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 …
Continue reading “Basic Colonial Brewing #7 — Adapting Historic Recipes to your Brewery”
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 …
Continue reading “Basic Colonial Brewing #8 — Malting the Grain”
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 …
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 …
For thousands of years beer served as food and medicine; it had antiseptic, anti-bacterial and anti-viral properties. The health benefits of beer not only come from the grains and yeast but also the hops. Hops contain a flavonoid called xanthohumol that strongly suppresses CYP1A2 (suppressing is good), a liver enzyme that metabolizes various environmental procarcinogens …
Go to almost any brewery or distillery and you will see lots of gleaming copper. This is not some quaint historical holdover nor is it there for show. We use copper in brewing for real and practical purposes. The reasons for using copper were well understood by the Colonial Brewer but why it worked has …
Continue reading “Basic Colonial Brewing #5 –Why use Copper?”
Americans love the idea of a last stand, a battle to the end. We see this in the Battle of Bunker Hill, WE see this during the War of 1812 at both Fort McHenry and at Chalmette, Louisiana, we see this during the Texas Revolution at the Alamo, at the Little Big Horn, WWII’s during …
We recently held a brewing class at Fort Mifflin and one question was asked that deserves clarification in this blog: “How were beers of the 18th Century different from what we drink today?” I hope the table below adds some clarification. Colonial Beers vs Modern Beers: Key Differences Colonial BeerModern BeerMaltMixture of malted grains including …
“Air and Exercise” = being whipped with a Cat-o-Nine-Tails. Prior to the arrival of Baron Friedrich Wilhelm von Steuben, American officers often imitated their British peers. In a rather startling example, George Washington once lobbied congress for permission to allow 500 lashes — “Air and Exercise”– as punishment to maintain discipline the Continental soldiers! Congress …
Continue reading “Beer Recipe: Air and Exercise — Rattleskull”
Which weighs more, a ton of lead or a tun of feathers? Sounds absurd today but in the 18th Century this is actually a legitimate question. How many feathers can you pack in a 256-gallon cask? A lot more than 2000 pounds! In Colonial America, minding your “P’s and Q’s” isn’t about etiquette, its about …
Continue reading “Basic Colonial Brewing #4 — Minding your “P’s” and “Q’s””
Michael Carver -- Historical Interpreter/Reenactor 