Cav training?

[vbetts]

I'm putting this in the Civilian discussion because it is prewar. I guess it goes to show that anything can be fun after a sufficient number of lager beers, especially in San Antonio.

ALAMO EXPRESS [San Antonio, TX], September 1, 1860, p. 3, c. 2
The Olymp.—On any night of the week if you happen to strole [sic] down [illegible] street, you will be greeted with the enlivening strains of a hand organ, proceeding from an establishment with the above sign on it. The building is devoted to the lovers of "lager beer" and an occasional "hop" takes place in the upper rooms. But if you neither wish to take a whirl in the German waltz or "wet your whistle" you can step into the back yard and look at the hobby-horse performance, which will cost you nothing unless you are silly enough to straddle one of the "fiery steeds" and try your luck at stringing a couple of rings on an iron poker. Night after night is this "hobby-horse" arrangement resorted to, and affords an easy and simple mode to our people for throwing away their surplus and unnecessary dimes. The "Olymp" is one of our varieties, but in its performances present the same variety every night, especially the "hobby-horse" department,--the "artistic" gentleman from Italy "grinds" us the same tunes over and over again, and the "steeds" never deviate from their circle, which we must call the "magic circle" as it congregates the humble, the proud, the rich and the poor about it nightly—there must be a charm that we can't see. Truly is man a simple being chasing bubbles on life's current. The wise and the simple ride their hobbies.

ALAMO EXPRESS [San Antonio, TX], September 10, 1860, p. 3, c. 4
The Olymp.—Continues to be extensively patronised. The other evening we dropped in to hear Norma by the "artistic Italian," when we were astonished to see so great a crowd gathered around the "magic circle." Among the incidents which amused us were: One individual decidedly on his head, whether in consequence of the circular movement or from a little of the "ardent" we know not, at any rate as "fuddled" was this gentleman that he missed the ring board entirely and speared the "knight of the rings" which his knightship took as decidedly personal, but our dizzy friend was allowed to live and went on in his mad chase after pleasure, gallantly sitting his fiery steed. Another individual decidedly exhilerated [sic], was singing—
"I'm racing, I'm racing,
My home is the bound,
And Boshard's [?] swift hobbies
Shall carry me round."

Vicki Betts
vbetts@gower.net

[ElizabethClark]

Re: Cav training?

Oh, now here's something interesting; I was reading a book on the ice trade (The Frozen Water Trade, Gavin Weightman, ISBN 0-7868-8640-4), and it noted that the lager business got really hot from 1865-1880s, as more and more ice was used commercially... the note on lager was from the Chicago area... I wonder if it took that long to work its way up there with ice and immigrants?

[DonSmithnotTMD]

Re: Cav training?

I do have to point out America's finest beer

1829 David G. Yuengling establishes the Eagle Brewery on Centre Street in Pottsville, Pennsylvania.
http://www.yuengling.com/

Aside from that, there are frequent coments in period references about lager beer.
This is a definition that gives me trouble
Lager is a bottom fermented, lightly hoped beer originally brewed in Germany, lager is aged under refrigeration for 6 weeks to 6 months (lager is German for storehouse). Most lagers are fairly light in color, highly carbonated with a medium hop flavor. The original German lager was dark in color.

Lager beer is the dominant beer style throughout the brewing world today, except in England. Ale is the primary style of beer consumed in England

I've always imagined period beer as being dark, but now I'm not sure. There was a reference about the Confederates who occupied Carlisle Barracks (June 63) getting drunk on beer they found there, but I can't place it right now.

here's more beer nonsence reemphasizing that beer is food
BEER
Beer is defined as a staple food in Bavaria.

Duke Wilhelm IV of Bavaria decreed in 1516 that beer could only be brewed from barley malt, hops and water. This Rheinheitsgebot (purity law) was the world's first consumer protection law.

At the 1893 Chicago Fair, Pabst beer won a blue ribbon, and was called 'Pabst Blue Ribbon" beer from then on.

Ale is the primary style of beer consumed in England. Lager beer is the dominant beer style throughout the rest of the brewing world.

The oldest known code of laws is the Code of Hammurabi from ancient Babylonia, about 1750 B.C. It regulated the practices of drinking houses, and called for the death penalty for proprietors found guilty of watering down their beer.

In 1935 a method for lining tin cans with vinyl plastic was developed for use with canned beers.

The most popular beverage in the world is tea, and beer is number two. However, in England and Ireland, beer is the most popular beverage.

The ancient Babylonians were making more than a dozen different varieties of beer from various grains and honey in 4000 B.C.

The Egyptians believed that the god of agriculture, Osiris, taught humans how to make beer.

Historians report that during the Middle Ages, when monks were brewing their beer in their monasteries, each monk was allowed to drink 5 quarts of beer a day.

In 1900 there were over 1,800 breweries in the U.S. In 1980 there were 44, and in 2001 there were close to 2,000. The ups and downs of brewing beer!

Supposedly the oldest known written recipe is for beer.

Part of a 19th century BC epic poem (hymn) devoted to the ancient Sumerian goddess of brewing. http://www.piney.com/BabNinkasi.html

One of the reasons the Pilgrims landed at Plymouth Rock in 1620, rather than sail further south to warmer climate, was because their supplies were dwindling, "especially our beere."

Annual 2001 beer production in the U.S.: 195,000,000 barrels.
Annual 2001 beer production of Anheuser-Busch: 93,000,000

Annual per capita consumption of beer in the U.S. in 2002 was 22 gallons.

The largest brewery in the U.S. is the Anheuser-Busch brewery in St. Louis, Missouri.

Lager is a bottom fermented, lightly hoped beer originally brewed in Germany, lager is aged under refrigeration for 6 weeks to 6 months (lager is German for storehouse). Most lagers are fairly light in color, highly carbonated with a medium hop flavor. The original German lager was dark in color.

The people at Guinness, Ireland’s most famous brewery, estimate that in Great Britain alone, 92,749 litres of beer each year are lost in beer drinker’s moustaches and beards. They estimate that each pint (approx. ½ l) is raised 10 times, and each time, 0.56 ml is absorbed into the facial hair.

Molson Companies Ltd., Montreal, Quebec, is the oldest brewery in North America. The company was founded by John Molson in 1786, and is still under Molson family control.

* Peter Minuit established the first public brewery in America at the Market Field in lower Manhattan.

* The first brewery in America was built in Hoboken, New Jersey in 1642.

this selection leads me to believe that beer must have really sucked in the 19th Century
At the 1893 Chicago Fair, Pabst beer won a blue ribbon, and was called 'Pabst Blue Ribbon" beer from then on.