Beers

Below are some recipes for various Beers, btw, not all beer is full of alcohol. Like the first recipe for Root Beer. However most do have alcohol.

Root Beer.—For each gallon of water to be used, take hops, burdock, yellow dock, sarsaparilla, dandelion, and spikenard roots, bruised, of each i oz.; boil about 20 minutes, and strain while hot, add 8 or 10 drops of oils of spruce and sassafras mixed in equal proportions, when cool enough not tc scald your hand, pat in 2 or 3 table-spoons of yeast; molasses 5 of a pint, or white sugar £ lb. gives it about the right sweetness.
Keep these proportions for as many gallons as you wish to make. You can use more or less of the roots to suit your taste after trying it; it is best to get the dr~ -v>tB. or dig them and let them get dry, and of course you can add any other root known to possess medicinal properties desired in the beer. After all is mixed, let it stand in a jar with a cloth thrown over it, to work about two hours, then bottle and set in a cool place. This is a nice way to take alteratives, without taking medicine. And families ought to make it every Spring, and drink freely of it for several weeks. and thereby save, perhaps, several dollars in doctors' bills.

2. Spruce Or Aromatic Beer.—For 3 gals, water put in 1 qt. and i pt. of molasses, 3 eggs well beaten, yeast 1 gill. Into 2 qts. of the water boiling hot put 50 drops of any oil you wish the flavor of; or mix 1 oz. each, oils sassafras, spruce and wintergreen, then use 50 drops of the mixed oils.
Mix all, and strain; let it stand two hours, then bottle, Dearing in mind that yeast must not be put in when the fluid would scald the hand. Boiling water cuts oil for beers, equal to alcohol

3. Lemon Beer.—Water 30 gals.; ginger root bruised 6 ozs.; cream of tartar £ lb.; coffee sugar 13 lbs.; oil of lemon 1 oz.; or i oz. of the oil may be used, and 6 good sized lemons, sliced; yeast 1| pts.
Boil the ginger and cream of tartar, about twenty to thirty minutes, in two or three gallons of the water; then strain it upon the sugar and oils or sliced lemons, which have been rubbed together, having warm water enough to make the whole thirty gallons just so you can hold your hand in it without burning, or about seventy degrees of heat; thon work up the yeast into a paste, as for the cider, with five or six ounces of flour. Let it work over night, skimming off the yeast, or letting it work over as the cider, then strain and bottle for use. This will keep fifteen or twenty days. The Port Huronites think it a splendid drink.

4. Ginger Beer.—White sugar 5 lbs.; lemon juice 1 gill; ouney i lb.; ginger, bruised, 5 ozs.; water 4£ gals.
Boil the ginger thirty minutes in three qts. of the water; then add the other ingredients, and strain; when cold, put in the white of an egg, well beaten, with one tea-spoon of lemon essence—let stand four days, and bottle. It will keep for months—much longer than if yeast was used; the honey however, operates mildly in place of yeast.

PHILADELPHIA Beer.—Water 30 gals.; brown sugar 20 lbs.; ginger, bruised, iJ lbs.; cream of tartar J lb.; super carbonate of soda 3 ozs.; oil oi lemon, cut in a little alcohol, 1 tea-spoon whites of 10 eggs, well beaten; hops 2 ozs.; yeast 1 qt.
The ginger root and hops should be boiled twenty or thirty minutes in enough of the water to make all milk warm, then strained into the rest, and the yeast added and llowed to work over night; skimmed and bottled.

6. Patent Gas Beer.—Ginger 2 ozs.; allspice 1 oz.; cinnamon i oz.; cloVes i oz.; all bruised or ground; molasses 2 qts., cold water 7i gals.; yeast 1 pt.
Boil the pulverized articles, for fifteen or twenty minutes, in the molasses; then strain into your keg, and add the water, then the yeast; shake it well together and bung down. If made over night it will be ready for use the next day. There ought to be a little space in the keg not filled with the beer. This beer is ahead of all the pops and mineral waters of the day, for flavor, health or sparkling qualities or speed in making. Be careful you do not burst the keg. In hot weather, draw in a pitcher with ice. I have jold this in the principal towns of Ohio, Indiana and Michigan, traveling with a caravan, and obtained two dollars for the recipe of the man who kept the inside stand, and blowcd the head out of the first keg of it which he made.

7. Corn Beer, Without Yeast.—Cold water 5 gals.; sound nice corn 1 qt.; molasses 2 qts.; put all into a keg of this sir*; shake well, and in 2 or 3 days a fermentation will have been brought on as nicely as with yeast. Keep it bunged tight.
It may be flavored with oils of spruce or lemon, if desired, by pouring on to the oils one or two quarts of the water, boiling hot. The corn will last five or six makings. If it gets too sour add more molasses and water in the same proportions. It is cheap, healthy, and no bother with yeast.

8. Strong Beer, English Improved.—Malt 1 peck; coarse brown sugar 6 lbs.; hops 4 oz.; good yeast 1 tea-cup; if you have not malt, take a little over 1 peck of barley, (twice the amount of oats will do, but are not as good,) and put it into an oven after the bread is drawn, or into a stove oven, and steam the moisture from them. Grind coarsely.
Now pour upon the ground malt 31 gals, of water at 170 or 172 °. of heat. The tub in which you scald the malt should have a false bottom, 2 or 3 inches from the real bottom; the false bottom should be bored full ot gimlet holes, so as to act as a strainer, to keep back the malt meal. When the water is poured on, stir them well, and let it stand 3 hours, and draw on by a faucet; put in 7 gals, more of water at 180 to 182°; stir it well, and let it stand 2 hours and draw it off. Thee put on a
fal. or two of cold water, stir it well and draw it off; you should ave about 5 or 6 gals. Put the 6 lbs. of coarse brown sugar in an equal amount of water; mix with the wort, and boil 11 to 2 hours with the hops; you should have eight gals, when boiled; when cooled to 80° put in the yeast, and let it work 18 to 20 hours, covered with a sack; use sound iron hooped kegs or porter bottles, bung or cork tight, and in two weeks it will be good sound beer, and will keep a long time; and for persons of a weak habit of body, and especially females, 1 glass of this with their meals is far better than tea or coffee, or all the ardent spirits in the universe. If more malt is used, not exceeding i a bushel, the beer, of course, would have more spirit, but this strength is sufficient for the use of families or invalids.
Source: Dr. Chase's Recipes or Information for everybody ©1866