
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.