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Now you too can drink like a Founding Father
The New York Public Library has published a handwritten recipe for "small beer" by none other than Founding Father George Washington.
The recipe was created by Washington in 1757 while serving in the Virginia militia, and is found in Washington's "Notebook as a Virginia Colonel."
The recipe lists the ingredients as bran hops, yeast and molasses.
"To Make Small Beer
Take a large Siffer [Sifter] full of Bran Hops to your Taste. Boil these 3 hours then strain out 30 Gall[ons] into a cooler put in 3 Gall[ons] Molasses while the Beer is Scalding hot or rather draw the Melasses (sic) into the cooler & St[r]ain the Beer on it while boiling Hot. let this stand till it is little more than Blood warm then put in a quart of Yea[s]t if the Weather is very Cold cover it over with a Blank[et] & let it Work in the Cooler 24 hours then put it into the Cask--leave the bung open till it is almost don[e] Working--Bottle it that day Week it was Brewed."
Transcription courtesy of Nerve.com.
Curious about how this swarthy brew might taste? Well, the Coney Island Brewing Company is partnering with the New York Public Library's to make a batch of Washington's beer. Titled 'Fortitude's Founding Father Brew,' half of the batch will stay faithful to Washington's original recipe, but the other half will contain malted barley instead of molasses, a substitution that might make the brew more palatable to modern drinkers.
The concoction will not be sold commercially, but will be offered for tasting on May 18 at Rattle N Hum, a mid-Manhattan bar.
Tastings will also be offered at the library's 100's birthday gala on May 23.
In describing Washington's beer, brewer Josh Knowlton says in the DailyMail "It's pretty light, pretty dry, medium-bodied but roasty. We used some roasted malts in there so it's definitely got some of a roasted, chocolaty, little bit of a coffee flavor."
Would you try Washington's recipe? If you could pick one Founding Father as a drinking buddy who would it be? Tell us in the comments section.
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That would be my choice, too. For all the laced-up platitudes and proverbs with which he is credited, my guess is that Franklin was one hell of a lot of fun. He loved women, he loved food, he loved beer, and he apparently appreciated the finer things -- including having a good time.
To beer well brewed, words well turned, and a warm fire, Cheers! Sing along with Ben:
Come let us drink about and drive away our sorrows (repeat)
Forhaps we may not, forhaps we may not, forhaps we may not drink again tomorrow.
Wine, wine it cures the gout, the colic and the tizzy;
And is to all men, and is to all men, and is to all men, the very best of physic.
He that drinks good ale, goes to bed mellow;
Lives as he ought to do, lives as he ought to do, lives as he ought to do, and dies a happy fellow.
He who drinks small beer goes to bed sober;
Falls as the leaves do, falls as the leaves do, falls as the leaves do, he'll rot before October.
(Traditional tavern song)
Ben Franklin is the drinkin' buddy of choice. Brilliant man. Many of my ancestors were named after him with good cause. I understand that he rather favored Spruce Beer which was usually brewed with molasses - No doubt in part due to the lighter sugar tax by the British at the time. I recently tried a batch. I'm an amateurs amateur when it comes to brewing and it was... well... not exactly to my taste, but I am willing to try it again.
I rarely read user comments because I am usually appalled by the illiteracy and bad manners of posters, but I applaud the group here. No one has posted anything rude or obnoxious and all communicate an opinion without the hubris usually seen on the anonymous internet.
Three cheers to lovers of great beer and ale and to our forefathers who helped engender this great tradition.
Hmm... there's no mashing of any sort involved in this recipe, just boiling hops in water to extract the bitter flavors (3 hours is a SUPER LONG TIME) and adding fermentable sugars right to it.
Modern brewing is super sanitary, but considering that people have been making it for thousands of years without knowledge of microorganisms, the failure rate is either really low or they just drank it despite what we would call off flavors. Nothing that would actually make you sick can grow in beer.
It's an odd recipe for "beer" that has no grains. I guess at the time, the idea of beer as a strictly grain-based beverage was not quite yet solidified.
Early beers would most likely be largely consumed fairly fresh, before they got very sour. They would have a yogurt-like tartness, with a bready-yeasty slightly sweet flavor. Yeast grows and ferments faster than souring bacteria, so the older it gets the drier and more sour it gets. Also, these bacteria tend to not be very alcohol tolerant, so you can make a strong beer that you can store for longer with only moderate souring. This actually makes for a very interesting product with a sweet-tart profile, almost winelike. There are a few old survivors of the "spontaneous fermentation" days, as well as some new "wild" ales from experimentally-minded craft brewers.
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