Beer: Early Colonial Brewing

The earliest settlers in the Virginia colony began using maize, native to North America, to brew beer, because the cost of shipping the raw ingredients for English-style beers was prohibitive. By the late 1500s their efforts were successful enough that in 1609 the administrators of the colony were advertising in the London newspapers for the services of qualified brewers.

Three years later Adrian Block and Hans Christiansen established the first commercial brewery in the growing trading center of New Amsterdam. It was in this brewery in 1614 that Jean Vigne was brought into the world. Eighteen years later he would open his own brewery not far from where he had been born.