Thursday's Babble: A Dabble in History || Washington County, PA
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.
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 first as well. My workplace was the first brewery in Washington county and it opened in 2016. Fast forward 110 years from the Alfano brothers and firsts are still occurring in the area.
Coal Tipple Brewery opened last October, the small micro-brewery creating quite a buzz in the area. I'm going to link a few of the news articles that were published about the company:
Coal Tipple Brewery is open in rural Washington County
Coal Tipple Brewery tips its glass to county’s mining history
As micro-breweries are rising in popularity, the Tipple is becoming busier! We are trying out new brews, new techniques, and new expansions. For example, we are currently working on producing a new line of mead using local honey. (We have bee boxes in our back lot!) Mead is actually the oldest known form of alcohol in existence-- have you read Beowulf? The guys are hanging out in the mead hall! I am fascinated by mead, so if you would like to see posts on it in the future, let me know! My boyfriend, Jack, is actually the one making mead at the Tipple, so I'm full of unnecessary information about it.
I have looked through the Washington County Historical Society's website, as well as Fort Vance Historical Society, and I have not found anything about breweries in the county even in the past. The concept of something new coming to the area even after hundreds of years amazes me, and I can't wait to see what else pops up in the coming years. I am proud of my rural area for expanding, and I look forward to contributing to future growth.
Photos of Coal Tipple Brewery:
To read the entire article, click here.
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| 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 first as well. My workplace was the first brewery in Washington county and it opened in 2016. Fast forward 110 years from the Alfano brothers and firsts are still occurring in the area.
Coal Tipple Brewery opened last October, the small micro-brewery creating quite a buzz in the area. I'm going to link a few of the news articles that were published about the company:
Coal Tipple Brewery is open in rural Washington County
Coal Tipple Brewery tips its glass to county’s mining history
As micro-breweries are rising in popularity, the Tipple is becoming busier! We are trying out new brews, new techniques, and new expansions. For example, we are currently working on producing a new line of mead using local honey. (We have bee boxes in our back lot!) Mead is actually the oldest known form of alcohol in existence-- have you read Beowulf? The guys are hanging out in the mead hall! I am fascinated by mead, so if you would like to see posts on it in the future, let me know! My boyfriend, Jack, is actually the one making mead at the Tipple, so I'm full of unnecessary information about it.
I have looked through the Washington County Historical Society's website, as well as Fort Vance Historical Society, and I have not found anything about breweries in the county even in the past. The concept of something new coming to the area even after hundreds of years amazes me, and I can't wait to see what else pops up in the coming years. I am proud of my rural area for expanding, and I look forward to contributing to future growth.
Photos of Coal Tipple Brewery:
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| The pond in the back. |
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| Run of the mine. |
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| Our brewmaster, Dayne, brewing up a batch! |
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| Jack pouring a mega-flight. |
I had no idea mead was the “oldest known form of alcohol in existence.” I just read Beowulf for British Literature 1, and the characters do love their mead (I had to look up what mead was when I read Beowulf). I read mead is made from fermenting honey with water (correct?), so to me it makes sense that mead was one of the first forms of alcohol because mead just requires honey. Beers need ingredients like barley or rye, so ancient people would need to be established farmers with a surplus of crops to produce drinks other than mead. I think that crops would be used mainly for food, whereas bees are self-sufficient and produce honey on their own (hence mead and not beer in Beowulf). I could be completely wrong, but your post does make me want to look into early forms of alcohol now.
ReplyDeleteMead can be made from fermenting just honey, or honeys, but is also often made with the addition of things like fruit, herbs, spices, or even malted grain (like beer). It can be made more easily than beer, but it can also be made in more complex ways.
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