Explore history through food & drink at Brewing Power, a six-part public lecture series at Dublin Castle, 6–21 Feb 2026. The series brings together research, film, reconstruction & guided tastings to uncover everyday life in sixteenth-century Ireland. 🎟️ ow.ly/MhuU50XZZNr @historytcd.bsky.social

So here are some notes regarding those porters brewed for this talk ...

LOST APPLE 'RYMER' REDISCOVERED! Thanks to amazing sleuthing by Stephen Ainsleigh Rice in England and Gary Sully in Australia, this wonderful cooking apple has been confirmed rediscovered. Believed lost for nearly 100 years, DNA testing shows it was a grandparent of Bramley. 1/3

I'm drinking cider from a 1900 half pint silver-plated pub mug. And it makes the mug looked gilded inside.

🚨WOW! The Petition calling for a public inquiry into Russian influence on UK politics & democracy has now rocketed past 75,000 signatures! 🙏 LET’S KEEP GOING! If a petition is what it’s going to take let’s get this done! petition.parliament.uk/petitions/74...

There aren’t many outlets that post such regular content dedicated to cider. And though we only publish once a week this year (last year was a blistering twice a week), I’m proud of the coverage we give. We don’t get mentioned much on socials or beer sites, but if you like this kind of content… 🙂

@barmas.bsky.social Do you remember that conversation we had on Twitter a couple of years ago, about an engraving of a. 18th century London tavern, selling Redstreak cider? We've found a painted version!

Just back on Bluesky after forgetting about it for many months. What did I miss?

Jack reports on PerryFest, held in the Museum of Cider @museumofcider.bsky.social, sorry, Museum of Perry, in Hereford, and has a chat with the organisers of this unique event, Paul Stevens and @lzbth.bsky.social.

A way to support museums/research gardens/universities that are under attack from Trump. UC Berkeley's beautiful botanical research garden membership special - 20% off thru 4/18 Depending on level you join at, you can get Membership in the North American Reciprocal Museum Association....

DOGE was never about savings. It was always about surveillance. Over the weekend, we released new details—and now whistleblowers are coming forward too. What’s becoming clearer by the day: DOGE isn’t a government efficiency program. It’s a data weapon aimed at the American people.

What a day. Giving the keynote speech at the biggest cider maker’s conference in Britain was not something that I’d ever envisaged doing. So thank you to @3ccpa.bsky.social for inviting me. The cider community here is just so open and welcoming. Failed to take photos of my talk 😁

New episode! It was enlightening to speak with @bamcshane.bsky.social about the lives and experiences of Irish women religious and the impact of the dissolution of the monasteries. A must-listen episode for anyone interested in early modern women. Tune in! talkingtudors.podbean.com

Yesterday, President Trump issued an executive order that attempts to dictate what history is shared at the Smithsonian Institution and National Park Service sites. Read our statement on this political interference in the practice of history.

You know when you're attending something good when you completely forget to take photos. #Craftcon was superbly organised: well done Three Counties Cider and Perry Association!! What a programme. And it was so good to be able to do a talk at it for the museum, on Cider brandy.

Arresting Quaker women for non-violent protest and breaking into a meeting house to do so. The first time anyone has been arrested in a meeting house in living memory. Despicable behaviour from a Labour government’s Home Office/the Met Police.

FFS! It’s right out of the fascist playbook

I bought this sherry cask (very reasonably) for a display at the Museum, but can't find an accurate date for it. 1930s- 1960?

We have been researching the financial links between MPs and the private healthcare sector🚨 Can anyone answer this? Why are lobbyists with private healthcare clients donating to MPs? Why are companies that already provide services for the NHS donating to MPs? Well...we are building a map, to...

Day 6 #31beerherstories women could also brew & sell ale alongside their husbands in Ireland. Jacoba Payn and her husband, John Kyng, owned a brewing pan worth 3 shillings 4d & wooden brewing vats worth 4s. Did they brew together? Possibly. Or she brewed and they

The Frederick C Murphy Building probably means nothing to most people, but that is the NATIONAL ARCHIVES. Mother fuckers. @universalhub.com

Trump posted: ‘All federal funding will STOP for any college, school, or university that allows illegal protests. Agitators will be imprisoned or permanently sent back to the country from which they came. American students will be permanently expelled or, depending on the crime, arrested. NO MASKS!’

This was a welcome surprise whilst walking along a canal bank near Thrupp.

The sky above Herefordshire today.

Got in our Museum Accreditation return tonight at 11pm after a little tussle with Grantium. Now I'm going to float up the stairs to bed. 😁

Us: "We need a responsible person to oversee the public while they visit our internationally important archaeological site. The responsible person:

Word of the day is ‘librocubicularist’: one who loves nothing better than reading in bed. (Not easy to say, but I’m glad to know it exists).

"Another benefit is the three crops: apples, wool and meat. “If you compare a holistic system of traditional orchards, then try to get the same from separated, specialised orchards and pasture, you would need significantly more land. It’s the direction...” wickedleeks.riverford.co.uk/features/is-...

Impressed by Plantin offers the prints of 14,000 woodblocks, freely available for creative reuse. museumplantinmoretus.be/en/impressed...

Well, we had a brilliant afternoon at the museum, listening to a talk by the eminent apple historian and detective John Bunker. His talk was lyrical, and made me want a log cabin with orchards in Maine too.

I'd better get the Museum on here swiftly.

Oh my goodness, I'm away from here for a few days and come back to find lots of my favourite people posting away, as if I've walked into a pub and all my friends are there unexpectedly.

Looking forward to reading this 😍

I found a bottle in my cellar from when I tried to make a Kent style cider. Wasn't too impressed by it at the time, and I take my hat off to those who use dessert apples well. 3 or 4 years later, it's mellowed into something lovely & really drinkable.

Small cider apple display in a marquee in torrential rain for Apple Day... 😂

Reading the tributes to Susanna Forbes, of Little Pomona, everyone comments on her generosity of spirit. We have lost someone very special. Talented, clever but above all, genuinely kind. ❤️ A lovely friend.

Torrential downpour in Leominster, Herefordshire this afternoon, which filled these abandoned Wetherspoons glasses right up!

I feel this really needs a caption...

1/5 Five part post on women and investment activities in C17th. All data drawn from a MarineLives article on the same #earlymodern #skyhistorian www.marinelives.org/wiki/Women%2...

Tim Leunig in the FT is right about Brexit. But it’s far worse. Brexit ripped us out of our $19 trillion GDP domestic market & reduced us to one a 6th of it, thumped our economy, fractured the UK, threw our governance into chaos, & generated perilous geopolitical effects. A🧵/1.

Incatpacitated

Moving the replica of Lord Scudamore's 17th century glass. I wonder if the Museum of London/London Museum would like to lend us the original? 🤔

My latest purchase arrived 😍

BOOK ANNOUNCEMENT! Hello friends! 👋 My book 'The Devil's In The Draught Lines' on the history of beer and women in the UK with @CAMRA_Official @CAMRABooks is now available for preorder! Makes a great last minute holiday gift! For more details: camra.org.uk/publications...

I'm giving a FREE online talk on 15 November all about food, meals and manners as part of a project with @TheMoRW. I hope you can make it. Book your spot here: museum-of-royal-worcester.arttickets.org.uk/museum-of-ro...

I've decided it's time to write a blog, about Early Modern cider, of course. I've a week off after a very October to focus on my postgrad research and also a trip to Somerset. But just sipping coffee atm.....must start!

As if my article about the Golden Age of Cider and Perry came out today and I was too busy carving Dave the Pumpkin to notice.