Introduction

My name is Samuel Pike I am a 4th Museum Studies major. When I originally came to RIT I was in an entirely different major, New Media and Interactive Development. As I neared the end of my first year at RIT I realized I didn't enjoy the work, the environment, or the idea of easily being able to find a well paying job so I joined the change of majors program. It was there that I actually first heard of Museum Studies, a program I didn't know actually existed here; and the rest is history.

As I went through my years here, my interest and focus in museums varied wildly, from science museums, to museums about the Manifest Destiny movement, and then finally to local and living histories. Starting this summer I had my first taste of what I wanted to do.  After getting put in contact with Brian Nagel at the GCVM I began learning all about historic fermentation and culinary practices.

Above is an image of a document written by George Washington. It was a recipe he created and used to make a batch of 'small' beer (note: Small beer refers to beer that's around 1% alcohol, usually just used to purify water into a drinkable substance). Once I returned from my study abroad program about halfway through the summer I went ahead and recreated this recipe. Although the tools I used were pretty different, I was able to use close to identical ingredients. A few weeks later I was able to drink the same beer that our first President did. From here I began doing more research into historic culinary methods and techniques, slowly focusing in on Rochester and its brewing history, a subject that currently lacks anything more than just bits and pieces of information spread throughout different institutions.