'Tapping Portsmouth' at Strawbery Banke

"Tapping Portsmouth," Strawbery Banke Museum's new exhibit that explores the city's rich brewing history, officially opened on Wednesday and provides city residents and visitors with an up close and personal look at how this industry has always been a major part of Portsmouth's culture and identity.

According to the museum's website, "Tapping Portsmouth: How the Brewing Industry Shaped the City," will look at how the brewing of beer and cider evolved into the very successful business it is today over a 400-year period from when the first settlers arrived at Puddle Dock to the present.

"The new 2013 exhibit offers a pub crawl through history as brewers and tavern keepers kept “something brewing” in Portsmouth, then and now. Brewing helped shape Portsmouth’s history from the beginning, when beer and hard cider were the healthier alternative to water and European settlers frequented four taverns in nearby New Castle and three more in Portsmouth. During the American Revolution, Pitt and Stoodley’s taverns (both now part of Strawbery," reads the museum's website.

It will also look at the Industrial Revolution and how that contributed to the spread of local breweries here in the city, including the contributions made by Frank Jones, whose breweries delivering 100,000 gallons of beer per year across the country, making them one of the country's largest beer producers, according to Strawbery Banke's website.

According to Strawbery Banke's website, Smuttynose Brewing Co., Red Hook Brewery, The Portsmouth Brewery, Earth Eagle Brewings and A&G Homebrew Supply, along with Kennebunk Savings Bank are funding the new Tapping exhibit and related programs.

Portsmouth area brewers will also host collaborative beer tastings in Pitt Tavern and another event is planned right before the annual PASSPORT NH's Craft Beer and Culinary World Tour that benefits Strawbery Banke and New Hampshire Public Television, according to Strawbery Banke's website.

 “’Tapping Portsmouth’ looks at Portsmouth from the perspective of a still popular local product that made the city and its brewers famous,” said Lawrence J. Yerdon, President and CEO of Strawbery Banke Museum, in a prepared statement. “By examining tavern life, the breweries and their marketing then and now we put Portsmouth’s contemporary brewpub landscape into its historically authentic context – and give visitors an added dimension for enjoying the experience.”

The exhibit is open daily, seven days a week, from 10 a.m. to 5 p.m. through October 31, according to Strawbery Banke's website.