Hello friend beer sapiens ! Today we bring you the last of the beer education chapters that we have dedicated to the Brewing Schools that have changed the history of this drink.
If you have read the previous articles, you will already know that these Schools were developed in Europe and that any style of craft beer that you like today has its origin in one of them.
But what about the most recent of all, that is, the American School? as with With most of their contributions, the Americans did something very intelligent with beer : they took the best of traditional recipes and improved them. A Made an America In all rules.
The history of the American School: the Washingtons already drank beer
Legend has it that the Mayfower ( the first ship that took English settlers to the "New World" colonies ) already carried beer in its holds. There is no confirmed data, but it makes sense because as we have already told you many times, at that time beer was healthier than water.
Another anecdote that we love is the one that tells that Marta Washington, the wife of the first president of the United States, had her own beer recipe. And here there is historical data since their diaries are preserved, and in one of them, on the last page, the ingredients and quantities for brewing are noted. It was a beer with low alcoholic content and without hops, but something is something... The First Lady must have liked cooking a lot, there are also recipe books for them with different cocktails and even some notes to recover the beer that had been spoiled.
Even the slaves owned by the Washington family brewed their own beer. They used less noble ingredients for them and hardly had alcohol, since they used it mainly to hydrate themselves during their daily tasks. We know all this because in another account book it is recorded how sometimes they were paid with hops.
The first factories in America
But going back to the origins of beer on this continent, with the exception of the beers produced by the natives or some attempts that the colonists made with indigenous ingredients (such as pumpkin or corn beer ), we had to wait until the beginning of the century. XVII for a more or less professional production.
The first breweries belonged to the Dutch West India Company and were in present-day New York. But it was the English who had the most and best beer. At that time, the British Empire had about 13 colonies in North America and, above all, they had commercial control. All kinds of merchandise entered through its ports and the most popular drink among them, beer, could not be missing. At that time, the star style was the Porter , dark and powerful, which also triumphed in London.
The arrival of the Germans in New York
The entire beer scene changed at the beginning of the 19th century, with the massive arrival of Europeans in America. The American dream attracted Irish, Italians and more than 8 million Germans. And almost all of them ended up in New York, which was the gateway to the country.
The Germanic population was very important in the city, and they quickly began to make their own beers in the style of the German School and Brooklyn became the largest factory of this precious drink. Such was its success that by the end of that century, the Lager had become the most consumed style in the United States.
The Dry Law of the 20s and beer.
The Prohibition Law that was established in the country in the 1920s sounds familiar to all of us. Alcohol consumption was prohibited with few exceptions, and this increased speculation, clandestine parties, and the mafias that took control of it. Obviously, these restrictions also affected beers, and especially small breweries, which could not resist the lack of sales. Only the big ones could stay.
The 1970s, the craft brewing movement and American hops
The first half of the century was not easy for US beer culture. There was even a decline in its consumption, since during World War II this drink was identified with Nazi Germany, and it was stopped consuming in almost all of the American territory.
However, the 70s brought many revolutions: cultural, social and economic. And the beer also benefited from that air of freedom that swept through the country and that focused on a return to tradition and the manual.
At this time , craft microbreweries appeared all over the map. The gaze was turned towards the origins, not only recovering the styles brought by the European ancestors but also incorporating techniques that were disappearing.
Those years and his boundless creativity were the ones that will define the element that will most characterize the American school: highly flavored hops. And it is that until then hops were not highly appreciated in the territory since they were considered quite harsh. In this decade, autochthonous varieties with very characteristic flavors began to be cultivated.
Also old manufacturing techniques will be recovered that will give rise to to the characteristic styles of the American School. But we will see all this in the next episode. We have a crazy desire for a good craft beer, and not you?