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George Washington's personal beer recipe surfaces
By Virginia SmithMay 5th, 2011, 4:00 pmComments (41)
As every real American can tell you, the most important quality in a President is their desirability as a drinking buddy. As such, George Washington's historic cool points just skyrocketed with the New York Public Library's release of his personal recipe for brewing your own beer.
A modified version of the recipe — to be clunkily known as Fortitude's Founding Father Brew — will be served at the Library's Centennial gala later this month and brewed in partnership with the Coney Island Brewing Company, but you can check out the original version below, transcribed from Washington's handwritten notes. It may or may not contain the word "bung." Anyway, here it is:
"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."
Technical question: was "Blood warm" a common term for assessing temperature back in the day, or was George Washington just a lot more macabre than I thought he was?
Commentarium (41 Comments)
I once baked Ronald Reagan's favorite macaroni and cheese.
I did too Peter. It was printed in the LA Times several years ago. What did you think of it?
Technically it was Nancy's recipe.
Modern day readers should note that the term "small beer" doesn't refer to quantity, but to alcoholic strength, "small" beer being fairly weak in that regard - the sort you use to quench your thirst rather than get smashed.
I'm in because I can cut down cherry trees
Blood-warm would be body temperature - still a common means of judging temperature when cooking. For instance, my mother taught me judge whether water was warm enough to grow yeast for bread (or pizza dough) by holding a finger in the water for a count of ten. The water was the right temperature if it felt hot to the touch, but did not burn or cause discomfort.
Also, a bung is an older term for a round (generally metal) container.
The bung is not a round, metal container. The bung is the stopper for the bunghole in a cask. His container is the cask. Bung isn't just an older term, as it's still used when brewing or distilling.
Also, in paint and construction. Paint buckets have bungholes and bungs, as opposed to... holes and stoppers? I dunno what you'd call 'em if you didn't call 'em bungholes.
30 gallons is a shit load of beer - like 6 kegs worth.
Depends on the size of your keg.
It's actully 2 American 1/2 barrels worth
yes the reference to bung - while meant to be tongue in cheek I'm sure, just came off as crude and uneducated. Bung is the term for the stopper and/or hole (or bunghole) it is used with. Attempt at humour = fail.
Bah. There's a place for crude humor. I know full well what a bung is, in this regard, and I still get a little titter out of it.
"Blood warm" was a commonly-used term. It's about body temperature, of course. This is a typical recipe of the period for "molasses beer"--it's not to the taste of modern beer drinkers. Fortunately, lots of people preferred to use malted barley. Those old recipes come out much more palatable.
"Blood warm" just means lukewarm.
The kegs that most Americans are used to seeing are 15.5 gallons or half of a barrel.
The kegs homebrewers are used to seeing are five gallons. Hence 6 kegs for 30 gallons.
DO A BARREL ROLL!!!
HELP ME!!
Falco, you are an a-hole! And Oldman Hoppy can SUCK IT!
Enemy Barrel Roll Analyzed!
It's SUPER EFFECTIVE!!!
Anybody have Obama's recipe for Purple Drank?
Too funny. Will have sinus problems all day from breakfast up nose.
I don't get it? Why is that funny?
It's only funny if your a racist cracker.
CRACKER?!?! Wow, I really hate being reminded of the the days of owning land and people....FYI Cracker is short for "Whip Cracker"
Anyone have a recipe for crackers? Mmmm crackers and beer.
"Cracker" as a term for Southern white trash has nothing to do with owning land or slaves. It comes from those destitute bastards' awful diets-- remember, the Georgia colony was founded to be an alternative to debtors' prison: the "worthy poor," meaning the Englishfolk who were too dumb to stay out of crippling debt but also too gormless to commit profitable crimes, were basically supposed to be sent to Georgia in exile as though it were prison. Even though no inmates wound up being sent there, some of the founding principles remained, and the colonists' diets were pretty appallingly bad (funnily enough, though, they did eat lobster, which at the time was seen as filth unworthy of consumption, to the extent that prisons used to have rules limiting how often their inmates could be forced to eat it without being cruel).
"Cracker" more likely comes from the staple of their diets, cracked corn (aka cornmeal). Later on, in the 19th century, it became a term of self-identification referring to how Georgian ranchers drove their cattle adeptly with, yes, whips. But the word "cracker" already existed as a pejorative. When it was coined around or before the Revolutionary War (as a divergent word from its earlier usage in Shakespeare), the term referred to piss-poor, dumb, proud-to-be-ignorant white folk, much as it still does. But by all means, take pride in that identity, avery. Keep f*(&ing that chicken.
TYRONE WINS!!!!!
Yeah, Tyrone just shut it down.
Someone get Dogfish Head on this one stat!
No need, this is easy enough to do at home. All you need is a 3-5 gallon pot, a fermentation bucket, and some bottles. You can find basic starter kits for brewing for around $80 online that will have more than you need for this recipe.
This beer was made (just once) in the late 1980's by Manhattan Brewing Company (a now extinct brewpub in NYC.) The beer was undrinkable to a modern palate, but interesting, none the less.
Modern Palate being Budweiser and Coors Light? Bleh.
Actually, to answer the question about "blood warm"...the related term "rule of thumb" also comes from brewing because if the hot wort has cooled to a point where it matches body temperature, it's cool enough for the yeast to survive and it's time to add the yeast.
Natures first thermometer.
Also explains yeast infections. Well done.
Robert Hare, first man to brew Porter beer in US...with the Hare family recipe.
Goes great with wooden teeth!
I knew I liked that man...