George Washington "Small Beer"

I boiled a wort consisting of un-sulphured molasses, hops, corn sugar, and brown sugar.. It has been fermenting for 2 weeks and I'm hoping it doesn't taste too horrible.

I read up on George Washington and how he used to brew what he called "Small Beer" and what others have referred to as "civil war beer."

Apparently barley was hard to acquire in those times so as an alternative someone started brewing using molasses.

I'll let you guys know how it goes and hopefully its not terrible.
I just wanted to experiment.

Let's hope you didn't make a full 5 gallons!

flyangler18 said:

Let's hope you didn't make a full 5 gallons!

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aye.

My worry with that recipe is that they're all simple sugars. Its going to end up extremely dry, with a lot of alcohol.

Oh jesus.. No, it's only about 3 gallons and it's fermenting in a DIY food-grade bakery icing bucket. I mounted an airlock directly into the lid (which is grommeted as well). I popped it open to take a quick sniff of it and it smelt almost like maple syrup with a little bit of vodka lmao..

Would my hydrometer provide an accurate alc % reading or no?

I've been tempted to make a small (1 - 2 gal) batch of the Small Beer, but a friend here on HBT who has brewed this according to the historical receipt described it as 'positively revolting'.

flyangler18 said:

I've been tempted to make a small (1 - 2 gal) batch of the Small Beer, but a friend here on HBT who has brewed this according to the historical receipt described it as 'positively revolting'.

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I've just been searching for that article to post in this thread. I just read it but can't find it in the wiki. The one where Bob is describing the history of homebrewing and states his attempt at a molasses beer was bad even after 2 years.

The molasses taste is very robust... I only boiled in about 9oz of Grandma's Original Unsulphured Molasses. There was about a tablespoon of hops added, and the yeast I used was left over from a Lakeview Valley Farms kit that a friend gave to me. I think the amount of sugars that were added were 2 cups of corn sugar, 1 cup brown sugar, and I may or may not have added a cup of pure cane sugar as well..

KingBrianI said:

I've just been searching for that article to post in this thread. I just read it but can't find it in the wiki. The one where Bob is describing the history of homebrewing and states his attempt at a molasses beer was bad even after 2 years.

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Here it is.

I ran about 14 oz of this stuff through a coffee filter the other night, then bottled and primed it to taste in 2 weeks. If it's terrible, I will dump the bucket. If it's bearable, or some underage friends want it I will sell it to them for the cost that went in lmao j/k

I just wonder what the alc % is with all of that sugar... must be higher than beer.

Perhaps I've just made molasses flavored malt liquor..

Oh wow I remember this post. So long ago! lol. I opened this batch after 8 months and it actually just tasted like sparkling water lol There wasn't enough hops or anything in it to make any difference!

There's a recipe for a George Washington brew in Radical Brewing by Randy Mosher