The Brewery Babble

Whilst reading the Observer Reporter on Tuesday, September 19th, I came across a story that sparked my interest. Titled "Slices of Life: Collecting the stories of Washington's first Italian families," the article gave small snippets of the lives of Washington county's first Italian immigrants. To read the entire article, click here . http://www.mshistorynow.mdah.ms.gov/articles/88/italians-in-mississippi I was immediately intrigued by the first family, led by brothers Santo and James Alfano. The Santos ran a farm in the city, circa 1906, and made a living through the proceeds of their crops. They sold their produce mostly to the large, wealthy estates of East Washington. However, there was a prejudice against immigrants, and they were not permitted to live in the same areas as the wealthy white families, while their goods were a welcome purchase in the towns. As I was thinking of 'firsts' in Washington county, I realized Coal Tipple Brewery was a firs...

Taps. At a brewery, this is where you can get a glass of a craft beer poured. The acts of brewing craft beer and crafting the written word may seem unrelated, but they're not. To begin, each project starts with a recipe of sorts. This may not be something tangible or precise, but you still need some sort of game plan, or path, to follow. For example, if you were going to start brewing an IPA (India Pale Ale), you would need a basic understanding of what comprises that type of beer before you jumped in. So, for our example, you would need to know that an IPA is traditionally bitter, containing a lot of hops to keep the flavor strong in beer during long journeys. (If interested, I can do a later post on the creation of the IPA-style. It's quite interesting.) So, before beginning to compile ingredients, you would have an idea of what types of materials you wanted to include-- the kind that would ultimately create a bitter beer.  This parallels the writing process. If...