cluded raisins. Blue Bee Cider owner Courtney Mailey had never used raisins in cider, and she believed that they were used more to add nutrients and sugars for the yeast rather than to add flavor. She pressed Albermarle Pippin apples, added nine pounds of raisins to the apple juice, and fermented the liquid in a brandy barrel. After adding yeast, she let the liquid ferment into cider. The resulting product was a 7% dry colonial cider recreation. We had another exclusive tasting event that featured Sarah Meacham, author of Every Home a Distillery, and she spoke about the importance of women as cider makers, brewers, and distillers in colonial America.
The Queen Bee
We were looking for another beverage to recreate, so we turned to mead, which is fermented honey. Mead recipes were listed throughout these cookbooks, so we took a copy of a mead recipe from a rare copy of the Frugal Housewife Or, Complete Woman Cook to Black Heath Meadery. The Frugal Housewife by Susannah Carter was printed in Philadelphia in 1802 and includes 500 recipes for a variety of food and beverages. The mead recipe featured several spices from the English colonies, including mace, sweetbriar, thyme, ginger, and cloves. This type of mead metheglin (spiced mead) was said to be a favorite of Queen Victoria, so we named it The Queen Bee. Bill Cavender, the mead maker at Black Heath Meadery, fermented Virginia honey with the spices in a gin barrel, and the resulting beverage was a dry %7 abv spiced mead. We had an exclusive tasting at the VHS that featured a taste of the Queen Bee and a presentation from the State Apiarist, Keith Tignor.
Molasses Wheat Ale
Our fourth collaboration included a recipe from the first American cookbook, The Virginia Housewife. Published in 1777 by Virginian Mary Randolph, this book is still used by many regional chefs today. The Virginia Beer Company found Mary Randolph’s Molasses Beer recipe to be particularly appealing, and they collaborated with VHS and Frank Clark (of Colonial Williamsburg Historic Foodways) to reproduce this colonial beverage. Colonists used molasses as a fermentable in many cases because some of beers traditional ingredients were difficult to find. Virginia Beer Co. and Frank Clark brewed this molasses beer with wheat and molasses and let it ferment in a Copper Fox whiskey barrel. The resulting product was a 5% colonial beer with a hint of smoke from the barrel and sweetness from the molasses. We had a tasting event at the Virginia Beer Co. that featured a presentation by Frank Clark on colonial brewing methods and the history of molasses beer and, of course, we all enjoyed a taste of history.
As you can see, Virginia has a rich alcohol history, and many brewers, cider makers, and mead makers are looking back to our nation’s brewing and alcohol roots. “History on tap” is just one way to bring our great culinary history into today’s society.