Alcohol and Drugs History Society

Cider in nineteenth century (book)

Zachary Chastain, Cornmeal and Cider: Food and Drink in the 1800s (Broomall, PA: Mason Crest, 2011).

Alcohol, gender, and technology in colonial Chesapeake (book)

Sarah Hand Meacham, Sex and spirits : alcohol, gender, and technology in the colonial Chesapeake (Baltimore: Johns Hopkins University Press, forthcoming, 2009). "It was being too abstemious that brought this sickness upon me": alcoholic beverage consumption in the early Chesapeake -- "They will be adjudged by their drinke, what kind of housewives they are": gender, technology, and household cidering in England and the Chesapeake, 1690 to 1760 -- "This drink cannot be kept during the summer": large planters, science, and community networks in the early eighteenth century -- "Anne Howard ... will take in gentlemen": white middling women and the tavernkeeping trade in colonial Virginia -- "Ladys here all go to market to supply their pantry": alcohol for sale, 1760-1776 -- "Every man his own distiller": technology, the American Revolution, and the masculinization of alcohol production in the late eighteenth century -- "He is much addicted to strong drinke": the problem of alcohol -- A few recipes.

Beer sales at British pubs fall to lowest level since Great Depression

The International Herald Tribune reports on the plight of the British pub: a smoking ban, inflation, supermarket competition, economic bad times, and a fashion for different drinks (such as hard cider) have led to a decline in beer sales at public houses. The British Beer and Pub Association (responsible for nearly all the beer brewed in the UK and nearly two-thirds of the pubs) worries about the closing of pubs and clubs. The Campaign for Real Ale says a majority of British villages now lack a pub; over 1400 pubs closed in 2007. Made desperate by the situation, about half of Britain's remaining 57,000 pubs have withdrawn from a voluntary code that bans "happy hour" and other sales promotions. For further details, see the website of the British Beer and Pub Association here.

Martinelli's cider 140 years old

An Italian-Swiss immigrant founded the cider company Martinelli in California in the year 1868. Although its original product was an alcoholic champagne-style cider, the company survived Prohibition because it pasteurized apple juice beginning in 1917. This made the beverage non-alcoholic. Still a family-owned company today, Martinelli now sells organic juice products and a variety of sparkling juice blends. For more, see the company website.

Perry with meals (and not Babycham)

A Welsh perry maker is promoting perry as a drink with meals. The pear-based beverage is lighter and sweeter than apple-based cider which typically is drunk apart from meals. Pear-based alcoholic drinks were briefly popular as Babycham, a sometimes ridiculed "girlie drink" that faded from the scene when women switched to flavored martinis. For more, see here.

Beer & cider in Ireland (book review)

For a favorable review of Iorwerth Griffiths, Beer & Cider in Ireland: The Complete Guide (Liberties Press, 2007), with considerable historical material, see here.

Controversy over cheap cider at British supermarket chain

Controversy has followed a cut in cider prices at Sainsbury's, the big supermarket chain. The cider (4.2 percent alcohol by volume) is now as cheap at 26 pence a pint or about a half dollar US. There have been complaints that cheap cider encourages binge drinking, sometimes followed by violence. For more, see here.

Tavern culture in northeastern Ohio, 1796-1840 (thesis)

Adam J. Criblez, “From Grog Punch to Hard Cider: Tavern Culture on Ohio’s Western Reserve, 1796-1840" (M.A. thesis, Kent State University, 2003).

Southern Comfort: The Use and Abuse of Alcohol in Southern Literature (call for papers)

Cross-listed from two H-Net discussion groups, H-South and H-Southern-Lit:

Southern Comfort: The Use and Abuse of Alcohol in Southern Literature

Society for the Study of Southern Literature, Williamsburg, VA (04/18-20/08)

Several casks of beer and wine were among the cargo the original
settlers brought to Jamestown. Since then, alcohol has occupied an
important place in southern culture. This proposed panel at SSSL will
explore the representation of alcohol use and abuse in southern
literature. Possible topics include whiskey, bourbon, and moonshine;
alcoholism and southern writers; depictions of drinking; the temperance
movement and prohibition; race, class, gender, and drinking practices;
rum and the slave trade; and tension between alcohol and religion.

Please send a three hundred word abstract and a short CV to David A.
Davis ([email protected]) by November 20, 2007.

Brewers, distillers, and cider makers in the British Isles

Recently the online Oxford Dictionary of National Biography provided a list of the brewers, distillers, and cider makers in the British Isles (with biographies in the ODNB) and an interactive map.  For details, see here.

Makers of alcoholic drinks figure prominently in the accompanying essay here.