Much has been made of our second president’s efforts to start a wine industry in the newly formed United States, but it would appear from this article that George Washington did his part to support the nascent brewing industry. Not surprisingly, Washington tended towards porters, most of which he ordered from Robert Hare, a brewer in Philadelphia. Although Washington appears to have purchased a fair amount of beer, there’s also a link to Washington’s own homebrew recipe for those of you who brew. If you want to see the real thing (reproduced above) check out the New York Public Library’s …read more

Over the holidays we made a day trip out to Gettysburg, to get all of us out of the house and to give the kids a little something to look at. For those of you who’ve never been to Gettysburg, it’s a charming small town in the southern part of Pennsylvania, not all too far from the Mason Dixon line.
Trust me, this post does have something to do with beer. Before that, however, I want to mention that those of you who have an interest in seeing the battlefield at Gettysburg, really seeing it, should consider visiting on a …read more

I’ve been perusing “The Encyclopedia of American Food and Drink” lately, and stumbled across the entry for porterhouse steak. Apparently, this is a steak from the thick end of the short loin, whatever that means, and it encompasses the T-bone and a bit of the tenderloin. According to Wikipedia, the porterhouse is essentially just a large T-bone steak. Either way it sounds delicious.
In any event, according to the Encyclopedia, the porterhouse steak was allegedly named after taverns or alehouses known as “porterhouses,” not because they served porter but because the porters of London frequented those establishments for their after-work (or …read more