recipe Archives - Randy Mosher

An Ale Pales In Brooklyn

A session on eBay led to my acquiring a handwritten recipe from the Howard & Fuller Brewing Company of Brooklyn, NY. One Hundred Years of Brewing(1903) says: “This house manufactures fine ales and porters only and represents the oldest business in those lines on Long Island.” Founded by Junius A. Fuller in 1835, the brewery moved to the corner of Bridge and Plymouth Streets, a neighborhood now called DUMBO (Down Under the Manhattan Bridge Overpass), an up-and-coming area near the Brooklyn Bridge. The stationery is preprinted with the date 190_, so the recipe probably stems from that decade, but it could be a bit later. There’s a bit of shorthand in the brewer’s notes, so this may take a bit of guesswork to figure out.

Brewing the Perfect Party Beer

As homebrewers, we are often called upon to brew something special to celebrate a milestone: a wedding, a graduation, or just surviving another year in the cubicle. And when the audience is entirely beer-maniacal, anything goes. But the real test of a brewer is to please those used to cold, chilly and bland, while upholding your homebrew oath to always brew something interesting. It’s a balancing act that requires the brewer to deconstruct the beer preferences of his or her audience and assemble a subtle, but compelling, recipe.

Freakin’ the Euro-Beers

It is our right as Americans to seize on tidbits of history, jumble them up and invent whatever kind of story is appealing. So let’s get on with that and start thinking about the beery possibilities. Note that the quantities suggested are for five-gallon batches. All of these should be fermented conventionally with lager yeast and given a cold conditioning commensurate with their strength. Don’t forget the diacetyl rest, a couple of days at cellar temperatures to allow any excess diacetyl released by the yeast to be reabsorbed.

Wassailing: Carol singers rewarded with the wassail bowl.. Date: 16th/17th century

Wassailing Through the Holidays

Wassailing conjures up images of scarf-draped, rosy-cheeked carolers singing to orphans and shut-ins in their snow-globe village, Hallmark card style. You can think whatever nostalgic thing you like, but the fact is, “wassail” is a noun, not a verb, and the custom is about drinking, not singing.

A Tonic for Our Times

“Tonic” refers to quinine, which is used today as an effective anti-malarial treatment. It’s tightly raspy bitterness is at the heart of this medicine-turned-beverage, and is the reason it works so well to cut the sweetness as used in the famous cocktail. Grocery store brands are pretty one-dimensional, and the specialty brands seem expensive enough to at least investigate a DIY version.

Recipe: Vermouth with a Spanish Accent

I had been researching and recreating antique vermouth recipes for some time before I was Invited to Northern Spain by Los Cerverceros Caseros, the Spanish homebrewers’ association. I was excited to see vermouth everywhere in Bilbao, Barcelona and Madrid, and fascinated to see how the locals enjoyed it.