Timeoff Bucks County (Princeton Packet) August 16, 2006
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.