Benjamin Franklin's Spruce Beer

Classification: historical, 1700s, spruce beer

Source: Thomas Manteufel, (tomm@pet.med.ge.com) Issue #748, 10/25/91

Translated from the french while he was stationed in France.

Ways of Making Beer with Essence of Spruce:

For a Cask containing 80 bottles, take one pot of Essence and 13 Pounds of Molases. - or the same amount of unrefined Loaf Sugar; mix them well together in 20 pints of hot Water: Stir together until they make a Foam, then pour it into the Cask you will then fill with Water: add a Pint of good Yeast, stir it well together and let it stand 2 or 3 Days to ferment, after which close the Cask, and after a few days it will be ready to be put into Bottles, that must be tightly corked. Leave them 10 or 12 Days in a cool Cellar, after which the Beer will be good to drink.