A founding libation?

I'm delighted to read that George Washington's influence is about to be experienced anew in New York. The Wall Street Journal reports:

The founding father and first president of the republic was a man of the people when it came to his drink of preference. His 'Notebook as a Virginia Colonel', dated from 1757, includes a handwritten recipe for 'small beer'.

That recipe, along with many of Washington’s other papers, is part of the New York Public Library’s collection. This month, the library is partnering with Shmaltz Brewing Company to recreate a modern version of the porter, to celebrate the centennial of its Stephen A. Schwarzman building.

Just 15 gallons will be brewed and offered for tasting. Local brewers Peter Taylor and Josh Knowlton have taken the liberty of tweaking the recipe, which the NYPL has dubbed 'Fortitude’s Founding Father Brew'.

The brewers made batches of the beer, one with molasses - which Washington used - and one without, substituting malted barley for the fermentable sugar.

"Back then, they didn’t really have quite the same understanding of brewing science that we do now," said Josh Knowlton.

Of Washington’s beer, "it’s pretty light, pretty dry, medium-bodied but roasty," Knowlton said. "We used some roasted malts in there so it’s definitely got some of a roasted, chocolaty, little bit of a coffee flavor."

. . .

Despite its apparent simplicity, Jeremy Cowan, founder of Shmaltz Brewing Company, which makes Coney Island Lager, among other beers, called the recipe "tricky".

"The ingredients in the brewing process that he used are kind of pre-modern," he said.

Cowan figures Washington probably sketched the recipe the way a grandmother would, tweaking it and adding ingredients during the actual production. "They obviously did a couple of things that aren’t written down here, like a grandmother would," he said. "So yeah, George Washington is like my old Jewish grandmother."

. . .

The beer will be showcased at the library’s centennial gala on May 23. The public can sample it on May 18 at Rattle N Hum, at 14 E. 33rd Street in Manhattan.

There's more at the link.

Washington certainly seems to have enjoyed darker, heavier beer:

"I beg you will send me," Washington wrote to Clement Biddle on 20 July 1788, "a gross of Mr. Hairs best bottled Porter if the price is not much enhanced by the copius droughts you took of it at the late Procession." Robert Hare's prices apparently did not go up as a result of the Philadelphia procession, and so Washington wrote again to Clement Biddle on 4 August 1788:

"As the price of Porter according to your Account has not been enhanced and is good in quality, I beg if this letter gets to hand in time, that you would add another gross to the one ordered in my former letter."

Even in 1790, when Washington was in residence at Federal Hall in Wall Street, his secretary Tobias Lear was writing to Philadelphia on his behalf:

"Will you be so good as to desire Mr. Hare to have if he continues to make the best Porter in Philadelphia 3 gross of his best put up for Mount Vernon? as the President means to visit that place in the recess of Congress and it is probable there will be a large demand for Porter at that time."

"The best Porter in Philadelphia" -- surely a recommendation Hare could have used to good effect, if it had come into his hands. Washington certainly appears to have favored Hare's product; sometime before November 1790 the brewery was destroyed by fire, and Washington wrote from Mount Vernon that he was sorry "on public as well as private accts., to hear of Mr. Hares loss." At the same time he judiciously instructed Tobias Lear, "You wd. do well to lay in a pretty good Stock of his, or some other Porter."

. . .

Robert Hare was no longer mentioned by name in 1796 when Washington was making arrangements for leaving the Presidency and returning to his beloved Mount Vernon:

"Before we leave this, we shall send several other matters round, but whenever they are shipped you shall have notice thereof that they may he taken from Alexandria so soon as they arrive there; at which time procure a groce of good Porter to be taken down along with them. In the meantime, have a few Bottles of Porter there, and some wine for particular company, who may be particularly recommended to you by myself."

Again, more at the link, along with a copy of Washington's 'small beer' recipe.

I normally won't go near New York City for just about anything . . . but an opportunity to sample Washington's own beer recipe might be worth the trip! As I probably won't make it, would any readers in that area who manage to sample the brew kindly post a comment here, to let us know how it tasted?

Peter