Episode Details

Mike Stein and Pete Jones are brewing buffs and historians based in the Washington, D.C., area, and the intersection of those two interests has proven to be fertile ground over the past decade. Through their consultancy Lost Lagers and Extinct Ales, they’ve done the research and helped surface recipes and process information about brewing in the founding years of the United States—for example, this recipe for an 18th century pale ale, from an English cookbook found among Martha Washington’s belongings.

In this episode, the two share a glimpse into what brewing was like in those formative years, and they chart the milestones as brewing developed from a household-based enterprise in the 13 colonies to an industrial business in the 50 states.

Along the way, the two discuss:

• beer versus ale in the context of the 1700s
• persimmon beer and the growth of local ingredients
• digging into historical records to recreate historical recipes and brewing processes
• updating historical recipes to modern ingredients
• cleaning historical malt with lobsters
• malt choices in modern beers to approximate less-consistent malt in past centuries
• brewing with wheat bran
• the shift from brewing on estates to brewing as a business
• America’s diverse brewing history

And more.

This episode is brought to you by:

G&D Chillers
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PakTech
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