Historical Beers George Washington's Small Beer

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Also seems that I have some milk buying and chugging to do, as I've only got one empty half-gallon glass jug left, and just bought a gallon plastic jug. :tank:
 
I used a light brown sugar to make a very heavy syrup to imitate the molasses. I also added a couple Tbsp. of molasses for flavor and color. I think If I were to do it again I would put more molasses in and less syrup.
 
Yeah, that is just about exactly what I do to make a syrup, minus the vanilla of course. Unfortunately I didn't write down exactly how much sugar I used and don't remember either. I did however, come out with a SG of 1.040.
 
Hopefully I can find golden syrup, but if not, I'll be doing that, since I found this regarding flavors of corn syrup fermentation:

"Finally, only use pure maple sugar. Artificial maple sugar has a base of corn syrup, which produces "cidery" notes when fermented. Artificial maple flavorings tend to be one-dimensional. If you want to create "maple-like" flavors and aromas, add fenugreek seeds instead - they're used to make artificial maple."

https://www.homebrewersassociation.org/forum/index.php?topic=7588.0

So maybe I should halve that brown sugar syrup recipe (that one yields 2 cups, so half would yield 8 fl oz), then add 3-4 fl oz of molasses (~6-8 tbsp)?
 
Or you could use some real maple syrup. It is syrup season after all. ($80 a gallon):)

My GWSB came out pretty cidery. Although it really isn't offensive like in some other beers I've noticed it in. However, I make cider and am a fan of the flavor so.... take that for what it's worth. :D
 
I recall people saying that might be a bit overpowering in here? I'm hoping to get as close to these good results people are seeing as possible.

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Is golden syrup really tht rare in the US??? Back home is Australia and here in south Africa you couldn't call your kitchen a 'kitchen' without it?!?!?
 
I couldn't find it anywhere around me, and I asked at several groceries and none had even heard of it. I had to look on line to even get a description of it.
 
stonecutter2 said:
Lyle's Golden Syrup is a sweet syrup or "pale treacle", made from sugar cane or sugar beets. Think of it as a very light molasses.



I think it's possible that corn syrup could be a substitute. There is a slight flavor difference between the two, but I don't know what impact that could have on the final product. It would probably be pretty subtle.



You might be surprised and find this in a specialty store up in WI. Just keep an eye out when you go to grocery stores and stuff.
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You can buy Lyles on Amazon.


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I got Lyles at Hillers market. Its also available at my homebrew store. Adventures in Homebrew. They don't list it on their, but an email and I'd bet they could include it in an order.
 
Zoidberg said:
I got Lyles at Hillers market. Its also available at my homebrew store. Adventures in Homebrew. They don't list it on their, but an email and I'd bet they could include it in an order.
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Huh, ill keep an eye open for it when I go in ~3 hours.
Kirkwooder: do you happen to be the St Louis area kirkwood? I'll let you know if St Louis Wine and Beer Making has it.

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Sorry, but I'm from Western New York State. Way out in the middle of nowhere! lol I have been to St. Louis though!
 
Weather's sketchy and I crashed after work and classes anyways. Getting supplies at some point this weekend. Will report in on whatever syrup ingredients I choose to go with and how it works out.
 
Well mine has turned out actually very decent, still cloudy but a nice golden colour, and really hoppy, which was planned, reminds me of an ipa, been in primary since 22nd finished after eight days as predicted has been at 1001 since then, going to try to clear with gelatine and a cold crash today then bottle when I have time through the week. Definately going to give it another try maybe ten liters this time.
 
Couldn't help myself bought everything for my second batch, also going to halve the bran but going to make a 2 gallon batch then then try two different finishes, ones getting munic yeast the other maybe a lager? Will see how I feel tomorrow, also going to finish half with orange and corriander like a wit with the munic, the other will also see how I feel tomorrow.
 
Robotcrab said:
Well mine has turned out actually very decent, still cloudy but a nice golden colour, and really hoppy, which was planned, reminds me of an ipa, been in primary since 22nd finished after eight days as predicted has been at 1001 since then, going to try to clear with gelatine and a cold crash today then bottle when I have time through the week. Definately going to give it another try maybe ten liters this time.
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Robotcrab said:
Couldn't help myself bought everything for my second batch, also going to halve the bran but going to make a 2 gallon batch then then try two different finishes, ones getting munic yeast the other maybe a lager? Will see how I feel tomorrow, also going to finish half with orange and corriander like a wit with the munic, the other will also see how I feel tomorrow.
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Nice! Hopefully getting my yeast and hops tomorrow or Tuesday!

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Just got my Nottingham, said that the recipe I was looking at called for low alpha hops and one person had said Liberty worked well, the LHBS guy said they didn't have it, but looked through their inventory and said that German Hallertau should work well and hooked me up with that. Going to Walmart after work to see if THEY have the golden syrup and if not, usign that sugar recipe to roughly clone it. I think I'm going to *brew* Thursday or this weekend.
 
stonecutter2 said:
Yes, that was a form of small beer. But not all small beer was made from second runnings. A small beer was also a beer with low alcohol content. It was used as a means of drinking something cleaner than the water available at the time, which wasn't treated. "Other beers" back then were festival beers or strong ales, more expensive to make and brewed less often. I'm sure the small beers from those spent grains were good, but I think George Washington's recipe reflects a "household small beer" for the purpose of drinking something clean and to serve with food.

The purpose of the 3 hour boil is debatable. Might have been overkill, or the result of experiments that deemed 3 hours being necessary. Or to extract more sugars. In the end, from my experience, all it does is break down some of the trub in the fermenter and increase the bitterness of the brew.

George Washington's recipe states "Take a large sifter full of Bran" and doesn't mention spent grains, or any previous brew that was made. Bran was really cheap and easily attainable in colonial America, as was molasses.

This recipe really represents the spirit of colonial America - practicality, ingenuity, and self reliance. Oh, and not paying taxes on imported ingredients from England :)
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I'm definitely brewing a gallon tomorrow, and am reading the thread with my whiskey and beers tonight. I'm at this post right now. Might we be able to attain a perfectly struck balance between the better trub and consistency of the 3 hour boil with the lower bitterness of the 1 hour boil by only dropping the hops in during the last hour? Considering General Washington suggested adding hops to taste, it seems reasonable to me to think he may have added the hops later in the boil following a taste sampling of the wort, possibly helping verify this 3 hour boil with a hops addition happening in the last hour? If you guys think it's viable, I'll try it.
 
I'm trying to formulate my plan for tomorrow as far as differences in this thread go. I'm going to first make my golden syrup imitation from the recipe I mentioned a couple of posts ago. I then plan to begin my 3 hour boil (I'll calculate the actual amount to start with when I'm not under the influence so I end up with a gallon worth) with the wheat bran in it. I intend to have the wheat bran mixed in with room temperature water, and very slowly build up the temperature to the rapid boil in hopes of loosely imitating what may have been breaks that Washington "accidentally" got with such a large volume of water. 30 gallons is a HELL of a lot of water to heat up quickly, so as others have said, I think some different rests were definitely achieved in boiling it, so I'm going to very very very very slowly increment the heat. After 2 hours of rapid boiling, I will add something around 1/4th oz or so of my German Hallertau hops and continue boiling to the 3 hour mark. At this point, I'll let it drop from boiling to a really hot temperature, add my 'golden syrup', then chill it with the old sink of water + ice technique to get stuff to precipitate out (probably not true to the General's process, because, again, 30 gallons, but I think the chilling might help with the cloudiness), move into my 2 half gallon jugs with balloons and pinprick holes, pitch, and let it go to town.

Sound like a plan? Are there any other things anybody wants to have experimented with? I might choose to get some more fermentation space and do a side by side of Nottingham and Fleischman's next week. Once I open my Nottingham's package and hops packages, will I have any issues keeping them for a while, say, maybe a week, in the fridge? I'm not going to be using the whole package of yeast, and definitely not this whole ounce of hops. I'll have enough for a half-gallon by half-gallon side by side of the Nottingham and Fleischman's if they're able to keep for a few days after opening by some awesome method.
 
Just so everyone knows this beer does taste OK but with this recipe its novelty at best, which is totally worth making it!, but all the simple sugars, almost the bill is cane sugar. His makes the beer very thin and cidery. I've sampled one bottle and plan to let the rest, a six pack, sit a while.
 
Zoidberg said:
Just so everyone knows this beer does taste OK but with this recipe its novelty at best, which is totally worth making it!, but all the simple sugars, almost the bill is cane sugar. His makes the beer very thin and cidery. I've sampled one bottle and plan to let the rest, a six pack, sit a while.
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I would have to agree almost 100%. I will surely be making this again, at some point, with some changes, mostly to the Lyles syrup and it's substitutes. I think I would like to see what effect molasses, as we know it, does for this beer. But having said that I still believe it to be a novelty at best. Interesting and drinkable, but not much more than that.
 
Starting the boil. Starting just under 2 gallons thanks to limitations (don't want to break out my giant kettle), will be adding water at 2 hour mark to keep it at a good level.

Syrup turned out a BIT dark, but I think it'll be okay

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I ended up getting that raft of stuff others mentioned, as well. Any chemists in here? It has a fairly solid form, as in it stays formed even when I put in spoon and take out

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I saw the recipe that said half ounce with 60 minute and 10 minutes left on the boil, so I added a half ounce of hops at the 60 minute mark, then another half ounce at 10 minutes. Is this going to be a hop bomb, because I then saw a post which explained this as .25 oz at 60 and .25 at 10 minutes.
 
Yea that's going to be a hop bomb. I used a refractometer to take gravity before boil and after Lyles and the wheat bran gave only 1.012 gravity or 1.5 g preboil so yea a .5oz of most hops for 60 is going to be very bitter. And 5oz @10 on a 1gallon batch of4% beer is a ton too. It does say hops to taste so its to recipe though.
 
Zoidberg said:
Yea that's going to be a hop bomb. I used a refractometer to take gravity before boil and after Lyles and the wheat bran gave only 1.012 gravity or 1.5 g preboil so yea a .5oz of most hops for 60 is going to be very bitter. And 5oz @10 on a 1gallon batch of4% beer is a ton too. It does say hops to taste so its to recipe though.
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Well it was a cheap brew at least. I'm going to have to go to the LHBS in a couple weeks for another 5 gallon batch ingredient run anyways, so I'll be sure to get my hops and yeast again, and make sure I don't overdo it. I'm still hoping this will at least be passable. I'm also planning to carbonate at least half of them. What kind of carbonation levels do you think would be good to shoot for?

Those half gallon bastards had peaked on the krausen OVERNIGHT when I woke up this morning. I pitched really well :rockin: I had a lot of bran get into the fermenters, but I think it's settling out. I'm going to cold crash and be really careful when siphoning to the bottling container, along with a filter. I'll snap a picture in the morning, I'm going to be out all night. :rockin:
 
Yea i filtered through a screen repeatedly and I still had some bran in the fermenter. It still may turn out OK, honestly the more hops to cover up the cane sugar taste could be helpful, its essentially what you'd imagine a beer with say 5%malt and 95%white table sugar would taste like. Also, according to my calculations I over-hopped mine quite a bit at .25 cascade @60 w/ 5.7AAU and .25 cascade @10 w/5.7AAU.

However this is all based on a sample before bottling after only fermenting for 10 days, so take that for what it's worth. I am going to give this at least a month before trying a bottle.
 
Zoidberg said:
Yea i filtered through a screen repeatedly and I still had some bran in the fermenter. It still may turn out OK, honestly the more hops to cover up the cane sugar taste could be helpful, its essentially what you'd imagine a beer with say 5%malt and 95%white table sugar would taste like. Also, according to my calculations I over-hopped mine quite a bit at .25 cascade @60 w/ 5.7AAU and .25 cascade @10 w/5.7AAU.

However this is all based on a sample before bottling after only fermenting for 10 days, so take that for what it's worth. I am going to give this at least a month before trying a bottle.
Click to expand...

Hmm, I'm thinking about cold crashing and maybe running through a coffee filter to get every last bit out. I calculated and my 4.1% hops might not be DEVASTATING. Guess I'll see, though.

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I bottled today and was able to prevent any particles by cold crashing. I had a taste and it wasn't overhopped... but it tasted like watered down cider. Will this improve with time? This was day 9, carbed a half gallon of it with a little under .32oz table sugar based on calculations I did

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Yea its gonna be pretty cidery, its from fermenting simple sugars (cane sugar) its why they say carbing with table sugar causes cidery flavors....and this is a beer with almost all its fermentablea being cane sugar.
 
I wonder if upping the bran content might introduce more flavor and body?

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Yea, I could easily see doubling the wheat bran. Although filtering this bad boy is already a hassle. Maybe just pour it through some cheesecloth at the end of boil and then add Lyles syrup and boil an additional couple minutes
 
Somehow, I was able to get the stuff I missed transferring from my kettle to the fermentation vessels to setle out between the 9 days fermenting and about 18ish hours of that spent cold crashing in the fridge. I didn't even have to filter out pieces of bran. I *did* have some near clogs while siphoning from the kettle to the fermenters (didn't pour because of opening sizes, etc), but I got it worked out just fine. Next batch (I'll hold off until my buddy and I get a chance to try these ones after some weeks of aging) will have double bran.
 
So after letting half of the batch carbonate (I did a very light carbonation on it) and sit for a couple weeks, it's actually not all that bad. My seemingly extreme hops addition somehow ended up really subdued. This has an interesting fruity profile that's reminiscent of ciders, but not exactly. I think that with a bit more balancing, some more bran to give more body, and more molasses (I ended up undershooting because I somehow managed to let my stock of sugar get low at my apartment on brew day, and just went with it when making the molasses), it could actually be a really good unique beer.

Overall, with some more work, I could actually see this being a really good beer. I'm going to play with it more and hopefully have a REALLY good batch ready for 4th of July.
 
Well I've made three batches now, first I pretty much followed to a T and it turned out pretty decent, still bottle ageing after cold crashing and carbing, the other two I tried to be fancy and they are absolute disasters, they will both be going down the drain today, in my opinion half a pound of pale malt and some finnings would make this a great beer, and would keep a fairly authentic taste, adding more bran results in glue and less bran just makes crappy appless cider.it was a bit fun though.
 
Robotcrab said:
Well I've made three batches now, first I pretty much followed to a T and it turned out pretty decent, still bottle ageing after cold crashing and carbing, the other two I tried to be fancy and they are absolute disasters, they will both be going down the drain today, in my opinion half a pound of pale malt and some finnings would make this a great beer, and would keep a fairly authentic taste, adding more bran results in glue and less bran just makes crappy appless cider.it was a bit fun though.
Click to expand...

Mind summing up your experiments here that went poorly? And what makes you say more bran would go badly? What exactly do you mean by glue? Increasing bran was going to be my plan for the next batch

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By glue I'm mean unfermentable snot, it added a texture that just isn't "Beer". And yes i made two doulbe batches, 1 with same amount of bran, but twice the water and molasses, spilt in half, treated one half as a Wit the other as per recipe but doubled the hops (this one was ok still ageing) the third batch I made as per recipe but added a pound of toreified wheat and treated as a wheat beer. I'm not saying I have by any means tested the recipe to its limits, all I'm saying is that I've had sOme fun, have other things I want to try and think that the original is fine but a bit of malt wouldn't hurt.
 
Robotcrab said:
By glue I'm mean unfermentable snot, it added a texture that just isn't "Beer". And yes i made two doulbe batches, 1 with same amount of bran, but twice the water and molasses, spilt in half, treated one half as a Wit the other as per recipe but doubled the hops (this one was ok still ageing) the third batch I made as per recipe but added a pound of toreified wheat and treated as a wheat beer. I'm not saying I have by any means tested the recipe to its limits, all I'm saying is that I've had sOme fun, have other things I want to try and think that the original is fine but a bit of malt wouldn't hurt.
Click to expand...

Hm, glad to your experiences included here. I might try for something like a 1.5x wheat bran amount in a half batch sooner or later. I can see potential to make this good, just gotta figure out what to do to it. And yea, malt would probably be good, but I'm curious what can be done with original stuff

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