The Hessians are coming! (for our beer)

It wasn’t as famous as Paul Revere’s warning, but the cry "The Hessians are coming!" was, for many colonial Americans, a terrifying prospect. And in 1777, our own Indian Queen Lane in East Falls was "Ground Zero" for an entire encampment.   This area was strategically important as a major thoroughfare into the heart of Philadelphia, and it was also flush with natural resources. The Falls were prime fishing grounds, and the forests teamed...

A Schuylkill river fish tale

Who hasn't seen the Falls Bridge fishermen and winced at the thought of eating fish out of the Schuylkill? Are they even edible? Are they radioactive or full of PCBs or BPAs or WMDs or something...?? What's even down there? It’s almost a Philadelphia birthright to look into the murky waters of the Schuylkill river and imagine all sorts of auto parts, rubber boots, and petroleum products clinging to the ooze of the river bed. It’s a mindset...

When oysters were peanuts

They sure loved their oysters at the Hohenadel Brewery on Indian Queen Lane. We found hundreds of shells at the site this morning, unearthed by a construction crew digging up the site of the old brewery for condominiums. That many fresh oysters would be worth thousands of dollars today at an upscale center city restaurant, but in 19th century bars, oysters were the peanuts of the day. They were the cheap eats that kept customers coming back for...

Meet the brewer: Tom Coughlin

Our Q&A with Tom Coughlin, the brewer behind the Hohenadel lager: How did you get started in home brewing? It took place in stages and began back in the 1980s. Stage I: Craft beer awareness (1980s) In the 1980s I dropped out of college and I worked at a neon sign shop that did a lot of work for beer companies. At that time, the people who were the reps for Anheuser Busch all knew that craft brew would arrive one day, and then the party would...

Hohenadel Beer Project: Pilot Test for Cluster Hop

DATE:          Wednesday 6/18/14 LOCATION:  Princeton Junction, NJ BREWER:    Tom Coughlin PHOTOS:      Steve Fillmore What is a "pilot" batch, and why brew one? Pilot brewing is simply brewing a small sample to "test drive" an unfamiliar yeast, hop, grain, process, etc. It can also grow specific yeast. In our case, the yeast will be used in the Hohenadel lager this fall. For our beer, brewer Tom Coughlin is using the dominant...

Here Comes the Hohenadel Beer Project

This October, Hohenadel House is going back to its roots! There won’t be horse-drawn carriages or gas lamps in the streets, but we’re bringing back the best of that old world: classic Bavarian lager beer that made the Falls famous. Oh, and we figure an old time orchestra sound by the Falls’ own Frank Sinatra, sung in the Hohenadel ballroom, wouldn’t hurt either. Goal: To brew a pre-prohibition lager that will approximate those brewed in...

Dangerous crossings: Railroads in the 19th century

“The repetition of serious or fatal accidents, by which men, women and children are crushed, decapitated, cut in two, or dismembered loses its effect by its frequency. The cases fall one by one, upon the public; we are told that, in the usual phrase – “the accident was inevitable and no blame is to be attached to the driver;” the survivors gather up the reeking remains of the victim – and the matter passes away and is forgotten.”...

For the Love of Dogs, Then & Now

How much is your dog worth? Five bucks? In 1854, that was the reward offered for a “large white pointer dog” that was stolen from the Falls Hotel. That seems pretty cheap, until you consider that $5 then is worth about $140 today. In the mid 19th century, dogs weren’t invited to restaurants or spoiled with Busy Bee toys, they were mostly bred for usefulness. As industrialization began to increase during the mid to late 19th century, many...

An evening with Harry Prime at Epicure Cafe

Harry Prime doesn’t let anyone piss in his pockets and he doesn’t forget a friend. Both poles of his personality were on display at his dinner show at the Epicure Cafe on Saturday May 24th. And, oh yeah, he can still sing. Some people go to Harry’s shows to hear about Grace Kelly or the picture postcard stories from the good old days. And Harry doesn’t disappoint. He can spin a clean, upbeat tale as well as anyone, evoking the old...

A little “luck” at local church uncovers historical documents

It isn’t Indiana Jones unearthing the Ark, or Nicholas Cage finding a secret treasure map in the U.S. Constitution. But discovering a trove of nineteenth century mortgage documents in a musty church attic sure can make a geeky historian smile. It can also remind you how lucky you can get. We were lucky to find Marion Johnson at The Falls of Schuylkill Baptist Church. And even luckier that she was the daughter of the church’s unofficial...