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Uncategorized Monday, May 9th 2011 at 11:38 am

Brewing George Washington’s Beer Using His Original Recipe

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George Washington was a lot of things — general, statesman, farmer — but at the end of the day he just wanted to put his feet up, pop out his apocryphal wooden teeth and enjoy a good brew. And now, thanks to the New York Public Library, the world can share in George’s personal beer recipe.

And soon, Washington will join the ranks of King Tut as a famous leaders to have an anachronistic beer produced in their honor as the Coney Island Brewery takes up the challenge of reproducing his beer.  The Coney Island Brewing Company has christened it the Fortitude’s Founding Father Brew, and its based off the original hand-written recipe below.

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.

Though a bit silly, the Library has a stake in this beer as well, hoping to draw attention to the amazing trove of documents avaialble to the public. That may be so, but unfortunately there are no plans to sell the beer to the public. If you want to get a taste, you’ll have to have tickets to the library’s centennial gala later this month. For those lucky folks in the NYC area, there will be a public tasting on May 18 at Rattle N Hum, at 14 E. 33rd Street in Manhattan.

(Gothamist via Fark)

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  • Anonymous

    avaialble (sic)… snicker.

  • http://pulse.yahoo.com/_5T2HLIFZQDUT7G77YPDZCBAFFA BarsAndBartending.com

    Many people wonder how to homebrew and a lot of people either think that if they home brew their own beer, it will either be expensive, taste Disgusting or, be Really Difficult to Do.

    p.p1 {margin: 0.0px 0.0px 0.0px 0.0px; font: 13.0px Verdana}
    p.p2 {margin: 0.0px 0.0px 0.0px 0.0px; font: 13.0px Verdana; min-height: 16.0px}

    And to be honest, that’s what we thought many moons ago before we started to homebrew our own beer. http://bars-and-bartending.com/how-to-homebrew.html has all the directions, ingredients and supplies. How knows, maybe you’ll be the next George Washington and people will be recreating your recipe for years to come.

    MIX

    Mix up the beer concentrate and brewing sugar into the water

    BREW

    Add the yeast and let it ferment.

    BOTTLE

    Bottle your home brew, add some carbonation drops then store till ready.

    ENJOY!

    The satisfaction of brewing your own beer, free from additives and preservatives.

  • corey

    “Mix up the beer concentrate and brewing sugar into the water”, “Add the yeast and let it ferment.”

    Lol, uh, you’re missing a few crucial steps there bud. For example, boiling. And what is “brewing sugar?” and “beer concentrate?” It sounds like you listed off steps 2 through 5 of a Mr. Beer kit. If you want to make beer, rather than infected sugar water, here are the absolute minimum steps for anyone that actually wants to know what goes into making beer (I’m abbreviating):

    (makes 5 gallons)

    Bring (1qt of water per lb of grains) to about 175 degrees, then pour into mash tun. Stir in grains, let sit for 1 hour. Sparge 175 degree water over the grains and collect the hot wort in a 35qt boiling kettle. Boil for 1 hour, adding hops at different stages according to recipe. Cool the wort to 80 degrees or less, aerate, then pitch yeast. Ferment at least 2 weeks, according to recipe. Add 3/4 boiled cup corn sugar to beer prior to bottling, then allow to condition for 2 weeks.

  • corey

    I think this brewery is full of crap. They basically just read the recipe, and decided to make a porter instead. It’s like, “We made Washington’s beer recipe exactly the way he intended! except, we didn’t really like the recipe, so we changed all the ingredients. Same thing. Nobody will notice.”