What You Didn't Know About George Washington's Favorite Beer
George Washington was many things — victorious general, Founding Father, first president of the United States — but he was also a man who loved his booze. While consuming alcohol daily was commonplace during the Colonial era, Washington managed to put away an impressive amount of it. He had a well-known fondness for fortified wines such as Madeira, often drinking a bottle a day. On special occasions, he enjoyed the citrusy and very strong Fish House Punch, rumored to have given him a wicked hangover on one memorable occasion, and the brandy-based Cherry Bounce, Washington's favorite cocktail. But it was beer that was Washington's all-time favorite beverage that he enjoyed daily.
His favorite style of beer was relatively new to the scene and was the first to be exported around the world: dark English porter. First brewed in London, England, sometime in the 1720s (a decade before Washington's birth), it eventually became the type of beer favored by the working class, with the beer's name allegedly coming from the hard-working porters of London who enjoyed this hearty beer. Porter arrived in the American Colonies in the 1740s and became popular Stateside. Before the mid-1760s, when John Mercer became the first American to brew porter commercially, Washington had to get his porter shipped from England. In the year 1760 alone, he had the equivalent of 65 gallons shipped from one London brewer.
Washington's favorite American brewer
Porter came about by accident. In order to avoid rising taxes on beer ingredients, London brewers began brewing lower alcohol beer, but had to add more hops so it wouldn't sour. They also switched to cheap fire-roasted malt that meant the beer had to be aged for several months to get the smoky flavor out. This all resulted in a full-flavored, smooth-tasting beer that became popular not only in England, but in all her far flung colonies.
Even before the American Revolution, George Washington had been supplementing his imported English porter with the beer from John Mercer's brewery in Northern Virginia. After the American colonies called it quits with England, Washington only bought American-made porters and turned to a Philadelphia brewer for his fix. Brewer Robert Hare became Washington's favorite brewer. The English-born Hare arrived in Philadelphia in 1773 and two years later was brewing his porter that became an instant hit. Hare provided the first U.S. president with all the porter he needed until his brewery burned down in 1790. Washington didn't go without. There's evidence he brewed his own porter at his estate at Mount Vernon.