BETHLEHEM, Pa. — A dedicated batch of historians and hopheads are coming together this weekend to show the Lehigh Valley how the area’s favorite brew was crafted back in the day.
During this year’s Blueberry Festival at Burnside Plantation, a dedicated brew crew will whip up tasty suds in the traditional Moravian manner, cauldron and all.
- Craig Larimer, director of marketing at Historic Bethlehem Museums and Sites, will hold a Colonial beer brewing station at the Blueberry Festival this weekend
- Using traditional methods including a copper kettle, Larimer and his team will produce about 10 gallons of Johann Sebastian Goundie’s Wood Fire Ale
- Larimer and his group will have plenty of time to talk about beer with any visitors who swing by to learn about the old ways
The aim will be to entertain and inform the public about the Valley's rich history of old-fashioned beermaking.
The 36th Annual Blueberry Festival & Market To Go will be 10 a.m. to 7 p.m. Saturday and Sunday, July 15-16. Burnside Plantation is at 1461 Schoenersville Road.
Tickets, starting at $10 in advance and $12 the day of the event are available on the Historic Bethlehem website.
Visitors can also buy a Blueberry Brewery pass and admission for $25, which includes one adult admission, a tasting glass and five tastings. Tickets purchased at the gate will be $27 and include four tastings.
Interest in brewing
Beer brewing has always held a special place in Pennsylvania history, ever since William Penn's Bucks County brewery sparked a movement that would lead to the spread of Quaker beer.
In the Lehigh Valley, Moravians had their own ideas about the art of ale, a drink they enjoyed quite a bit, according to Larimer.
Larimer and his crew aim to preserve that process of beermaking twice a year when they bust out the cauldron and casks to make up traditional brews, while educating the public about how it was all done back in the day.
The party, which also will include Larimer's “loyal wingmen” Johan Sundlof, Bob Kennedy, Scott Johnson and Michael Brolly, will tend to the cauldron’s fire while decked out in traditional colonial clothing this weekend.
The passion for such a spectacle starts with a bit of curiosity, Larimer said, as he was drawn into the movement by a friend who was interested in homebrewing.
When Larimer and his wife stumbled upon that friend at the Burnside Plantation on Schoenersville Road brewing ale, he said he was intrigued by the process.
“When we saw what they were doing, they were having fun doing it," Larimer said. "We always have fun, you know, whatever we do, but this one just had a different flavor to it. I mean, it just had a nice connection to the past."
And Larimer said that connection to the past cemented his interest in the activity.
“The Johann Sebastian Goundie story is the part that I really fell in love with," he said. "I mean, this guy was recruited from Germany to come here to become a brewer. The city wanted a commercial brewer.
"We were also in sort of competition with Winston-Salem [North Carolina] for his services. And just the whole story about a guy who's a community leader who became the city's first brewer, and he had so much influence as a businessman, it was really just intriguing.”
Goundie is credited as a pioneer in Lehigh Valley beermaking. Born in Germany in 1773, he eventually came to Bethlehem in 1803 to take over a Moravian brewery situated behind the Single Brethren’s House at Main and Church streets.
While that brewery shuttered its doors in 1812, Goundie was able to establish a new one near his home along Main Street, near Bethlehem’s Monocacy Street.
Goundie was renowned for his tasty brews for years, and was recognized as a fixture in the world of ale making, which was the Lehigh Valley’s dominant style at the time.
Brews at the Blueberry Festival
This year, the team will prepare about 10 gallons of Johann Sebastian Goundie’s Wood Fire Ale, composed of four simple ingredients: water, grain, hops and yeast.
The process begins with the group boiling about 25 gallons of water in a copper kettle over a wood fire. Next, they add 24 pounds of a dry malted barley mixture into a halved oak barrel to create the “mash tun” or “hot liquor tank.”
While a consistent temperature of 150 degrees Fahrenheit is maintained, hot water is spooned into the mash. It steeps for about two hours before the wort, a sugary-sweet liquid substance from the bottom of the hot liquor tank, is removed and placed back into the cauldron.
The work liquid is put into the empty kettle to boil over the wood fire, where it sits for about 90 minutes before a blend of fresh hops is dropped into the batch.
You’ll be able to locate the team just by following the smoke, Larimer said.
With the expected toasty temperatures over the weekend, in addition to period-specific dressings, the brewers are bound to be sweating their stockings off, but it’s something you get accustomed to once you get in a groove, Larimer said.
After boiling and blending, the liquid cools and is placed into fermenting containers, and then yeast is added. The yeast consumes the sugar and creates carbonation and alcohol.
The more sugar in the mix, the more alcohol is produced.
Fermentation takes around two weeks, after which the team will “keg it, chill it, tap it, and share a toast with family and friends,” Larimer said.
Connecting with the community
While the actual brewing process provides plenty of entertainment to the crew, it also gives them time to interact with Blueberry Festival visitors.
They explain the weird and wild history of beer in the Lehigh Valley, which tends to draw in craft brewers and beer fanatics alike.
“The fact that you'd have five people that would be so interested in it, or learning it on a level that I am, that's really saying something," Larimer said.
“The Lehigh Valley right now is booming in the craft beer scene, so a lot of people around here have refined tastes. And they want to talk about it, they want to be in the know. They're curious."Carig Larimer, director of marketing, Historic Bethlehem Museums and Sites
"I love that I can bring my friends together to do it because a brew day is a lot of fun, and the fact that it's just it's cooking, but you're able to tell the beer story to people who may know it who may be brewing on their own.
“The Lehigh Valley right now is booming in the craft beer scene, so a lot of people around here have refined tastes. And they want to talk about it, they want to be in the know. They're curious."
Getting a chance to see the old ways at work is an unusual opportunity, Larimer said.
As beermaking has grown and changed in many ways — you can find yourself plenty of affordable homebrew kits online — but the very process of the Moravian ale method makes for a fun novelty, he said.
“I don't think there's a lot of people that are doing it this way, because it's so bizarre, and it's time intensive," he said. "You need to have a wood fire, you need to have sort of a chimney to keep the heat in surrounding it.
"So we've invested a significant amount of money and time to put together the brewery."
Connecting with the community
Visitors won’t be able to taste the day’s brew — remember, it takes a few weeks to get ready — visitors at Bethlehem’s Apple Days will be able to sample the beer this fall.
Don't let that discourage you from enjoying any of the other local drinks available at the festival though, as McCall Collective, LOST Tavern, Bru Daddy's, Cave Brewing and Logyard all will offer up tasty concoctions at the event.
Wondering what Larimer's beer will taste like? Well, there’s the mystery.
Depending on any number of factors, the ale can take on numerous profiles. Larimer said the brews are a “trial-and-error” process, producing some great results and, every once in a while, something you’d rather not share with friends.
Every once in a while, the results are pretty surprising, Larimer said.
He said one time, the ale came out particularly smoky, “and people really liked it; people were looking for something different,” he said.
While the classic Goundie ale stands apart from modern craft brews, it isn’t all about comparing and contrasting flavor profiles, Larimer said.
“I think we do a pretty good job with the four ingredients that we have, and most of the time we're happy with what we come up with."Craig Larimer
It’s more about preserving a fun and informative process with deep roots in the Lehigh Valley, and, yes, every once in a while, being able to enjoy a beer with friends and family.
“I think we do a pretty good job with the four ingredients that we have, and most of the time we're happy with what we come up with,” Larimer said.
Beer lovers and learners can visit the brewing operation during the Blueberry Festival at Burnside Plantation.
The Colonial Brewery is next to the Wagon Shed, just south of the Brewery Tasting Tent.
