Join us at the historic Wheel Pump Inn for a look back to 1680 Philadelphia with Rich Wagner, local brewing historian.

Thursday, October 27, 2022
6:30PM – 8:30PM

Wheel Pump Inn
529 Bethlehem Pike, Erdenheim

BUY TICKETS
Tickets are $45 per person, includes beer, snacks and non-alcoholic beverages.

Just about everyone’s heard of Philadelphia’s Brewerytown, but back in the 1680s there was a cluster of a half dozen breweries along Dock Creek from the river to Walnut St. At the mouth of the creek was the Blue Anchor Tavern, William Penn’s first stop in what would become his “Greene Country Towne.”

The city’s breweries and taverns were inextricably intertwined with not only Philadelphia’s but the nation’s history; much of which took place at a tavern over a frothy mug of ale!

Rich Wagner has been researching Pennsylvania brewing history since 1980. In 1990 he brewed at Pennsbury Manor using reproductions of seventeenth century equipment. Two years later he worked with a cooper to make his own system and has taken it on the road to demonstrate the brewing process of antiquity at historical sites and festivals. In 1994 he earned a diploma in brewing technology from the Siebel Institute in Chicago and worked in Philadelphia craft breweries over a seven year period. Since his retirement as a high school science teacher, he has devoted his time to writing, speaking and brewing. He has given tours of breweries in Philadelphia, Pittsburgh, Wilkes-Barre/Scranton, the Lehigh Valley and South-Central Pennsylvania and published guidebooks to go with each tour and is the author of Philadelphia Beer, the Heady History of Brewing in the Cradle of Liberty (The History Press, 2012).

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