American Colonial Times & Beer

The straight-laced Puritans loaded more beer than they did water onto the Mayflower before they cast off for the New World from England.

And although cranberry sauce, mashed potatoes, sweet potatoes, and pumpkin pie are only myths and legends of the first Thanksgiving feast, beer was really there and in abundant supply.

A brewery was one of Harvard College's first construction projects, to ensure that a steady supply of beer could be served in the student dining halls.

In the earliest Colonial times, people brewed beer from or flavored it with, carrots, tomatoes, onions, beets, celery, squash, corn silk, dandelions, and goldenrod.

Tavern owners enjoyed higher social status than did the clergy during part of the Colonial period, and Colonial taverns were often required to be located near the church or meetinghouse, and religious services and court sessions were often held right in the major tavern of Colonial American towns.

Thomas Jefferson, in fact, wrote the first draft of the Declaration of Independence in a tavern in Philadelphia.

Alewives in Colonial America brewed a special high-proof "groaning ale" for pregnant women to drink during labor. In fact, during the Colonial period, alcohol abstainers had to pay a certain life insurance company premiums that were 10% higher than that of drinkers.

George Washington, Benjamin Franklin, and Thomas Jefferson all enjoyed home brewing, and Benjamin Franklin is known, in his Poor Richard's Almanac, to have said, "Beer is proof that God loves us and wants us to be happy."

In 1789, George Washington put forth his "buy American" policy and from that point on only drank porter that had been brewed in America.

In that same year, Massachusetts passed an Act encouraging the manufacture and consumption of beer and ale. Three years later in 1792, New Hampshire agreed not to tax brewing property.

In present times, an American home brewer named Tony Simmons has crafted what he dubbed Poor Richard's Ale in honor of Benjamin Franklin.

This ale has a reddish-copper hue that is edged in walnut highlights, and scents reminiscent of corn and nuts. Corn was indigenous to the people in the colonies, while molasses was the popular sweetener of the era. It is likely that Franklin's favorite brew was similar in character.

Hops were difficult to obtain; however, the bitterness yielded by cooked molasses would have balanced out the malt and corn sweetness, bringing this ale close to authentic moderate strong levels with 6.6% ABV, rather than mimicking a strong Scotch Ale.