A round of beer seems like an appropriate way to celebrate America’s upcoming 250th birthday — especially when it’s inspired by the original recipe of President George Washington himself.
To commemorate the signing of the Declaration of Independence — and as part of their “250 Years: Life, Liberty, and the Pursuit of Happiness” programming — the New York Public Library has teamed up with NYC-based TALEA Beer Co. to produce a special edition “Liberty Lager,” inspired by Washington’s own original recipe for “Small Beer.”
Washington wrote the recipe, named for its low alcohol content, on the back page of his military journal while serving as a young colonel in Virginia circa 1757, during the Seven Years’ War.
According to the NYPL, the drink was widely considered to be an alternative to water, which was often contaminated at the time, meaning Washington likely served it to his troops to avoid disease outbreaks.
Washington’s version of small beer was composed of bran hops, molasses and water.
Specifically, his recipe involved:
- Taking a large sifter full of bran hops and boiling them for three hours
- Straining out 30 gallons into a cooler
- Putting in three gallons of molasses while the beer is “scalding hot”
- Letting it stand until the liquid was a “little more than Blood warm”
- Putting in a quarter of yeast if the weather was cold
- Covering it with a blanket and keeping it in a cooler for 24 hours
- Then, putting it into the cask, leaving the bung (or stopper) open until the batch was nearly done
But now, female-owned craft brewery TALEA’s new Liberty Lager is described by the brand as a “classic amber lager with subtle, malty sweetness and a bit of hops” — which The Post confirmed to be right on target after sampling the refreshing summertime beverage.
George should have been so lucky.
Unlike small beer, which typically rang in at less than 3% ABV, Liberty Lager contains 6.5% alcohol. Small beer was also typically an ale, which differentiates from a lager due to a shorter brewing time, the type of yeast used, and a warmer temperature used throughout the fermentation process.
Tara Hankinson, the co-founder of TALEA, told The Post that when the NYPL contacted them asking to collaborate on a beer to celebrate America’s big day, she and her team were “so excited.”
Initially, they attempted to make a beer nearly identical to Washington’s version, going through multiple iterations of the recipe before settling on the one closest to the original.
That final version was eventually provided to the NYPL and described by Hankinson as tasting “more molasses-y with notes of gingerbread and spice, with a hoppy bitterness and a fuller body.”
Sorry, curiosity-seekers: it was not mass-produced for sale.
However, the Liberty Lager will be available to the public at TALEA taprooms — including the Bryant Park location just across the street from the NYPL — and NYC restaurants and retail outlets.
Hankinson described the for-sale beer as “much more in line with today’s modern drinking preferences.”
“For making a beer that has a broad appeal and gets people excited about drinking something inspired by history, we chose to make an amber lager,” she explained.
Anne Becerra, an NYC-based certified cicerone — basically, a beer sommelier — who assisted the NYPL with the project, told The Post that she sees the library’s curation of a historically-inspired beer to be a form of “connecting the dots” between now and the past, especially when it comes to a fun subject like beer.
“I think it helps show how big beer has been in our entire history … how important it’s been in not just the US, but the entire world,” said Becerra.
“So, any project like this that maybe gets you to go, ‘Oh, I didn’t know that!’ is cool. It’s a way to help build on the stories that places like the library tell, but also the stories that brewers tell.”
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