Great Moments in American Beer History 美國啤酒史上的偉大時刻

扎克·麥克 唐靜

There is something undeniably American about the philosophy of drinking a beer. It’s the everyman’s drink to be enjoyed during backyard celebrations， or baseball games， or while watching moon landings， or simply as a reward for finishing mowing the lawn. It’s a beverage ingrained in our national ethos， passed around by intramural softball champions and Super Bowl winners alike. To hell with apple pie： beer is what makes America gleam.

In honor of the Fourth， we’ve compiled some of our favorite moments in American beer history. Swap them at your holiday BBQ. Pass them along to your favorite bartender. Shout them out while watching fireworks. Because knowledge is power， and as a man named Abraham Lincoln once said： “If given the truth， [the people] can be depended upon to meet any national crisis. The great point is to bring them the real facts—and beer.”

Native Americans were making beer long before European settlers arrived

Archaeologists have discovered fragments of pottery that prove that ancient Pueblos were brewing beer in New Mexico as far back as the 13th century， more than 300 years before Spanish settlers arrived in the area. The brew was made using corn， similar to a weak beer tribes in Arizona and Mexico made called tiswin. Thanksgiving， it seems， was much more fun than the old paintings let on.

America’s first public brewery opened in 1612 in New Amsterdam

Even though colonists in Virginia had been making beer for personal use for years， it wasn’t until Adrian Block and Hans Christiansen opened their doors in New Amsterdam that a public brewery stood on North American soil， right at the southern tip of Manhattan. As perhaps what you could call a pretty good omen， the first brewer ever born in the New World （and purportedly the first non-Native American male born in New Amsterdam） was delivered right in the brewhouse. There’s no record on what eventually happened to the brewery， but most believe it was priced out of the neighborhood by a chain drugstore1.

The Pilgrims landed on Plymouth Rock because they were running out of beer

Anyone who has been through primary school has learned the story of the Mayflower， and anyone who has picked up a history book since has learned that the actual events were pretty different than the kid version. One huge difference？ The Pilgrims themselves actually had plans to sail south to Virginia after landing on Cape Cod， but were forced to land at Plymouth Rock as they were running out of vital supplies， chief among them being beer.

The founding fathers were big on beer in both their personal and professional lives

Does it really come as a surprise that there was beer on the minds of the architects of the United States？ At a time when drinking water was a risky proposition， brew was considered a safe alternative to death by dysentery. George Washington insisted his continental army be permitted a quart of beer as part of their daily rations during the Revolutionary War （and luckily for them， Congress agreed and upheld the request）.

But even outside of troop sustenance， George Washington was known for both buying beer （kind of ironically， it was often English porter） and using homebrewing as a means of providing their households with beer. According to the Mount Vernon Historical Society， there was a recipe written in his handwriting discovered on the last page of a notebook he kept.

Thomas Jefferson， always the showboat， went even further with his devotion to homebrew. After retiring from public life to Monticello， he quickly developed an interest in producing his own beer， right down to roasting his own malts. Naturally， word spread and his brew became so popular that the sitting governor of Virginia and sitting President James Madison both requested his recipes （to which he replied， “No way， Jose，” or something similar in his Jeffersonian wit）.

James Madison tried to make beer a federally official thing

Leave it to ol’ One-Upmanship James Madison to try to take the beer spotlight from the rest of the founding fathers！ Early during his first term in 1809， he proposed the creation of a national brewery to ensure the country had a reliable supply of beer for the masses. He even proposed to have it overseen by an appointed Secretary of Beer who would sit on his cabinet. Of course， this may have less to do with his love for beer and more with the fact that he was trying to 1） protect the domestic beer market by undercutting imports with tariffs， and 2） make beer more popular than whiskey， which he found to be a huge drag on families and society in general. In any case， it didn’t matter： party-pooper Congress rejected his idea， denying it from ever taking off.

The oldest bar in the country predates the actual country itself by over a century

Long before craft beer bars were in vogue， or before we had really delved into the idea that “hey， maybe the British aren’t so great，” someone in Rhode Island got the idea to open a tavern. And that’s why in 1673， the White Horse Tavern in Newport opened its doors and became an active participant in early American history. Colonial councilmen gathered here， charging their beer- and spirit-fueled lunches to the public treasury， while Hessianic mercenaries （or German soldiers paid to police the British colonies） drank nearby. And it was run by a pirate for while！ These days， the German mercenaries are long gone， but it does serve crazy-good seafood and kick-ass local beer.

In the 1980s， a beer-drinking goat was elected mayor of a town in Texas

Perhaps as proof that people are willing to vote for anyone with a schtick， the small town of Lajitas， TX once elected a beer-swilling goat as their town’s leader in the late ’80s. Henry Clay was famous for taking a long-neck bottle of Lone Star beer from tourists， upending it in his own mouth， and spitting the bottle to the ground when it was finished. He was viewed as a firm-yet-benevolent leader by his people until he was killed by his own son in a heated act of jealousy.

Obama is the first to brew his own beer in the White House

Since George Washington never actually lived there， and since every president in between was more a “bodega run” kind of guy， Obama’s homebrew program marks the first time a sitting president has made his own beer in the White House. Public interest in the brew has been intense ever since he got a homebrew kit for the kitchen during his first year in office... so much so that two lawyers actually requested the recipes be made public under the Freedom of Information Act. And they won！

討論喝啤酒的哲學，必有美國人的一席之地。人人都好這一口，后花園家庭聚會、棒球比賽，或者大到觀看登月，小到只是剪完草坪犒勞自己，隨時都愛喝。這一飲品根植于美國國家精神，由校園壘球賽冠軍和超級碗獲勝者代代傳承。讓蘋果派見鬼去吧：啤酒才讓美國熠熠生輝。

為紀念獨立日，我們摘編了美國啤酒史上一些喜聞樂見的花絮，大家可以在假日燒烤時聊聊，給你喜歡的酒吧店員講講，觀看煙花的時候吼吼。知識就是力量嘛，有個名叫亞伯拉罕·林肯的人曾經說過：“若曉之以真相，在民族危亡之際，則可信賴于人民。重要的是，要給他們真正的事實——和啤酒。”

美國土著早在歐洲殖民者到來前就開始釀造啤酒

考古學家已發現的陶片證明，早在13世紀，古代普韋布洛人就曾在新墨西哥釀造啤酒，300多年后，西班牙殖民者才抵達這一地區。這種啤酒用玉米釀成，類似于亞利桑那和墨西哥一些部落釀造的一款叫作提斯溫的淡啤酒。以前的感恩節似乎要比一些老畫兒描述的更歡樂。

美國第一家大眾啤酒廠于1612年在新阿姆斯特丹開業

盡管弗吉尼亞的殖民者多年釀造啤酒，但屬于私釀，直到阿德里安·布洛克和漢斯·克里斯琴森在新阿姆斯特丹開門營業，北美土地上才算有了第一家大眾啤酒廠，就坐落在曼哈頓的最南端。或許是個所謂的好兆頭吧，恰好就在這家酒廠，誕生了新世界第一個釀酒師，據說也是新阿姆斯特丹出生的第一個非土著美國男孩。這家酒廠最終命運如何，沒有記錄可尋，但大多數人覺得是一家連鎖雜貨店利用價格戰把它擠出了這片地方。

清教徒前輩移民在普利茅斯巖上岸是因為啤酒喝光了

上過小學的人都知道“五月花”號的故事，不過后來再拿起一本歷史書學習的人都會了解到，實情和孩提時知道的截然不同。最大差異在哪？清教徒前輩移民在科德角登陸后，其實本來計劃向南航行到弗吉尼亞，但不得不在普利茅斯巖上岸，因為重要的補給耗盡——主要是啤酒喝光了。

美國開國元勛無論公開還是私下都是啤酒膩子

美國奠基者的心里一直裝著啤酒，這應該不足為怪吧？那段時間，喝水是件危險的事，為避免得痢疾而亡，大家認為喝啤酒相對安全。美國獨立戰爭期間，喬治·華盛頓堅持他的大陸軍須每天配給一夸脫啤酒作為口糧。所幸，國會同意并支持了這一要求。

即使不在部隊吃飯，喬治·華盛頓愛喝啤酒也是出了名的，不僅買酒喝（有點兒諷刺的是，他經常買英式波特黑啤），還在家自釀啤酒。據弗農山歷史協會介紹，在華盛頓保存的一個筆記本的最后一頁上，有他手寫的釀酒配方。

托馬斯·杰斐遜愛出風頭，對于家釀啤酒如癡如醉，造詣更深。從公職退下來回到蒙蒂塞洛以后，他很快找到了自己的興趣，生產一款自己的啤酒，甚至自己烘焙麥芽。自然，消息一傳開，他的啤酒大受歡迎，時任弗吉尼亞州州長和時任總統詹姆斯·麥迪遜都向他討要啤酒配方，他一概拒絕，要么回復“沒門，各位”，要么靠他杰裴遜式的機智做出類似回答。

詹姆斯·麥迪遜試圖把啤酒升級為“國營”

詹姆斯·麥迪遜總覺得自己高人一等，他當仁不讓地試圖要把閃耀在開國元勛身上的啤酒聚光燈轉移到自己身上來！1809年第一任期之初，他就提議創辦一家國家啤酒廠，以確保全國老百姓獲得穩定充足的啤酒供應。他甚至建議任命一位啤酒部長來入駐內閣，監管此事。當然，他這么做與他熱衷喝啤酒關系不大，主要是因為：1）他想靠關稅來削減進口，從而保護國內啤酒市場;2）他想讓啤酒比威士忌更受歡迎，因為他認為后者拖累了社會和家庭的總體發展。不管怎么說，這都不重要了：不識好歹的國會拒絕了他的想法，計劃還沒起步就徹底夭折。

美國最古老酒吧的建立比美國建國還要早100來年

早在精釀啤酒盛行之前，或在我們真正開始琢磨“嘿，或許英國人也沒那么偉大”之前，羅德島就有人突發奇想，要開一家酒館。于是乎，1673年，紐波特白馬酒館開張，它也成了早期美國歷史的積極參與者。殖民政府各議長在此高談闊論，觥籌交錯，頓頓午餐都酒足飯飽，然后用公款記賬，附近還有黑森雇傭軍（即花錢雇來保護英國殖民地的德國兵）喝得酩酊大醉。有一陣，酒館竟然是個海盜在經營！如今，德國雇傭軍早已消失，不過酒館的海鮮是真好，啤酒也是真棒。

1980年代，喝啤酒的山羊當選得克薩斯州某鎮鎮長

得克薩斯州拉希塔斯小鎮曾在1980年代末選出一只狂飲啤酒的山羊當鎮長，或許人們是想證明他們愿意推選任何能鬧出點噱頭的人物吧。這只山羊名叫亨利·克雷，因喝啤酒而聞名——它會接過游客給的長頸瓶裝孤星牌啤酒，咬住酒瓶倒立嘴中，一飲而盡，然后把酒瓶吐到地上。小鎮居民覺得它是個堅定且仁慈的領導，不過后來它兒子因嫉妒它而行為過激，把它殺了。

奧巴馬是第一位在白宮自釀啤酒的總統

因為喬治·華盛頓事實上根本沒在白宮住過，還因為后來的每一任總統更多像“開酒窖”的，所以奧巴馬的家釀啤酒項目就標志著他成為第一位在白宮自釀啤酒的在任總統。入主白宮第一年，他就給廚房置辦了一整套家釀設備，引發民眾對他釀酒的強烈關注……甚至真的有兩名律師根據《信息自由法案》要求他把啤酒配方公之于眾。他們竟然成功了！? ?□