Joseph Coppinger

Joseph Coppinger is remembered today for The American Practical Brewer and Tanner, a work published in 1815 and later preserved by Project Gutenberg. In the prospectus he sent to Thomas Jefferson, he described himself as having twenty-five years of experience in brewing and malting, which helps explain the book’s detailed, workshop-level focus.

The letters that survive in the Jefferson papers make him especially interesting. In the early 1800s he wrote to Jefferson about a patent related to preserving animal and vegetable substances, and a few years later he shared plans for a brewing company. Those same documents connect him with Pittsburgh and New York, and they show someone determined to build practical businesses in the young United States.

Coppinger also wrote beyond brewing. In 1817 he sent Jefferson a copy of his tract Catholic Doctrine and Catholic Principles Explained, hoping to counter prejudice against Catholics. Not every part of his life is easy to reconstruct, but the record that remains suggests an energetic author whose books grew directly out of experience, experiment, and a strong belief that useful knowledge should be put to work.