• In 1810, 132 breweries in the U.S. produced 185,000 barrels of beer. The population of the country was seven million.
• By 1850, 431 breweries in the U.S. produced 750,000 barrels of beer (31 gallons per barrel). The population was 23 million.
  Source: History of Beer in the 19th Century: Timeline

But many families made their own beer. The recipes below are from cookbooks published in the 1800s.

INFORMATION BELOW FROM 1800s COOKBOOKS

MOLASSES (TREACLE) BEER
Take five pints of molasses, half a pint of yeast, two spoons of pounded ginger, and one of allspice. Put these into a clean half-barrel, and pour on it two gallons of boiling water. Shake it till a fermentation is produced, then fill it up with warm water, and let it work with the bung out for a day, when it will be fit for use. Remove it to a cold place, or bottle it. This is a very good drink for laboring people in warm weather.

GINGER BEER
Pour two gallons of boiling water on two pounds brown sugar, one and a half ounce of cream of tartar, and the same of pounded ginger. Stir them well and put it in a small cask. When milk warm, put in half a pint of good yeast, shake the cask well, and stop it close. In twenty-four hours it will be fit to bottle. Cork it very well, and in ten days it will sparkle like Champagne. One or two lemons cut in slices and put in, will improve it much. For economy, you may use molasses instead of sugar–one quart in place of two pounds. This is a wholesome and delicious beverage in warm weather.

SPRUCE BEER
Boil some spruce boughs with some wheat bran till it tastes sufficiently of the spruce. Bruise some allspice, and put in. Strain it, and put two quarts of molasses to half a barrel. When it is nearly cold, put in half a pint of yeast. After it has worked sufficiently, bung up the barrel.

SMALL BEER
To fifteen gallons water, add one gallon bran, one quart corn or oats, and one-quarter pound of hops. Let it boil up once, take it off and sweeten with one and a half gallons molasses. Put it in a tub to cool. When a little more than milk warm, add one and a half pints yeast. Cover it with a blanket till next morning, and then bottle. 

CREAM BEER
Boil together, two ounces tartaric acid, two pounds white sugar, three pints water, and the juice of one lemon. When nearly cold, add the whites of three eggs, well beaten, with one-half cup of flour, and one-half ounce essence of wintergreen. Bottle and keep in a cool place.

Take two tablespoons of this mixture for a tumbler of water, adding one-quarter teaspoon soda.* (baking soda).

LEMON BEER
Cut two large lemons in slices and put them in a jar. Add one pound white sugar and one gallon boiling water. Let it stand till cool, then add one-quarter cup of yeast. Let it stand till it ferments. Bottle in the evening in stone jugs and cork tightly.

COTTAGE BEER
Take a peck of good sweet wheat bran and put it into ten gallons of water with three handfuls of good hops. Boil the whole together in an iron, brass, or copper kettle, until the bran and hops sink to the bottom. Then strain it through a hair sieve* or a thin sheet, into a tub and when it is about lukewarm, add two quarts of molasses. As soon as the molasses is melted, pour the whole into a nine or ten gallon cask, with two tablespoons of yeast. When the fermentation has subsided, bung up the cask, and in four days it will be fit for use.

*hair sieve – a strainer with a wiry fabric bottom usually woven from horsehair.

PORTER BEER
A pleasant drink in summer is to take one bottle of porter, five bottles of water, and a pint of molasses, or a pound of sugar. Make a spoonful of ginger into a tea, and mix all well together. Have seven clean bottles with two or three raisins in each. Fill them, cork them tight, and lay them on their sides on the cellar floor.

porter* – a dark style of beer developed in London made from brown malt.

HOP BEER
Put to six ounces of hops in five quarts of water, and boil them three hours. Then strain off the liquor, and put to the hops four quarts more of water, a teacup* full of ginger, and boil the hops three hours longer. Strain and mix it with the rest of the liquor, and stir in a couple of quarts of molasses.

Take about half a pound of bread, and brown it very slowly. When very brown and dry, put it in the liquor to enrich the beer. Rusked bread* is the best for this purpose, but a loaf of bread cut in slices, and toasted till brittle, will do very well. When rusked bread is used, pound it fine, and brown it in a pot as you would coffee, stirring it constantly. When the hop liquor cools, so as to be just lukewarm, add a pint of new yeast, that has no salt in it. Keep the beer covered in a temperate situation, till it has ceased fermenting, which is ascertained by the subsiding of the froth. Pour it off carefully into a beer keg, or bottles. The beer should not be corked very tight, or it will burst the bottles. It should be kept in a cool place.

*teacup – same as a jill or gill; four ounces in the U.S. and five ounces in the U.K.
*rusked bread – twice-baked bread used as extra filling; for example in sausages.

INSTANTANEOUS BEER
Put to a pint and a half of water, four teaspoons of ginger, and a tablespoon of lemon-juice sweetened to the taste with syrup or white sugar; pour it into a bottle. Have ready a cork to fit the bottle, a string of wire to tie it down, and a mallet to drive in the cork. Then put into the bottle a heaping teaspoon of the super-carbonate of soda, cork it immediately, tie it down, then shake the whole up well. Cut the string, and the cork will fly out. Turn it out, and drink immediately.

[I haven’t been able to find a definition for “super-carbonate of soda.” I can only guess it’s bicarbonate of soda, or baking soda. If anyone knows otherwise, I’d appreciate an email or leave a comment below.]

Image from Deposit Photos

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• The recipes above are from various cookbooks from the 1800s. If you’d like to read more in-depth information, here’s a link to “A Practical Treatise on Brewing” by William Chadwick, 1835.

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How To Brew: Everything You Need to Know to Brew Great Beer Every Time

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Have You Ever had Home Brewed or Craft Beer? Please Leave a Comment Below.

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