Posted on 11/19/2011 8:35:32 AM PST by Pharmboy
In the spirit of authenticity, a home-brewer attempts to recreate a founding father's beer recipe.
It was last Thanksgiving. I had my heirloom turkey, local yams and organic cranberries. I had donned my waxed-canvas apron and consulted vintage recipe books. I was ready to eat. But on this, the most heritage-chic of holidays, what should one drink?
Wine felt too stuffy; a six-pack not ceremonial enough. I was stumped. Then I discovered George Washington's beer. Or, more precisely, a recipe for it, referenced in a few old home-brewing books. Scribbled on the last page of one of Washington's journals is a short, cryptic note: "Take a large Sifter full of Bran," it begins. Add hops "to your Taste," boil, mix in three gallons of molasses, ferment—"let it work"—for a week, then enjoy. Rugged Americana, from the pen of our most patriarchal founding father. This would be perfect. My only question: How would it pair with turkey?
...Guests at Mount Vernon reported home that their host's silver pint rarely left his side at dinner...
The docents at Washington's Mount Vernon estate recreated his recipe a few years ago, and I called them for advice. ...I asked Dennis Pogue, who runs Mount Vernon's rye whiskey still. "The molasses gives it a real...different flavor," he said. "It didn't taste very good."
That was the problem with Washington's otherwise normal home-brew: molasses. Few brewers use molasses these days because when it ferments it turns sour and sharp, but Washington had no choice. Barley didn't grow well in the eastern Colonies, so he had to get his sugar elsewhere. I decided to keep the molasses, but cover up the flavor with chunks of roasted pumpkin, a few anise stars, ginger, cinnamon and licorice—odd today, but common beer ingredients at that time.
(Excerpt) Read more at online.wsj.com ...
I used to make salsa...”
...thanks for the tip! My wife stews tomatoes. I wonder if there’s a possibility for good bloody mix?
I can always tell the heirloom vegetables in my garden. They are prone to disease, especially blight. I’ve quit using them and have been happily using Early Girls and other varieties that smart men have created for a reason.
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An heirloom turkey is the kind you would go out into a field an shoot. If I didn’t live in an incorporated area, I could do that for T-day — there are enough of them around.
I prefer hard cider to beer. Woodchuck is good, and imported Strongbow is very good.
Every year at this time I make at least 10 gallons of sparkling hard cider. I swear the stuff just evaporates. I'll have to do 15 next year.
So were the United States Marines-— being created on November 10, 1775, in Tun Tavern, Philadelphia.
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