When Ben Franklin wrote, "Beer is living proof that God loves us and wants us to be happy," he was speaking for most Americans of his day. Beer, and the art of brewing, was one of the first things European settlers brought to America in the 17th century.
At the time people drank for a variety of reasons. Water in England was, shall we say, less than healthy to drink. But beer was essential to a good diet. Although no one realized it at the time, the beer-making process cleansed the otherwise fetid water, killing myriad pathogenic microorganisms, and even provided nourishment. As the beer began to run out during the Mayflower voyage of 1620, for example, passengers began to exhibit signs of scurvy. When other European settlers came to the New World, they brought with them the accoutrements necessary for beer making, and the brew house was usually one of the first structures the newcomers erected.
By the 1700s beer was big business, although recipes differed. Farmers planted huge fields of barley and hops, beer's chief ingredients, to help keep the liquid flowing. Many people, especially rich gentlemen, built private brew houses, handcrafting most of the equipment from wood (except the copper kettle, of course). Thomas Jefferson and George Washington built breweries on their plantations. In fact, Jefferson's wife brewed 15 gallons of low-alcohol beer every two weeks.
But brewing techniques and equipment have changed a great deal since the Founding Fathers were tippling. Back in the day a colonial brewer used his experience and primitive tools. Today's high-tech commercial brewers use state-of-the-art devices to make sure each batch tastes the same.
In colonial times, brewers took malted barley and cracked it by hand. They would then steep, or soak, the grains in boiling water. They called the process mashing. Mashing allowed the brewer to extract the sugars from the barley. Today's brewers use mechanical rollers in a malt mill to crush the grain. The more the mill crushes the kernels, the more sugar the brewer can remove from the barley. The brewer then soaks the grist in a vat of hot water called the mash tun, which converts the starch into sugar.
Brewers in Franklin's day took the mash they had created, which had the consistency of oatmeal, and dumped it into a sawed-off whiskey barrel. The modified tub acted as a sieve, filtering the sugary liquid from the grain. Modern brewers pass the mash into a device called the mash/lauter tun for straining.
The colonial brewer returned the strained liquid to the boil kettle, or the copper as it was called, for a 2-hour boiling. He added hops, chilled the brew, sprinkled it with yeast, and drained the final product into wooden kegs. The brewer then placed those kegs in a cellar for three weeks to a month.
Just like colonial brewers, modern brewers pour the strained liquid (known as wort) into a huge kettle, though today it's called a cooking tun. They then add hops and sometimes other ingredients. Steam heats the cooking tun, which creates an even boil. The brewer then removes the wort, places the liquid into a temperature-controlled fermenter, and adds yeast, which helps turn the sugar from the malt into alcohol. The beer is eventually chilled to near freezing and allowed to rest, or "lager" for a week to seven months.
Despite the centuries of technological innovation in brewing, beer has stayed pretty much the same: a sugary liquid derived from malted barely, seasoned with hops, and fermented using yeast. No doubt Ben Franklin would be proud to tip a brew or two today. Perhaps he would even start his own microbrewery.