Dated 1757, the Father of Our Country's beer-making instructions read as follows:
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.
Courtesy of the Knights of the Moleskine, Spirit and Ale, new friends of Scribal Terror.
According to Anchor Steam, which makes a small beer of its own:
The tradition of brewing two distinct beers from one mash has existed for thousands of years, and for centuries the term "small beer" was used in English to describe the lighter and weaker second beer.
Here's a little more background from Realbeer.com:
The history of small beer dates back for centuries. In the days when sanitation was bad and water dangerous to drink, small beer was served to servants, field workers, the poor, even the young. The first runnings from a brewer's mash would go to a stronger beer, the second for ordinary beer. A small beer, taken from a third running, was probably about 2.5% alcohol by volume. Belgian monasteries, in particular, produced large quantities of small beer in the Middle Ages.
Washington didn't make his from a second or third mash, but the effect was apparently the same -- weak and light.
Thanks, David K.
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