Local List Challenge 2014: Samuel Adams Brewery Tour

On May 29, 2014, I proposed the “Local List Challenge.” The challenge asks you to stop procrastinating visits to local historical sites, museums, and annual events.

On June 7, 2014, I began my challenge and checked off 1 item from my local list: the Samuel Adams Brewery Tour.

In this post you will learn about the history of beer and the Samuel Adams Brewery tour in Jamaica Plain, Massachusetts.

Brief History of Boston Beer Company

Jim Koch hails from a family of brewers.

5 generations of Koch men had worked as brewers, but Jim thought he would be different. Koch became an management consultant.

Several years into his career, Koch felt like something was missing and he kept thinking about beer, so in 1984 he found his family’s recipe book and started brewing beer in his kitchen.

Koch liked his great-great-grandfather Louis Koch’s lager recipe the best. The elder Koch had brewed the lager in his St. Louis brewery during the 1870s. The brewery closed during Prohibition.

Koch renamed his great-great grandfather's beer as "Samuel Adams Boston Lager," sold it bar-to-bar, and entered it into competitions. Samuel Adams Boston Lager became the most award-winning beer in history.

Today, Koch brews over 50 different styles of beer in his Cincinnati and Pennsylvania breweries. Most of these beers got their start in the Boston Beer Company's Jamaica Plain test kitchen.

Brewery Tour Information

You can tour the Samuel Adams Brewery in Jamaica Plain, Massachusetts—a Boston neighborhood.

Tours run Monday through Saturday from 10am-3pm every day but Friday, when tours run 10am-5:30pm.

Tours last about 1 hour. They are free (Boston Beer Company requests a donation for charity) and come with a free tasting glass.

Tour Experience

I have toured several breweries, but my tour of Samuel Adams was by far the most fun and educational.

I had an entertaining guide who discussed both the history of beer and the process of making it with equal enthusiasm.

The tour began with an overview of the history of beer, which people have been brewing since the days of ancient Mesopotamia.

The beer family tree has 2 branches: Ale and Lager.

Lagers ferment from the bottom at cool temperatures. Ales ferment from the top at warm temperatures. Ales and Lagers use different types of yeasts.

You only need 4 ingredients to brew beer: water, malt, hops, and yeast.

The guide allowed everyone to sample 3 varieties of malted grains. Malt serves as the main ingredient in Grape Fruits cereal, in case this helps you think about what it tastes like.

Tasting the malt helped me understand why beer tastes like it does, just as rubbing the dried hops between my hands taught me why beer smells the way it does.

After the history and taste lessons, the guide brought my group into the brewing room and explained how the brewers mash, boil, and ferment the ingredients into beer.

From the brewery, my group entered the tasting room where our guide gave us a free Samuel Adams beer tasting glass and instructed us on how to properly taste beer.

Conclusion

If you happen to be in Boston and want something to do that is fun, historical, and unrelated to the Freedom Trail, I suggest you look into the Samuel Adams Brewery tour.

The Samuel Adams Brewery has many guides that will entertain you while they teach you about one of the world’s oldest beverages: beer.

1 local list item down, 22 more to go…

How Are You Doing With Your Challenge?

What places have you visited or what experiences have you had thus far?

Inside the Green Monster

On Wednesday May 21, 2014, I had the opportunity to connect with history in a way that many Red Sox fans can only dream of: I spent 1 inning inside the Green Monster scoreboard. What did it look like inside?

What does the view onto the field look like?

In this post you will learn about the history of the Boston Red Sox, Fenway Park, and see what it looks like inside the Green Monster scoreboard.

Brief History of the Boston Red Sox

The history of the Boston Red Sox begins in 1901.

The team comprised 1 of the 8 original teams of the American League.* However, at their start the Red Sox did not play as the Red Sox, but as the Boston Americans—the Boston team in the American League.

In 1903, the Boston Americans won the first World Series by defeating the Pittsburgh Pirates 5 games to 3 games.

In 1904, John I. Taylor purchased the Boston Americans. After a dismal 1907 season, Taylor changed the uniforms and name of the team.

In 1908, the team began wearing white uniforms with red stockings. Taylor renamed his team “Red Stockings,” after the red socks the team wore.

Later, Taylor shortened the name to “Red Sox.”

Brief History of Fenway Park

Between 1901 and 1911, the Red Sox played at the Huntington Avenue Base Ball Grounds.

The grounds seated approximately 9,000 fans and 1,000 additional fans could stand behind ropes in foul territory and the outfield.

The Red Sox’s lease on the Huntington Avenue Grounds was set to expire at the end of the 1911 season. Rather than renew the lease, Taylor built his team a new ballpark on land that he had purchased in Boston’s Fenway.

The Red Sox played their first game in Fenway Park on April 20, 1912 against the New York Highlanders; in 1913 the Highlanders changed their name to the “New York Yankees.”

Brief History of the Green Monster

Taylor disliked the unenclosed expanses of the Huntington Avenue Grounds because it allowed fans to watch a game without paying. Taylor fixed this flaw when he built his new park.

In 1912, Fenway Park featured a wall across its outfield to prevent fans from watching a game without buying a ticket. This wall still remains but it has changed since 1912.

Built of wood, the original wall burned down in 1934. Red Sox owner Tom Yawkey replaced the wooden wall with a tin wall.

Yawkey sold advertisements along the Fenway wall until 1947, when he painted the wall green and installed a manual scoreboard at its bottom. This green wall became known as the Green Monster.

In 1976, Yawkey replaced the tin wall with a hard plastic wall--this is the wall that stands today, although in 2003, the New England Sports Ventures ownership group modified the monster by adding seats on top of it.

What Does it Look Like Inside the Green Monster Scoreboard?

Inside the Green Monster scoreboard you will find a narrow space that contains a lot of history.

Share Your Story

What is the most interesting or special place that you have visited?

*The original 16 teams of baseball:

American League: Chicago White Stockings, Boston Americans, Detroit Tigers, Philadelphia Athletics, Baltimore Orioles, Washington Senators, Cleveland Bluebirds, and Milwaukee Brewers.

National League: Pittsburgh Pirates, Philadelphia Phillies, Brooklyn Superbas, St. Louis Cardinals, Boston Beaneaters, Chicago Orphans, New York Giants, and Cincinnati Reds.

Summer Challenge: Local List

I would not call myself a procrastinator and yet I have a list of museums, events, and historic sites that I have put off visiting. Why?

My brain tells me that I can visit them anytime because I live nearby.

The problem with this mentality is, “anytime” rarely comes along: the weather is bad, too nice, I’m tired, I would rather stretch across the couch with a good book, or something better has come along. I have used all of these excuses.

Not this summer.

Now that the unofficial start of summer has come, I am making a commitment to cross at least 3-5 items off my “Local List.”

Will you take this challenge with me?

In this post: You will learn what a "local list" is and receive a bit of motivation to cross items off your list this summer.

What is a Local List

A “Local List” is a list of events, museums, historic sites, or experiences that you put off visiting or doing because you either live close by or have special access to them and therefore you could do them “anytime.”

For example, when I worked as an interpretive ranger for the Boston National Historical Park it used to astonish me how many Charlestown residents had never been inside the Bunker Hill Monument.

Each year, I would welcome at least 5-6 visitors who lived around Monument Square, or just a few blocks away, but they had never visited. And I am not talking about people who just moved into the neighborhood. I am talking about people who had lived around the monument for 5+ years.

I once had a visitor who told me that they had lived in the neighborhood for 32 years and that this was his first visit.

What brought these locals in?

Sometimes curiosity, but mostly out-of-town family.

I used to be astonished. I would think “how could you live so close, for so long, and yet never have taken the time to visit this important site before today?!”

Years later, I realize that I am guilty of the same procrastination.

There are several places that I have never visited because I think to myself “I can go anytime, there’s no rush.”

What’s On My Local List?

So what museums, events, historic sites, and experiences have I put off? What is on my “Local List?”

In no particular order: • Dorchester Heights Monument • Boston African American National Historic Site and Black Heritage Trail • Annual Lexington and Concord Re-enactment • Isaac Royall House • Mary Baker Eddy Library Mapparium • Castle Island • Sam Adams Brewery Tour • Battleship Cove • Plimouth Plantation • The Boston Tea Party Ships & Museum • Fenway Park Tour • Peabody Essex Museum • Salem, Massachusetts • Springfield Armory National Historic Site • JFK Birthplace • Frederick Law Olmsted National Historic Site • Gibson House Museum • Nichols House Museum • Otis House Museum • Longfellow House Washington’s Headquarters National Historic Site • Saugus Iron Works National Historic Site • Newport, Rhode Island • New Bedford Whaling National Historic Park

And those are just the 23 places that I can think of off the top of my head.

Summer Challenge

This summer I am going to check 3-5 items off of my local list.

I challenge you to do the same.

Draw up your “Local List” and commit some time this summer to visiting the sites on it.

I will begin my quest on Saturday May 31, 2014. I have made plans to take a tour of the Sam Adams Brewery with friends.

Take the Local List Challenge

What sites, museums, and experiences are on your “Local List?”

How many sites will you commit to checking off of it this summer?

Leave a comment or tweet with #LocalList so we can motivate each other to connect with history and experience the life and culture around us.

George Washington and Rochambeau, May 1781

  On May 21 and 22, 1781, George Washington and the comte de Rochambeau met to in Wethersfield, Connecticut to discuss strategy.

Washington wanted to attack and recapture New York City.

General Rochambeau preferred to confront the British army somewhere along the Chesapeake Bay.

How did these men resolve their differences?

How did the War for American Independence end?

My latest article for the Journal of the American Revolution has the whole story plus details about how you can visit a bonafide George Washington Bedroom.

Here's a taste:

After the Americans’ stunning victory at Saratoga on October 17, 1777, King Louis XVI ordered his ministers to negotiate a formal alliance between France and the United States. Conrad Alexander Gérard of France and Benjamin Franklin, Silas Deane, and Arthur Lee of the United States negotiated the terms of the Franco-American alliance in the Treaty of Amity and Commerce, which they signed on February 6, 1778.

The Treaty of Amity and Commerce served as formal notice that France recognized the independence of the United States. King Louis XVI and his ministers saw the United States’ fight for independence as an opportunity to avenge the losses France suffered during the Seven Years’ War. They also saw it as an opportunity for France to supplant Great Britain as the Americans’ chief trade partner.  On March 17, 1778, France declared war on Great Britain.[1]

In July 1780, French General Jean-Baptiste Donatien de Vimeur, comte de Rochambeau landed in Newport, Rhode Island. He came with seven ships-of-the-line, four frigates, and thirty troop transports, which carried nearly 5,500 French soldiers. Rochambeau arrived with orders to assist the American Commander-in-Chief in a subordinate capacity. To this end, Rochambeau and George Washington met in mid-September 1780. They conferred in Hartford, Connecticut, halfway between Rochambeau’s headquarters in Newport and Washington’s headquarters in New Windsor, New York. The threat of attack from the British fleet kept their initial meeting short.

The two generals conferred again in May, 1781. On May 8, Rochambeau received dispatches with the news that the French government had ordered Admiral François Joseph Paul de Grasse and his fleet to the West Indies and that de Grasse would be available to support Rochambeau and the Americans during the 1781 campaign season. Rochambeau, Washington, and their retinues gathered at Wethersfield, Connecticut to discuss strategy.

Continue Reading

*George Washington at Princeton by Charles Wilson Peale courtesy of the United States Senate.

The 3 Companies of New Netherland

Three companies played a role in the establishment of New Netherland. In this post you will find a brief overview of these companies and learn about how they contributed to the establishment of New Netherland.

 

Dutch East India Company

Official Name: Vereenigde Oostindische Compagnie (United East India Company)

Nickname: VOC

Charter Date: 1602

Charter Highlights: The States-General granted the VOC a monopoly on navigation and trade in the Pacific and Indian Oceans.

The VOC had the authority to enlist and command soldiers and sailors in a company army and navy and to make treaties and form alliances with the peoples living throughout their jurisdiction.

Involvement with New Netherland: The VOC hired Henry Hudson to explore a possible northern route to the Pacific Ocean. They ordered Hudson to sail north from the Netherlands, over Scandinavia, around the northern boundaries of Nova Zembla, and through the Bering Strait into the Pacific Ocean.

Hudson encountered ice, freezing temperatures, extreme winds, and a cold, mutinous crew off the coast of Norway. Rather then return to the Netherlands, he sailed west to North America, where he became the first European to explore the Hudson River.

New Netherland Company

Official Name: Nieuw-Nederlandt Compagnie

Nickname: N/A

Charter Date: 1614

Charter Highlights: Monopoly on navigation and trade to New Netherland for 3 years or 4 voyages.

Involvement with New Netherland: Instituted a regular trade with the Native American peoples of the Hudson River Valley.

Built Fort Nassau on Castle Island across from Albany, New York. The fort served as a trading post and residence for the traders and bosloopers (forest walkers) who opted to live in New Netherland year round. The fort fell into disrepair after 1618.

West India Company

Official Name: West-Indische Compagnie

Nickname: WIC

Charter Date: 1621

Charter Highlights: The States-General granted the WIC a monopoly on navigation and trade in the Atlantic Ocean.

The WIC had the authority to make peace treaties and alliances with the peoples living within their trade jurisdiction and the ability to enlist and command soldiers and sailors in a company army and navy.

The States-General also tasked the WIC with colonizing New Netherland to protect this possession from English encroachment.

Involvement with New Netherland: It took the WIC 2 years to raise the funds it needed to begin its operations; it raised over 7 million florins.

In 1624, the WIC built Fort Orange on the west banks of the Hudson River. The fort served as the center of their fur trade operations.

Also in 1624, the WIC settled 30 Walloon families in New Netherland. The WIC scattered these families along the 3 rivers it claimed as part of New Netherland: the Connecticut, Delaware, and Hudson Rivers. The WIC settled 18 of these families around Fort Orange with the hope that the colonists would be able to establish farms and support the WIC soldiers and traders stationed at Fort Orange.

What If?

Would you have settled in New Netherland under the same terms the WIC offered the first Walloon families? Why or why not?

The first Walloon families contracted with the WIC to live in New Netherland for a minimum of 6 years on land that the WIC provided them. The first New Netherlanders also agreed to help the WIC build necessary fortifications and buildings and serve in the militia during times of war.

In exchange, the WIC promised to supply the settlers with land, seeds, and livestock, 2 years of free food and necessities, and allowed them to hunt, fish, find and operate salt pans and pearl beds, and look for precious metals. Additionally, the WIC allowed the Walloons to worship freely in their homes or at public Dutch Reformed services.