 lashes. The sentence was carried out in front of the …
Tag Archives: Beer
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 …
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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 …
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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 …
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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: 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: 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 