Beer historians: recipe for typical beer in Cleveland, circa 1930?

My brother-in-law just bought an old house in Cleveland, Ohio. While looking through some old pictures, he was delighted to discover that it was briefly the site of a commercial beer garden in the years following prohibition. His plan is to host an annual party to commemorate it, and I'd like to help by supplying some beer authentic to the time period.

Do any historians out there have thoughts? What kind of beer was being brewed in the American midwest in the mid-1930s? I've done a bit of research, but haven't been able to find anything beyond very general statements.

Any help will be greatly, greatly appreciated!
-MalFet

Classic american pilsner would probably fit the bill.
http://www.bjcp.org/2008styles/style02.php#1c

CAP. Like the current American Lager, but more and with flavor.

Probably wasn't much good beer being brewed in 1930 considering it was more than 10 years into prohibition. CAP is probably closer to what was being brewing before prohibition (and World War I for that matter).

Thanks for the response guys. I've never noticed that style before browsing through the BJCP. Looks interesting. Was there anything else being brewed around that time, just so I can add a bit of diversity?

@Oldsock - My title was confusing, and I tried to change it after I posted the message but couldn't. As the body of my post stated, I'm talking about right after prohibition. I should have said circa-1933, but I was just rounding. Obviously three years makes a big difference here, though

Sorry I didn't read your post more carefully.

According to: http://ech.cwru.edu/ech-cgi/article.pl?id=CBC4 "After repeal, the only Cleveland brewery to reopen was Fishel, located at 2764 E. 55th St., which resumed production in July 1933, brewing Gold Bond and Crystal Rock beer and Old Timer's ale into the 1960s." Here is some more info: http://www.beerhistory.com/library/holdings/BBITBS_stang.shtml

Here is a picture of a can of Old Timer's Ale:http://www.worthpoint.com/worthopedia/old-timers-ale-sandusky-brewing-comp-cleveland

Sadly none of these give any particular notes on the flavors of any of these beers.

For what I've generally read the beers brewed after prohibition were lighter and less hoppy than they were pre-pro, so maybe a slightly scaled down CAP or a more characterful variant of a modern Cream Ale.

Great find, Oldsock. Your googlefu is superior to mine. Thanks for your help. It's a good read.

When I think of historical recipes, I imagine brewers making very simple recipes with whatever ingredients they could scrounge up. They wouldn't have been able to easily say "I'd like to add 2% Special B to this beer for the extra flavor of..."

Go super simple... maybe even use 6row. A good bit of corn, maybe a dash of amber or brown malt. Original American hops (Liberty I think are classic American). German Lager yeast.

That's good advice kanzimonsoon. I'd been thinking to play around with corn for this. Does anyone know if any ales were being brewed in the Midwest at this time, or anything else unusual like steam beers, etc?

Liberty are not classically American they were released in 1991, though they are related to Hallertau which was imported into the US during that period. Older varieties that are US specific are limited to Cluster and maybe Ivanhoe.

Ok, this isn't strictly related to Cleveland, but the midwest in general. Starting in the mid 1800's in Kentucky (esp Louisville) they brewed what is called a Kentucky Common or Dark Cream Common. It used a small amount of black malt and dark crystal with mainly 6-row and a generous percentage of corn (I've seen as high as 50% mentioned some places). Depending on who you read, they either used a sour mash to lighten the body or because this was sort of a partigyle from the sour mash whiskeys they made.

Here's a link that describes it a bit more. http://www.lagersclub.com/MainInfo/louhistory.htm

I made one using a 24 hour sour mash and it had just a hint of tartness to it. At first I thought I wanted more sourness and added lactic acid concentrate to half of my batch, but I think now I should have left it alone. The plain half is much better now. I think mine came in around 4% ABV, so you can drink quite a few without much problem.

Terje

What about if you brewed a basic Lager beer, but fermented it at Ale temps?

I supposed you'd have to call it a "Cleveland Steamer"...

dammit, why didn't i think of that

Hmm, Im not too sure of anything specific. You might want to try to get in touch with Luke Purcell at GLBC or Andy Tveekrem with the Market Garden Brewery. Both are pro brewers in the area and might be up on this sort of info. GLBC has a small collection of memorelbelia from a brewery that sat in their location in the past. Not sure if it was as far back as the mid 30s though. Some of the collection is in the upstairs of the Brew Pub in the Rockefeller room, and the rest is in the Tasting Room in the actual brewery.

Very cool stuff.

@Stratotankard - that Kentucky Common sounds really tasty. Along with the corn adjuncting, a darkish soured beer is something I've been meaning to play around with anyway.

@Homercidal - maybe you could design a bottle label (I think I'd have a hard time enjoying the beer with that image in my mind.)

@Edcculus - good call. I'll send them a line. It might be a good excuse to do another brewery tour.

I would say an Amber Lager. Use a Cali Common yeast. Simple hop schedule. Maybe IBUs around 20. Lagers were popular, you could still use some corn flakes. Amber lagers are beautiful in winter weather.

This is a recipe dated June 3rd 1941 from the Fidelio Brewery in New York:

to brew 300 barrels Lager Beer at 12.5 Balling

malt 11152 lbs (73.67%)
grits 2700 lbs (17.84%)
cream malt syrup lbs 605 (4.00%)
corn syrup 680 lbs (4.49%)
Total 15137 lbs

domestic hops 150 lbs

66 barrels water at 43.75º C
mash at 43.75º C
rest 30 min
raise to 51.25º C
mash 10 minutes at 51.25º C
raise to 67.5º C
mash 15 minutes at 73.75º C
run 5 barrels thru underlet
rest 40 min 73.75º C


when kettle full 40 lbs hops
45 minutes before strike out 50 lbs hops
20 minutes before strike out 60 lbs hops

Here's the recipe for Old Style in 1941. Well unfortunately only half the recipe. It details the cereal mash, but not the main mash or boil.