White House Beers

Well, if you have been one of the unfortunately few that did not see the news about this last week, then you missed out in a serious way. As was reported on by many a news agency, a blurb to most people, the homebrewers of the US not only heard that President Obama is an avid homebrewer in his own right, but that they have developed some unique recipes in the White House. Those beers were enjoyed by many in the past and continue to be entertainment points for select visitors today, but there is another aspect to this story that I find especially interesting: the beer!

The recipes that were release were for a honey ale and a honey porter, and they sound really great. They are partial mash recipes, so they don't require any great effort to make for the average brewer (save maybe for getting a hold of White House honey, to which you have my best wishes of accomplishing). The simplicity of these recipes, combined with some yummy history factoids, make this a really awesome moment in US homebrewing. What history is that? Well, according the the historians, this is the first time beer has been brewed on the grounds of the White House. Yes, many of the founding fathers were very proud brewers and distillers, but they never actually did it on the grounds of the White House. Pretty cool, right?

Well, here they are, the White House Honey Ale and the White House Honey Porter, directly from the White House Assistant Chef, Sam Kass.

 

 

 

Now, with those in front of you, it isn't that scary, right? I know most people are going to be upset about not being able to do the actual recipe with the honey they use, but do it in the spirit of the entire project: use local ingredients! If you want honey, use the stuff you can find around you that is the same wildflower honey, because the location, plants, soil, climate, etc are all going to make the honey a little different and ultimately a different beer.

 

If you would like, here is the video they used to demonstrate their brewing at the White House.

 



 

Oh, and just so I'm being open about it, I am planning to follow up the release of these with the stats they get on a typical batch (OG, FG, ABV, IBU, SRM, etc), because I am just curious if there is an impact from the local ingredients to the overall style, which I doubt but I'm still a curious beer geek.

 

I do want to ask now, for some serious answers, and I'll follow it up on Facebook and Twitter: which one should I make first? I definitely want to do both, but I'm curious if there is a demand for one of these over the other. Let me know which one you like and if you are lucky, I may be able to squirrel some away for you to try your selection when you see me next.

 

Well, that pretty much does it for this post.

 

As always, be merry and drink well. Slainte!