Beer!

[Webb]

I have had Estrella Galicia, as I came across it once in a six pack store close to where I live. One of my favorites, though, is Estrella Damm. I first had this in China, of all places, at my wife's uncle's restaurant. My wife's aunt brought in a handful of bottles and put them on the table and I have been hooked ever since. I can find this by the case close to where I live as well.

[Webb]

Also for those of us in the U.S., Sam Adams released their Old Fezziwig Ale in six packs this year. In years past you had to buy their winter sampler in order to get it, but it is so popular that they are selling six packs. I already bought a six pack. Also, Sam Adams had a poll on their facebook page about 9 months ago, asking people to vote on their favorite beers from the vault and they were going to re release the top four. They announced last week that they can finally be purchased via online or at their brewery. They re released the Honey Porter, Noble Pils, Irish Red Ale, and Scotch Ale. There is a link on their facebook site to order online.

[Webb]

Here is something interesting from pages 249-250 (4-5 of 14) of the 2006 paper by Elisa Guerra-Doce, "Exploring the Significance of Beaker Pottery Through Residue Analyses":

Residues of alcoholic brews have been identified from several Beakers from Spain. In the burial cave of Calvari d’Amposta (Amposta, Tarragona), one of the Maritime Beakers (Herringbone variety) deposited in one of the five undisturbed graves located inside showed the presence of the alkaloid hyoscyamine and traces of beer. This highly psychotropic alkaloid is found in several members of the Solanaceae family, including henbane (Hyoscyamus niger), deadly nightshade (Atropa belladonna), mandrake (Mandragora officinarum), woody nightshade (Solanum dulcamara) and black nightshade (Solanum nigrum), all of which belong to the European flora. This residue seems, therefore, to indicate that the pot was filled with a hallucinogenic beverage consisting of beer to which some Solanaceae member was added (Fábregas 2001, 64). In the funerary mound known as Túmulo de la Sima (Miño de Medinaceli, Soria) three Maritime Beakers deposited in the burials of two adults, possibly female, contained beer (Rojo et al. 2005) . . .  Likewise, beer has been detected in another Maritime Beaker (MHV variety) found in a severely disturbed Beaker grave dug in the barrow covering the collective tomb of La Peña de la Abuela (Ambrona, Soria), located nearby (ibid.).

I like the name of that psychotropic alkaloid, hyoscyamine. Sounds like it should have been called "high-as-the-sky-amine". 

I wonder how common a practice it was among Beaker people to mix that with beer.

I have read about henbane beer before and came to the conclusion that I would not want to be involved in the trial and error brewing of this beer.  How many people died of poisoning before the recipe was perfected?  I does remind me of Dogfish Head Midas Touch Ancient Ale:

" This sweet yet dry beer is made with ingredients found in 2,700-year-old drinking vessels from the tomb of King Midas. Somewhere between wine and mead, Midas will please the chardonnay and beer drinker alike."

[rmstevens2]

I wouldn't mess with it, but I'm not a crazy Beaker man. Perhaps the Single Grave Corded Ware man who founded Beaker was the first man, a kind of Early Bronze Age Zoroaster or Merlin, to confect the proper combination of ingredients in beer to produce visions of the Great Sky Father. 

He might have been the prophet among the P312 tribes, the Moses of western Single Grave Corded Ware.

[JMcB]

I wouldn't mess with it, but I'm not a crazy Beaker man. Perhaps the Single Grave Corded Ware man who founded Beaker was the first man, a kind of Early Bronze Age Zoroaster or Merlin, to confect the proper combination of ingredients in beer to produce visions of the Great Sky Father. 

He might have been the prophet among the P312 tribes, the Moses of western Single Grave Corded Ware.

Let My People Go  …… and get high!

[rmstevens2]

[Webb]

I really would like to try a heather beer one day. I think there are at least two breweries who have recreated the mysterious Pictish heather beer, although I’ve read that it could have actually been a heather mead. Another good alternative beer is a spruce beer. Yard’s brewery out of Philadelphia has a spruce beer using Benjamin Franklin’s recipe and I think Washington’s recipe for spruce beer has been published. I have had the Yard’s spruce and it is very good.

[JonikW]

I really would like to try a heather beer one day.  I think there are at least two breweries who have recreated the mysterious Pictish heather beer, although I’ve read that it could have actually been a heather mead.  Another good alternative beer is a spruce beer.  Yard’s brewery out of Philadelphia has a spruce beer using Benjamin Franklin’s recipe and I think Washington’s recipe for spruce beer has been published.  I have had the Yard’s spruce and it is very good.

I was very curious after reading this Webb and like you am interested in beers of the past. I've read about several attempts to recreate old recipes from ancient Nordic to ancient Egyptian, but haven't managed to try any. I found Washington's recipe in the Smithsonian magazine:

"Take a large Sifter full of Bran Hops to your Taste — Boil these 3 hours. Then strain out 30 Gall. into a Cooler put in 3 Gallons Molasses while the Beer is scalding hot or rather drain the molasses into the Cooler. Strain the Beer on it while boiling hot let this stand til it is little more than Blood warm. Then put in a quart of Yeast if the weather is very cold cover it over with a Blanket. Let it work in the Cooler 24 hours then put it into the Cask. leave the Bung open til it is almost done working — Bottle it that day Week it was Brewed."

So that one looks like "beer" in its loosest sense given the molasses base, although I bet it was tasty. It reminds me of the "nettle beer" that my English grandfather used to make every spring or early summer. I used to gather the nettles with him, and he taught me how to pinch them when picking so they don't sting. I only remember that his recipe involved nettles, yeast and sugar and that bottles of it occasionally popped their corks very loudly when fermenting. I wish I had his recipe. I enjoy nettle tea so imagine I would have enjoyed my grandfather's brew too.

[rmstevens2]

When I was a homebrewer I remember seeing recipes for Spruce beer, but I never made any myself.

I enjoyed homebrewing, but I've given it up because I'm getting kind of old, and homebrewing involves a lot of pretty heavy lifting and carrying (unless you spend a lot on pumps). 

These days I just buy the beer I drink, but you never know. I may get the urge to get back into homebrewing and reinvest in some equipment - and maybe some pumps to do some of the physical work for me.

[rmstevens2]

Speaking of George Washington, for much of my life I lived not far from his stately home, Mount Vernon, on the Potomac River. I have visited it many times and never tired of it and never would.

What an awesome place in every season, especially in autumn, when the leaf colors are spectacular along the Potomac.

Washington was pretty well known as a brewer and distiller.

[rmstevens2]

Here's what I am drinking at the moment: Mama's Little Yella Pils, from Oskar Blues Brewery, which also makes Old Chub Scotch Ale and Dale's Pale Ale. I like all of them. Mama's is a Bohemian-style pilsner.

[rmstevens2]

Another American Founding Father who was into brewing, distilling, and wine making, was Thomas Jefferson, but he had a slave (I forget the man's name) whom he had trained in brewing by a British brewer. As I recall, and maybe I'm wrong, I think he also sent that same slave to France for some training, perhaps in wine making. 

The man enjoyed a lot of autonomy and was pretty well regarded by Jefferson, believe it or not.

I have also often visited Jefferson's awesome estate and home of Monticello in Virginia near Charlottesville. His brewery is still there and is really cool.

I'm not sure which place I like better: Monticello or Mount Vernon. Probably Mount Vernon, but it's really close. I would be glad to take up residence at either place, but I would shut down the tourist trade.

[JonikW]

Another American Founding Father who was into brewing, distilling, and wine making, was Thomas Jefferson, but he had a slave (I forget the man's name) whom he had trained in brewing by a British brewer. As I recall, and maybe I'm wrong, I think he also sent that same slave to France for some training, perhaps in wine making. 

The man enjoyed a lot of autonomy and was pretty well regarded by Jefferson, believe it or not.

I have also often visited Jefferson's awesome estate and home of Monticello in Virginia near Charlottesville. His brewery is still there and is really cool.

I'm not sure which place I like better: Monticello or Mount Vernon. Probably Mount Vernon, but it's really close. I would be glad to take up residence at either place, but I would shut down the tourist trade.

I'm reminded with that choice of home of this passage from the 17th century German picaresque novel “Simplicius Simplicissimus” by von Grimmelshausen:  “...'tis not untrue that I have often fancied I must have drawn my birth from some great lord or knight at least, as being by nature disposed to follow the nobleman's trade had I but the means and the tools for it.”

Unfortunately, like the titular character in the book, I lack the means to follow my natural calling. But if was was fortunate enough to live in one of those mansions I'd be sure to have a cellar well supplied with the finest beers. 

Funnily enough, I always think of beer as the democratic drink because even financially challenged votaries of the beverage like me can afford some of the best on offer on special occasions. If wine was my drink of choice I'd be permanently stuck on cheap plonk.

[rmstevens2]

The colonial governor's palace at Williamsburg, Virginia, has a wine/beer cellar and also an icehouse/cave dug deep into the earth out back, where they stored ice all year long, even during the hot summer months.

It's a fabulous place and of course was the home of the British royal governors of Virginia.

Yeah, I wouldn't mind living there either.

[Webb]

I really would like to try a heather beer one day.  I think there are at least two breweries who have recreated the mysterious Pictish heather beer, although I’ve read that it could have actually been a heather mead.  Another good alternative beer is a spruce beer.  Yard’s brewery out of Philadelphia has a spruce beer using Benjamin Franklin’s recipe and I think Washington’s recipe for spruce beer has been published.  I have had the Yard’s spruce and it is very good.

I was very curious after reading this Webb and like you am interested in beers of the past. I've read about several attempts to recreate old recipes from ancient Nordic to ancient Egyptian, but haven't managed to try any. I found Washington's recipe in the Smithsonian magazine:

"Take a large Sifter full of Bran Hops to your Taste — Boil these 3 hours. Then strain out 30 Gall. into a Cooler put in 3 Gallons Molasses while the Beer is scalding hot or rather drain the molasses into the Cooler. Strain the Beer on it while boiling hot let this stand til it is little more than Blood warm. Then put in a quart of Yeast if the weather is very cold cover it over with a Blanket. Let it work in the Cooler 24 hours then put it into the Cask. leave the Bung open til it is almost done working — Bottle it that day Week it was Brewed."

So that one looks like "beer" in its loosest sense given the molasses base, although I bet it was tasty. It reminds me of the "nettle beer" that my English grandfather used to make every spring or early summer. I used to gather the nettles with him, and he taught me how to pinch them when picking so they don't sting. I only remember that his recipe involved nettles, yeast and sugar and that bottles of it occasionally popped their corks very loudly when fermenting. I wish I had his recipe. I enjoy nettle tea so imagine I would have enjoyed my grandfather's brew too.

Your post reminded me of my own grandfather.  He had two grandparents born in Germany and one born in Bavaria.  His grandfather’s Uncle owned a brewery that is still in operation in Columbus, Ohio.  It was Schlegel Brewery but is now called Schlee Brewery.  Anyway, my grandfather’s grandfather was a carpenter and came over to work in the brewery and dabbled in brewing beer himself.  My grandpa Schlegel also brewed beer and I remember that on many occasion a top would blow off in the cellar and he would run down and come back up with an overflowing beer, smiling, as it gave him the opportunity to have one.  That was before the third and final heart attack, which required him to have to give up beer and salt.  The complete opposite of my grandpa Webb who still enjoyed a few Michelobe Ultras with dinner up until his death at the age of 92.