The Philosophy of Making Beer

In the spring of 1812, while tensions grew between the United States and Great Britain, Jefferson was enjoying his retirement from public life at Monticello. Construction was under way on the brick garden pavilion, and Jefferson embarked on the scientific pursuit of brewing beer—the kind of experiment that he relished. Using malt purchased from his neighbor William Meriwether and hops bought locally, Jefferson was apparently successful in the first brewing attempt at Monticello since his wife had made beer some forty years earlier. On May 12th he instructed his overseer to "bottle the beer."

In October of that year, across the Atlantic, Captain Joseph Miller and his young daughter Mary Ann boarded the ship Lydia, bound for Norfolk. It was then rumored, but not generally believed, that the United States had declared war on Great Britain. Soon after their departure, events on the seas proved the rumors true. Miller's ship was seized first by a French privateer, and then by British ships of war, each detaining the Lydia so that it was not until February 1813 when she reached the Chesapeake Bay. There American ships enforcing the British blockade turned the Lydia away. The Millers were sailing northward in search of an open port when their ship was overtaken by a storm and lost at the Delaware River. Miller and Mary Ann somehow managed to escape the destruction, and began traveling over land and water to Norfolk, where he hoped to claim his portion of the estate of his late half-brother Thomas Reed. The Millers arrived in Norfolk in the first week of April but because of their British citizenship were immediately ordered further inland by the deputy United States marshal. Miller was not allowed to inspect or even see his property, and was only given time enough to "wash his linens" before being sent to Fluvanna Courthouse. Here the Millers were turned away because of an illness in the area, and it was not until they reached Albemarle County—six months after they set sail from England—that father and daughter found a safe harbor.

According to Jefferson, Miller's "conduct here has been such as to acquire the esteem of all the neighbors insomuch that he is the inmate of all their houses." Miller was particularly welcomed at Monticello, for he possessed the skills that Jefferson most wanted at that time - Miller had been trained in England as a brewer.

In the years that followed, Jefferson's petitions for Miller's rights of citizenship were a much a defense of beer as of Miller. To Colonel Charles Yancey Jefferson wrote, "I have great esteem for [Capt. Miller] as an honest and useful man. He is about to settle in our country, and to establish a brewery in which art I think him as skilful a man as has ever come to America. I wish to see this beverage become common instead of the whiskey which kills one third of our citizens and ruins their families."

For Jefferson and his countrymen beer was ubiquitous. Rural households brewed small quantities in their kitchens for their own use, taverns sold beer to travelers, and in larger cities established breweries supplied the population with malt liquors. The inventory taken after Peter Jefferson's death listed The London and Country Brewer among his possessions, suggesting that beer may have been brewed at Shadwell in Jefferson's youth. In the early years of their marriage Jefferson's wife Martha brewed fifteen-gallon batches of small beer (which has a relatively low alcoholic content) nearly every two weeks. Perhaps with a view toward expanding production, Jefferson's early plans for Monticello's offices (the rooms where household services were carried out) came to include both a brewing room and a beer cellar.

While traveling to and from Williamsburg or Philadelphia Jefferson bought beer at taverns and once arrived in a city, he typically stocked up on beer by the gallon or cask. Among the "necessaries" for the house in Annapolis that Jefferson shared briefly with James Monroe in early 1784 were "2. ale glasses," while the President's House was furnished with four dozen beer goblets. Beer and cider were the "table drinks" at Monticello.

The first hint that Jefferson considered brewing his own beer comes in a letter of friendly competition with George Gilmer, who lived at Pen Park in Albemarle. Jefferson wrote from Philadelphia in 1793 saying that he hoped to be home soon, "but it seems I must stay here a little longer in penance for my sins. This will give you the start in your manufactures of porter and maccaroni, in which however I shall certainly attempt to rival you." Although Jefferson planted hops in his garden at Monticello in 1794, there is no indication that he then entered the brewing race.

In 1804 Jefferson's reputation as a man of science attracted the attention of a young author, Michael Krafft, who requested permission to dedicate his American Distiller to Jefferson "as a safeguard against its falling into the general wreck of oblivion." Jefferson not only agreed to the dedication, but went on to endorse the subject of Krafft's study: "I see too with great satisfaction every example of bending science to the useful purposes of life. Hitherto chemistry has scarcely deigned to look to the occupations of domestic life. When she shall have made intelligible to the ordinary householder the philosophy of making bread, butter, cheese, soap, beer, cyder, wine, vinegar etc. these daily comforts will keep us ever mindful of our obligations to her. The art of distilling which you propose to explain, besides it's household uses, is valuable to the agriculturalist, as it enables him to put his superfluous grain into a form which will bear long transportation to markets to which the raw material could never get."

Jefferson's correspondence with Krafft apparently excited his interest in brewing, and the next fall he purchased Michael Combrune's Theory and Practice of Brewing, which introduced the scientific approach of using a thermometer for the malting and brewing processes.

On September 17th, 1813, Jefferson and Joseph Miller came together for the purpose of brewing beer at Monticello. Jefferson wrote that day to his neighbor (and malt supplier) William Meriwether, "I lent you some time ago the London & Country brewer and Combrune's book on the same subject. We are this day beginning under the directions of Capt. Millar, the business of brewing malt liquors, and if these books are no longer useful to you I will thank you for them, as we may perhaps be able to derive some information from them.

And so under the direction of Miller, Jefferson became "a brewer for family use." During the fall of 1813, Miller instructed the slave Peter Hemings, who was proficient in French cookery, in the art of malting and brewing. According to Jefferson, Peter possessed "great intelligence and diligence both of which are necessary." By the fall of 1814 there was a brewhouse at Monticello and Jefferson had begun malting his own grain instead of purchasing it from his neighbors. The location and design of the brewhouse remain a mystery; in an undated drawing, Jefferson shows a brewhouse in plan and elevation, but whether the one that was in use at Monticello was made to that design is unknown.

Both the malting and brewing processes required precision timing and particular conditions. The best seasons for malting and brewing were spring and fall, and the Monticello brewery followed that schedule. Miller probably first instructed Peter in malting, showing him how to wet the grain to encourage germination. Though barley was typically used for malt, Jefferson first used wheat and then corn "as we do not raise barley." Once germination had progressed to a certain point—which only an experienced malter could determine—the grain would be cooled, dried, and roasted. Depending on the heat of the roast the malt would be either dark or light, and would produce either dark beer (porter, stout), light beer (pale ale), or a combination thereof (brown ale, amber ale). Though Jefferson never left a description of the type of malt he produced, he and others referred to the Monticello beer as ale, suggesting that it might have been lighter. By 1820, Jefferson had a house for malting, perhaps like the one he described to James Madison as being dug into the "steep side of a hill, so as to need a roof only."

Once the malt had been ground, brewing needed to commence immediately. In the fall, Jefferson brewed three sixty-gallon casks of ale in succession. With each brew, the process began with mashing, or adding malt to hot water. Jefferson advocated using a bushel of malt for every eight or ten gallons of strong beer, noting that "public breweries" produce fifteen gallons from every bushel, which "makes their liquor meager and often vapid." The liquid that resulted from mashing—wort—would be strained, and at Monticello three-quarters of a pound of hops were added for every bushel of malt. Finally the hops were strained out of the wort and yeast was added beginning the fermentation process.

Once the beer had been kegged, it needed to rest for at least two weeks in a cool, still place before being tapped. Jefferson preferred storing beer in bottles, and with each brewing season came the rush to order bottles and corks in time for production. Even when Miller was not in attendance at Monticello brewing sessions, Jefferson relied on him to choose the highest quality corks: "I shall want a supply of good corks to bottle our beer and cyder, as soon as they can be got. It is so provoking to lose good liquor by bad corks, and so uncertain to get them good from Richmond that I had rather trespass on your friendship to get them for me in Norfolk."

The fall brewing of 1814 which presumably took place in the new brewhouse, was by all measures a success, and for the first time Peter Hemings experimented with malt made from corn. For several years Jefferson had tried to purchase a book by Joseph Coppinger (The American Brewer) that described a method of malting Indian corn. Copppinger contacted Jefferson for a subscription to the work and Jefferson replied: "I had noted the advertisement of your book in which the process of malting corn was promised and had engaged a bookseller to send it to me as soon as it should come out. We tried it here the last fall with perfect success, and I shall use it principally hereafter."

Perhaps it was this corn beer that was served in silver tumblers (or "Jefferson cups") to two Bostonian who visited Monticello in February 1815. Francis Calley Gray recalled that he and his friend George Ticknor "passed the whole forenoon, which was rainy, in conversation with Mr. Jefferson and Mr. Randolph . . . We were ushered back into the breakfast room to dinner. . . . The drinking cups were of silver marked G.W. to T.J., the table liquors were beer and cider and after dinner wine."

After the war had drawn to a close in December 1814, Capt. Miller's confinement in Albemarle ended, and he moved to Norfolk to take care of his neglected estate. There he found that some questioned his right to inherit the property because he was a British citizen. When the fall brewing of 1815 brought Miller back to Monticello, where he remained from September through the beginning of 1816, Jefferson took up his pen on Miller's behalf.

Jefferson composed a petition outlining Miller's situation for the General Assembly, and spent the Christmas season writing letters to friends in the assembly describing Miller's plight. Jefferson argued that Miller was in fact an American citizen because he had been born in Maryland—in July 1776 no less. Furthermore, Miller had been re-naturalized as an American citizen as soon as the war had ended, and had taken an oath of fidelity to the United States.

"An acquaintance with Capt. Miller from his arrival here," Jefferson wrote to Jerman Bake on December 23, 1815, "observation of the honest worth and sincere Americanism of his character, and proofs of his great skill in the art he means to follow, and which is so important to be encoraged in this state, has attached me to him and make me feel a lively interest in his success. He has been our guest now about 2. months and a welcome one to all."

Miller's petition was finally passed but his financial problems were far from over. The devaluation of his property in Norfolk prevented him from selling any of the nine houses that he had inherited so that he could buy a farm in Albemarle and return to Jefferson's neighborhood. In 1817 Jefferson wrote to Miller in Norfolk, "Altho' our hopes of your settling among us are damped by your long absence, yet we do not despair altogether. In the mean time Charlottesville is improving much both in buildings and society."

Some of the improvement in Charlottesville society might be attributed indirectly to Miller's brewing, for as word spread, Jefferson's neighbors began requesting his ale recipe, or asking to have their servants trained in beer making at Monticello. Jefferson offered James Madison the opportunity to send someone to attend the fall brewing of 1820, and then return in the spring of 1821, "in order to perfect himself." Former governor James Barbour wrote requesting Jefferson's recipe: "Some years past I recollect to have drunk some ale at Monticello which I understood was of your own brewing. The manner of doing which you had obtained by a recipe from some intelligent Briton. . . . You will oblige me much by furnishing me with a copy of the recipe as soon as your convenience will permit."

"I have no reciept for brewing," Jefferson replied, "and I much doubt the operations of malting and brewing could be successfully performed from a reciept. If it could, Combrune's book on the subject would teach the best processes: and perhaps might guide to ultimate success with the sacrifice of 2. or 3. trials. . . . We are now finishing our spring brewing. If you have a capable servt. and he were to attend our fall brewing, so as to get an idea of the manual operation, Combrune's book with a little of your own attention in the beginning might qualify him."

Although Peter Hemings' side of the story is not known, Miller clearly esteemed his assistant. Jefferson informed Miller of Peter's successes and failures, and Peter found his skills in demand in the neighborhood. "Peter's brewing of the last season I am in hopes will prove excellent," Jefferson wrote in the spring of 1817, "at least the only cask of it we have tried proves so." Miller replied, "My respects to Old Peter. I am glad he has dun so well."

From his first arrival in Albemarle Miller began "looking out for a piece of land to settle here." As Jefferson described, Miller "has become attached to the neighbors and neighborhood, and is looking out for a farm to carry on the business of farming and brewing jointly." After knowing him for only a few months, Jefferson described Miller as "having become intimate in my family," and over the years his praise of Miller's honesty and sincerity—"as zealous an American as any of ourselves"—never waned.

Miller's hopes of permanently settling in Albemarle came to an end in the fall of 1824, when he died in Norfolk. It would perhaps please him to know that his daughter and son eventually settled in the area. Miller's daughter Mary Ann married Robert Warner Wood, and had two children Warner and Lucilla. After the death of her second husband, Mary Ann was contacted by her brother, Joseph, who had remained behind in England when she and her father emigrated in 1812. Joseph was a successful inventor and engineer, and he enticed Mary Ann to return to England and live with him.

When Joseph's health began to fail, his physician recommended a change of climate, leading Joseph and Mary Ann back to the United States, where they learned that the Farmington estate in Albemarle was for sale. And so it was that Miller's family came to live at Farmington, the home of Jefferson's close friend George Divers, a place that was designed in part by Jefferson, and where their father may have been interred. Some of Miller's descendants still reside on that property to this day.

Washington discovered he could make a big profit in the booze business. I believe they recently discovered his still etc and are in or have completed the restoration process.

The article doesn't mention it, but Mr. Jefferson is well-known for brewing a pumpkin ale.

Here's a recipe from HOMEBREW digest a few years ago:

6.6# gold malt extract
5# fresh pumpkin pie meat (the 'shell', from a 7# pumpkin)
1.5# pale malt
1.0# british crystal malt
2 oz willamette hops
4 each 1/8" and 1/4" pieces of ginger root
1/2 tsp ground cinnamon
1/8 tsp nutmeg
1 tsp gypsum
1 tsp irish moss
wyeast - british ale

Rinse the pumkin, leave skin on and cut into large sections. Bake in 350f
oven for 1hr 15min. Remove skin and crush meat. Mash pumpkin and grains with
the gypsum and 1.5 gal water at 150f for 1 hour. Sparge. During the boil,
add 1 oz hops for 1 hour and 1 oz hops for 10 min. Add spices with 5 min
remaining in the boil. Expect excessive trub in the primary.

Washington discovered he could make a big profit in the booze business.

Yeah, AFTER he and Hamilton manipulated tax policy and misused the military to crush smaller competitors.

I've made lots of India Pale Ale, and a few batches of dark ale. Yum. Just yum. Cooper's Ale is pretty tasty for a kit, but cooking your own grain is the best way. I've got several Cascade hops plants growing up the back of the garage. Saving your old Grolsch bale-top bottles is the most important step :o)

A friend and I made a grog called Goat Scrotum Ale once.

It was delightful, despite the disturbing name. It had baker's chocolate, juniper berries, ginger, and three different malts.

We let it ferment up to around 10 percent alcohol (juniper berries are used to make gin, so it wasn't difficult), so if you had a pint - you knew it.......

But it was like a 5 pound glas of heaven........

I used a touch of cherry once... it was awesome. I couldn't develop a taste for chocolate though... we've tried some insane things... mint, licorice, etc., but the good ole medium toasted malt ale with a good bit of finish hop is hard to beat, and doesn't leave a hangover.

We've got a nice chocolate stout and a porter doing a second rack right now.

We just got a secondhand fridge for the garage. We're going to try our hand at lagers next.

If you do beers, I recommend you try doing a mead. Properly done, it's awesome.

We're going to try our hand at lagers next.

Cool! I didn't have the time/hardware to ever try lagers... and, LOL, I was happy with the ales. Very happy :o)

Mead... hmmmmmm.

OK, this is something I've always wanted to try. Even the wife wants to make some muscadine wine when our crop comes in this year. Any advice, links, etc. you kind people can add will be appreciated. Danke.

Willie... I have an idea. Since nobody on FR is doing it yet, why don't you start a home brew and wine making ping list and weekly thread? Sounds like a winner to me!

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