By Ed Westemeier
Enquirer contributor

This week we celebrated the birthdays of Presidents George Washington and Abraham Lincoln. I don't know about Honest Abe, but it's well known Washington was a brewer. His family wasn't in the business, like that of Samuel Adams, but Washington did enough brewing at his home in Virginia to supply his household with beer.

There wasn't really much choice but to brew your own then, living far out in the country. In fact, most of America's founding fathers enjoyed their alcoholic beverages. One of the Adams descendants wrote that "to the end of John Adams's life, a large tankard of hard cider was his morning draught before breakfast."

We even have a beer recipe in Washington's handwriting that you can see at Mount Vernon today. It wouldn't make good beer by today's standards, owing to the quality of available ingredients, but it was recognizably a beer recipe.

Washington's recipe relied on molasses for most of the sugar, and molasses and maple syrup were widely used in the brewing process. Sometimes brewers even added tree bark, such as birch, sassafras or spruce for flavoring. The tradition lives on at Anchor Brewing in San Francisco, where its distinctive Christmas beer sometimes includes spruce essence.

The `patriotic thing'

Beer played an important role in the early days of this country. I've seen several old posters dating from the 18th century that called on citizens to do the "patriotic thing" and drink more American beer and cider instead of the popular rum that was exported by the British. The rum was made with sugar cane grown in British colonies in the Caribbean. Drinking American-made beer or cider helped keep our economy strong.

We sometimes forget the importance of beer and cider at that time, but tea, coffee and chocolate drinks didn't become popular or widely available until around the time of the Revolutionary War. You were never far from an opportunity for a drink in those days.

It was impossible to sign a contract or a deed, sell a farm, buy a farm implement, or arbitrate a dispute without sealing the bargain with a drink. Nor could you eat a dinner among friends without at least a few toasts.

The early Americans believed in the medicinal value of a good glass of beer. A book published in 1801 in Connecticut reads: "Different kinds of beer, ale, etc., are often prepared according to the prescriptions of the physicians, all of which, as well as pumpkin and bran beer, partake of the virtues of the ingredients put into such liquors."

I sure wish I could get my doctor to prescribe an ale instead of a pill.

Church connection

Another almost forgotten aspect was the connection with religion. The two primary social institutions at the time were the tavern and the church. The buildings were generally built at the same time when a new settlement was founded, usually near each other.

In some cases, both institutions used the same building, since the tavern was frequently built first.

Providence, R.I., is a good example, where Roger Williams served as the preacher, simply because as the congregation grew, the tavern rooms were found to be larger and more suitable than those in the small church building. Another common use for the tavern was as a location for the village post office.

Although we make a clear distinction between them today, our taverns and churches are both still a big part of our community life.

This week, let's raise a toast to the brave and resourceful folks who built this country. If you want to be truly authentic, make your toast with a glass of Fuller's London Porter, or any good American porter you can find.

Contact Ed Westemeier by e-mail hopfen@malz.com.