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Surviving and Thriving in a Revolutionary Time: 18th Century Brewing and Cocktails

$150.00

This one-day workshop will combine two popular programs, instruction and demonstrations on 18th century brewing and hands-on colonial cocktail building. Led by Michael Carver, the Regimental Brewmeister in period presentation, this workshop will introduce participants to the methods, brews, and experience of a brewer from 1778. You will hear stories of the American Revolution and the variety of ways beer aided in the health and spirits of revolutionaries. In the Cocktail building program, participants will learn the history of tavern and parlor cocktails in the 18th Century, including preparing several cocktails they might have encountered in a tavern in British Colonial America in the 1770s.

All participants must be 21+. Proof of age will be required.

Class Agenda:

  1. Introduction: High level overview of Tavern Culture in the 18th Century

  2. History of beer, wine, and spirits in Colonial America

  3. Antiscorbutic Preparations: How the Navy created the modern cocktail

    • First Cocktail preparation: Thomas Gimlette’s Gimlet

  4. Extending the Shelf-life of Beer and other Brews: Rattleskulls and Fences

    • Second Cocktail preparation: the Hawthorn Fence

  5. Medicinal Cocktails: Flips and Toddies

    • Third cocktail preparation: Hot Ale Flip

  6. Social Drinks: Cocktails of High Society

    • Final Cocktail preparation: Fish House Punch

This one-day workshop will combine two popular programs, instruction and demonstrations on 18th century brewing and hands-on colonial cocktail building. Led by Michael Carver, the Regimental Brewmeister in period presentation, this workshop will introduce participants to the methods, brews, and experience of a brewer from 1778. You will hear stories of the American Revolution and the variety of ways beer aided in the health and spirits of revolutionaries. In the Cocktail building program, participants will learn the history of tavern and parlor cocktails in the 18th Century, including preparing several cocktails they might have encountered in a tavern in British Colonial America in the 1770s.

All participants must be 21+. Proof of age will be required.

Class Agenda:

  1. Introduction: High level overview of Tavern Culture in the 18th Century

  2. History of beer, wine, and spirits in Colonial America

  3. Antiscorbutic Preparations: How the Navy created the modern cocktail

    • First Cocktail preparation: Thomas Gimlette’s Gimlet

  4. Extending the Shelf-life of Beer and other Brews: Rattleskulls and Fences

    • Second Cocktail preparation: the Hawthorn Fence

  5. Medicinal Cocktails: Flips and Toddies

    • Third cocktail preparation: Hot Ale Flip

  6. Social Drinks: Cocktails of High Society

    • Final Cocktail preparation: Fish House Punch

Instructors

Michael Carver

Michael Carver, as the Regimental Brewmeister, focuses on creating immersive experiences related to historical beverages and tavern culture with a focus on social, industrial, and political life between 1765 and 1810. After years of research and experimentation, Carver now conducts public presentations and brews about 25 historically inspired beers, over open fires with 18th Century tools and methods. As a journeyman brewer in 1750, he learned brewing with the five senses. Brewing in 1750 is a fully immersive activity where the brewer’s eyes, ears, nose, tongue, and fingers become all those lovely instruments used in brewing in the 21st Century. 

Carver also presents as the Admiral of the Blue Apron, a natural extension of the work of the Brewmeister.  In Francis Grose’s A Classical Dictionary of The Vulgar Tongue, first published in 1785, he found an entry that he has adopted as the moniker for his tavern impression -- The Admiral of the Blue Apron. The ADMIRAL OF THE BLUE, is a publican wearing a blue apron, as was formerly the custom among gentlemen of that vocation. The tavern’s significance in the founding era of our nation related to another main attraction: joining comrades and sometimes opponents in political discourse and debate.  He and his team provide an immersive tavern experience with tavern games, glees, stirring political debates, toasts, and of course, popular libations of the 18th Century.