As you may have read, a few of us gathered a week or so ago to help Smitty brew his own, all-grain version of the White House Honey Porter, which is to be followed up by an extract version of the White House Honey Ale.
The New York Times has beat us to it, enlisting the help of a Brooklyn, New York brewer who brewed the Ale. The NYT followed up with a positive review.
I look forward to Smitty's improved, all-grain version made with his favorite grain, hops and the sweat and love of ATK.
UPDATE: Over at Streak's Place, our friend is also brewing and bottling the Porter. Too bad we live a half-country away and cannot do a back-to-back taste test.
Perhaps it was public pressure. Perhaps it was our post, one among many, urging the White House take action. Perhaps our President and his staff are just into the finest hobby in the world. Whatever it was, whatever the reason was, the White House has decided to release their beer recipes unto homebrewers the world over!
From the press release:
As far as we know the White House Honey Brown Ale is the first alcohol brewed or distilled on the White House grounds. George Washington brewed beer and distilled whiskey at Mount Vernon and Thomas Jefferson made wine but there's no evidence that any beer has been brewed in the White House. (Although we do know there was some drinking during prohibition…)
Since our first batch of White House Honey Brown Ale we've added the Honey Porter and have gone even further to add a Honey Blonde this past summer. Like many home brewers who add secret ingredients to make their beer unique, all of our brews have honey that we tapped from the first ever bee-hive on the South Lawn. The honey gives the beer a rich aroma and a nice finish but it doesn't sweeten it.
Another nice touch is that the staff didn't just brew the kit recipe. They sought some advice, engaged other homebrewers who work at the White House and made some recipes they can truthfully call their own.
Before I get to the recipes, the White House has included a fun little 4-minute vid on brewing the beer, the first-even beer brewed on the White House premises.
These recipes are extract-plus-specialty-grain beers; the kind almost every homebrewer whets their teeth on. In the coming days, I'm going to look into converting the extracts detailed in the White House recipes into all-grain. It's a matter of picking the right base grain and a few additional grains for color and flavor in such a way as to match the flavor of the extract syrup. Additionally, they used dry yeast. I'm not a giant fan of dry yeast, so I'll grab some yeast strains from White Labs or Wyeast that are in essence the same as the dry...just, you know, wet.
But for the extract brewers on this blog, and for general interest, behold: The White House Honey Porter and the White House Honey Ale!
White House Honey Porter
Ingredients
2 (3.3) lb. cans light unhopped malt extract
3/4 lb Munich Malt (cracked)
1 lb crystal 20 malt (cracked)
6 oz black malt (cracked)
3 oz chocolate malt (cracked)
1 lb White House Honey
10 HBUs bittering hops
1/2 oz Hallertaur Aroma hops
1 pkg Nottingham dry yeast
3/4 cup corn sugar for bottling
Directions
In a 6 qt pot, add grains to 2.25 qts of 168˚ water. Mix well to bring temp down to 155˚. Steep on stovetop at 155˚ for 45 minutes. Meanwhile, bring 2 gallons of water to 165˚ in a 12 qt pot. Place strainer over, then pour and spoon all the grains and liquid in. Rinse with 2 gallons of 165˚ water. Let liquid drain through. Discard the grains and bring the liquid to a boil. Set aside.
Add the 2 cans of malt extract and honey into the pot. Stir well.
Boil for an hour. Add half of the bittering hops at the 15 minute mark, the other half at 30 minute mark, then the aroma hops at the 60 minute mark.
Set aside and let stand for 15 minutes.
Place 2 gallons of chilled water into the primary fermenter and add the hot wort into it. Top with more water to total 5 gallons if necessary. Place into an ice bath to cool down to 70-80˚.
Activate dry yeast in 1 cup of sterilized water at 75-90˚ for fifteen minutes. Pitch yeast into the fermenter. Fill airlock halfway with water. Ferment at room temp (64-68˚) for 3-4 days.
Siphon over to a secondary glass fermenter for another 4-7 days.
To bottle, make a priming syrup on the stove with 1 cup sterile water and 3/4 cup priming sugar, bring to a boil for five minutes. Pour the mixture into an empty bottling bucket. Siphon the beer from the fermenter over it. Distribute priming sugar evenly. Siphon into bottles and cap. Let sit for 1-2 weeks at 75˚.
White House Honey Ale
Ingredients
2 (3.3 lb) cans light malt extract
1 lb light dried malt extract
12 oz crushed amber crystal malt
8 oz Biscuit Malt
1 lb White House Honey
1 1/2 oz Kent Goldings Hop Pellets
1 1/2 oz Fuggles Hop pellets
2 tsp gypsum
1 pkg Windsor dry ale yeast
3/4 cup corn sugar for priming
Directions
In an 12 qt pot, steep the grains in a hop bag in 1 1/2 gallons of sterile water at 155 degrees for half an hour. Remove the grains.
Add the 2 cans of the malt extract and the dried extract and bring to a boil.
For the first flavoring, add the 1 1/2 oz Kent Goldings and 2 tsp of gypsum. Boil for 45 minutes.
For the second flavoring, add the 1/2 oz Fuggles hop pellets at the last minute of the boil.
Add the honey and boil for 5 more minutes.
Add 2 gallons chilled sterile water into the primary fermenter and add the hot wort into it. Top with more water to total 5 gallons. There is no need to strain.
Pitch yeast when wort temperature is between 70-80˚. Fill airlock halfway with water.
Ferment at 68-72˚ for about seven days.
Rack to a secondary fermenter after five days and ferment for 14 more days.
To bottle, dissolve the corn sugar into 2 pints of boiling water for 15 minutes. Pour the mixture into an empty bottling bucket. Siphon the beer from the fermenter over it. Distribute priming sugar evenly. Siphon into bottles and cap. Let sit for 2 to 3 weeks at 75˚.
News of the Whitehouse supplying POTUS with home-brewed Honey Ale (made with honey from the Whitehouse garden) as he hits the road has been broadly covered by nominal publications like WaPo and important publications like our very own Around The Keg.
But now the story gets a step more interesting.
When he started in office, Obama created a citizen petition site called We the People. If you have an issue you wish the Whitehouse to address, get enough signatures by a certain date and ostensibly the Whitehouse will pay heed to your issue.
I've used this petition site several times on some pretty meaningful petitions (ask me off-line), but I think this newest petition is the most important of all. The petition: Release the recipe for the Honey Ale home brewed at the White House. From the petition:
Following in the footsteps of great men like George Washington, Thomas Jefferson, and Benjamin Franklin, Barack Obama has reportedly been enjoying the rewards of home brewed beer. Recent reports from news outlets like the Washington Post (August 15th, 2012) have stated that Obama has been drinking a White House home brew Honey Ale while on the campaign trail.
In keeping with the brewing traditions of the founding fathers, homebrewers across America call on the Obama Administration to release the recipe for the White House home brew so that it may be enjoyed by all.
"I think it’s time for beer” -Franklin D. Roosevelt (March 12, 1933)
The goal is to reach a total of 25,000 signatures by September 17, 2012; as of typing this post, there are 2,838 signators. I hope, as soon as I hit "publish," to be 2,839.
Do your patriotic duty, Keggers. Sign the petition.
Interestingly, a Reddit user has actually sent a real-life FOIA request to the Whitehouse, asking for the recipe. A copy of the FOIA can be found here. It ends with "Also, if you could send me a copy autographed by the President, you'd be the coolest FOIA officer in the whole federal government, and who could resist that title?" Personally, I hope he gets the autographed copy.
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In the most imporant news of the day, it has been reported that the White House now brews its own beer!
According to the DesMoines Register, not only does the White Brew two varieties of beer, they carry it with them on the Presidential tour bus.
Maybe you think Obama is the 2nd coming of Christ, who saved the world from economic collapse and brought honor back to America. Maybe you think he is the illegitimately-elected Kenyan usurper of the Constitution.
Not matter your political affiliation, I think we at ATK have to say that this action alone warrants an endorsement from our editorial board. What say you ATKers?
"...the White House's own brew, made with equipment the Obamas bought with their own money -- the first beer ever made at the White House, according to historians.
While Wisconsin's new laws may be benefiting super-shitty beer-maker MillerCoors in Wisconisn, the State Government shutdown in Minnesota is screwing them.
CNNMoney reports that because the company was not able to renew their brand registration before the state shutdown, they cannot sell their product.
You may recall the Republicans’ budget trick in Wisconsin which was designed to protect MillerCoors from competition from the InBev distribution network. The provision also royally screwed small craft brewers. The great GOP champions of free market competition effectively made it illegal for craft brewers to market their beer wholesale, prevented them from organizing co-ops to distribute their product and limited expanding their individual brewpubs to no more than two restaurants.
Beer drinkers and activists flooded the Statehouse with calls and letters and actually flipped five Republicans, who joined a couple of Dems to request the Governor veto the provision. Walker of course, ignored the request and the corporations won that battle. But craft beer supporters aren’t giving up without a fight. They’re dumping gallons of MillerCoors on the street and have been convincing some traditional taverns to drop MillerCoors products altogether.[H/T Balloon Juice
My favorite line in the whole piece is "The great GOP champions of free market competition effectively made it illegal..." That says it all. They really aren't interested in competition whatsoever; just the biggest corporate payouts and corporate favoritism and cronyism.
Here's the original article that Balloon Juice linked; it includes a video of roughly 50 gallons of Miller getting poured into the street. Normally, spilled beer breaks my heart. This time? Dump away.
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