Timeoff Bucks County (Princeton Packet) 08-16-06
The Science of Suds: Beer historian Rich Wagner will discuss brewing methods of Colonial times at the Mercer Museum's Brewery Night.
By Jillian Kalonick
The
coolest possible job for a former high school science teacher? Beer
expert.
"Brewing touches every branch of
science that you can think of — biology, chemistry, physics,"
says Rich Wagner, who has spent more than 25 years researching
Pennsylvania's brewing heritage. Since retiring from teaching at
Wissahickon High
School in Ambler, Pa.,
he has conducted tours of Philadelphia's brewing past, and spent
seven years working at craft breweries in the city.
His
technical training became especially relevant when he earned another
"degree" — a diploma in brewing technology from the
Siebel Institute of Technology in Chicago. Founded in 1873, it is the
oldest brewing school left in the country. In 1990, Mr. Wagner, who
lives in Hatboro, Pa., produced the first batch of beer at
Morrisville, Pa.'s Pennsbury Manor in more than 200 years.
Mr.
Wagner will showcase his reproductions of Colonial brewing equipment
during the Mercer Museum's
first Brewery Night Aug. 18. Following a 45-minute presentation,
participants will have the opportunity to taste local brews from
Philadelphia's Yards Brewery.
After brewing beer
at Pennsbury Manor using some of the equipment there, Mr. Wagner
decided he wanted his own so he could take his demonstration on the
road. The most difficult part, he found, was finding someone who knew
the coopering trade to make the necessary drums and tubs. David
Miller, a self-taught cooper and retired industrial arts teacher,
guided him through the process, which began by drying the cypress
logs that made up the tubs for four months. From a farm auction, a
friend of Mr. Wagner's bought a copper kettle, and Mr. Miller
constructed a trivet from an old wagon wheel rim. Mr. Wagner lights a
fire underneath the trivet and kettle to boil water for the brewing
process.
He knows the quality of the Cascade
hops he uses because he grows it himself. "It puts roots in the
ground around Easter," says Mr. Wagner. "In commercial hops
farms in the Pacific Northwest, they don't harvest until September,
but mine is usually ready at the end of July — I have to pick
it now or it gets eaten by bugs. Basically you put in a trellis, wrap
twine around it, and it grows maybe six or eight feet tall. The
plants produce cones, and that's the hops — the hops produce a
bittering agent that gives beer its bitter flavor. It's almost like
seeing balls on a Christmas tree, when you see the
cones."
Participants at Brewery Night will
be tasting Yards' Ales of the Revolution, three beers produced using
authentic recipes by Founding Fathers Ben Franklin, George Washington
and Thomas Jefferson. Poor Richard's Tavern Spruce is brewed with
molasses and organic spruce tips. Since Britain
restricted and taxed hops and barley,
spruce was often used instead. Gen. Washington's Tavern Porter, also
brewed with molasses, reflects the first president's admiration for
Philadelphia-style porter. Thomas Jefferson's Tavern Ale is a
multi-grain beer brewed with honey that Jefferson
brewed at his Monticello
estate. Though it's a strong beer (8
percent alcohol), it's still not quite as potent as the beer
Jefferson would have
brewed, which was nearly as strong as wine, says Mr. Wagner. Yards
will also be serving its Philadelphia Pale Ale (Philly Pale), a
modern beer with pilsner malts that has citrus flavors and
aromas.
"Back in Colonial times,
Philadelphia was the
largest seaport on the East Coast," says Mr. Wagner. "Brewers
shipped to all the Colonies and around the world, and from the
earliest days, Philadelphia was
known as being the big brewing center. Farmers in rural areas grew
barley and hops. Bucks County,
with all its stagecoach stops and taverns, certainly had a lot of
places that made their own beer as well."
From
1987-1997, Mr. Wagner conducted a bus tour throughout Philadelphia,
visiting what used to be the city's major breweries. He will discuss
the current states of several former breweries in a program titled
"Philadelphia Brewery Tour Revisited" at Yards Brewery
Sept. 16. In the Brewerytown section of the city there are now a
number of condos, and a Temple University
dorm, where there were once
breweries.
A Pennsylvania beer
tradition was recently lost when the last batch of Rolling Rock beer
was produced at Latrobe Brewing Co. in Latrobe, Pa.
Belgium's InBEV USA
sold the Rolling Rock brand to
Anheuser-Busch, which will now brew the beer in Newark.
"I'm
happy to see the brand continue, but the mystique surrounding it —
it was based on it being brewed in the Laurel Highlands
of Pennsylvania —
it's sad to see that go," says
Mr. Wagner, who wrote a story on the buyout for the August/September
issue of Mid-Atlantic Brewing News. "The good news is
that I just read that City Brewery in LaCrosse, Wis., signed a
contract with the (former Latrobe Brewing) workers, so things are
looking good."
Rich Wagner will host Brewery Night at
the Mercer Museum, 84 S. Pine St., Doylestown, Pa., Aug. 18, 6 p.m.
Tickets cost $20, $15 Bucks County Historical Society members. For
information, call (215) 345-0210, ext. 123. On the Web:
www.mercermuseum.org.
Rich Wagner will present "Philadelphia Brewery
Tour Revisited" at Yards Brewing Co., 2439 Amber St., Phila.,
Sept. 16, 2 p.m. Free
admission. For information, call (215) 634-2600. Yards on the Web:
www.yardsbrewing.com.
Rich Wagner on the Web: pabreweryhistorians.tripod.com.