Mormon Pioneer Homebrew Recipes?

So I know this is kind of a long shot, but I'm looking for homebrew recipes from Mormons or Mormon communities between 1850 and 1950. My great-grandma was a homebrewer and a Mormon, and she had a recipe for wheat beer that is light on the details. I'm eventually hoping to pull together enough to do a book, or at least a blog, on Mormon brewing. If you have any recipes or any ideas of where I could look, please share!

 

Maybe this should be moved to the debate forum

 

I'm no expert nor am I mormon, but a quick websearch on https://www.fairmormon.org/answers/Word_of_Wisdom/Joseph_Smith_drank_alcohol_prior_to_the_martyrdom
Suggests that beer, wine and cider are "soft" beverages whereas distilled are strong beverages. Seems full prohibition is a more recent thing.

Beer, unfermented or lightly fermented wine, and cider were considered "mild drinks" by some (D&C 89:17) and therefore acceptable under at least some circumstances (note that verse 17 specifically permits "barley...for mild drinks").
I suspect more of prohibition occured during the US prohibition in the early 20s.

 

FWIW, I grew up in a small, agricultural community, in which lived a lot of descendants of Mormon homesteaders. A standing joke when I was in high school (50+ years go) was: "How do you keep a Mormon from drinking all the beer at a party?" Answer: Invite another Mormon.

 

Jack Mormons.

My brother (not a Mormon) live in SLC back in the '80s. He said he often went out for beers with co-workers, many of whom were LDS. Of course, it was 3.2 beer, but beer, nonetheless.

 

Often times when we speak of 3.2 beer what is often overlooked is that it is 3.2 ABW - alcohol by weight. When you convert it to volume it comes out closer to 4.0 ABV. Not a big beer by any standards but there were plenty of commercial examples from the era that were much lower.

 

When we were on vacation in Utah last month I was impressed at the variety of beers Utah brewers were able to create within the confines of 4% ABV. Lots of blonde ales, APAs, Kolsch, session IPAs, sours, etc. The ones I tried were quite good. They make the best of their situation.

 

@Kent88 I was jest jesting. I’m good, you’re good, this thread is good. Let’s have another beer.

 

Thank you for trying to keep us on track. I think my point that I did not convey was that a recipe should exist, and its likely a very sessionable brew. Probably smash

 

Exactly. There wasn't a full prohibition of alcohol for Mormons in good standing until 1921. I've found a couple of references that suggest homebrewing was acceptable until the federal crackdown in 1920. That didn't stop my great-grandma, though. She was still brewing in the 1960s, insisting that her brew wasn't alcoholic. (Her recipe is pretty vague, but given that there's a fermenting period, I'm pretty sure she was wrong about that.)

 

Have you seen the book "Beer in the Beehive"?

https://www.amazon.com/dp/B001DCBS4Q/?tag=skimlinks_replacement-20

I'll crack my copy open and see if there are any old recipes in there.

Also, Fischer Brewery is a reboot of a brewery that existed in SLC prior to prohibition and I think a few of their beers are based on old recipes, but probably just pre-prohibition era, not pioneer era.

As a fun fact, the first brewery in Utah was one opened by Porter Rockwell who was Brigham Young's personal body guard and Mormon church "enforcer." It was located at what we locally refer to as "Point of the Mountain" which is where our state prison is currently located.

 

Back in the mid 1800`s it was not as common to dilute spirits down to 80-proof like it is today. Many were served at barrel strenght or around 160-ish proof.
This, as you can imagine left people sloppy drunk often. Some towns came under tee-totaler control and they started banning spirits but even they, really didn't consider beers (even 5% ones) to be "alcoholic" and they were still allowed under law. The Civil War then happened and put a hold on the anti-alcohol agenda for about 50-60 years.

As far as "Mormon specific recipes".....i got nothin.....
A lot of cultures often would put whatever they had in abundance in their recipes. Perhaps you could find out what crops were grown in those areas at that time and implement them into your grainbill. Perhaps molasses, honey, who knows what else.

Good luck on your adventure.

 

Mormons have something called the "Words of Wisdom" which is where the rule against coffee/caffeine comes from and where eventually all alcohol was a no-no. But the "Words of Wisdom" are not supposed to be hard and fast rules, just generally good ideas. It hasn't been until relatively recently that all Mormons were expected to strictly follow the WoW. And their living prophets can add or subtract from them, so it changes.

 

Thanks tons for the tips! The book looks absolutely perfect. I will follow up on both. Thanks again!