Sparging The News: President Obama, Homebrewer?

In Beer News by Karl

When it merits, GuysDrinkingBeer will bring you the relevant, generally-Chicago-centric information about what you’ll be imbibing around town, including this story about President Obama Homebrew.  Here’s what’s running through our Mash Tun of Information:

So, how was your Superbowl shindig?  Ours?  Oh, not bad – just a small social gathering with some Hopstoopid, a well-travelled Cigar City Jai Alai IPA and a similarly well-traveled offering of Holy Mackerel and a Yazoo Brew as well.  Not that we’re bragging or anything, but those paired awfully well with the multiple pans of BBQ Pulled Pork Nachos and our Upscale Nachos Bel Grande we made for the gathering.

Photo credit to Pete Souza/White House and Obama Foodorama.

One thing we were lacking was some homebrew made especially for the event.  If we were on the guest list for the White House Superbowl Party, that would not have been an issue.  If the phrase “President Obama, Homebrewer” never entered your head before today, wrap your brain around this:

In a special turn of events in the history of White House food creations, one of the White House chefs has brewed White House Honey Ale, a White House aide exclusively tipped ObFo. It uses one pound of honey from this year’s 160-pound harvest of honey from the White House Bee Hive, which sits beside Mrs. Obama’s South Lawn Kitchen Garden.

ObFo is Obama Foodorama,* and they’re reporting today on the introduction of some homebrew to the White House.  The White House Honey Ale was served alongside Hinterland and Yuengling, representing each team’s native beers.  We like Yuengling well enough, but no Iron City, huh?  How about some Senator Keg beer, effectively renamed “Obama” in Kenya?  Anyways.

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Our favorite tidbit of brewing info from the Foodorama post is this:

The Obamas paid for the micro-brewing equipment, the aide noted, so there’s no impact on the national debt.

While the debt info is no doubt causing sighs of relief throughout the Tea Party, the idea of a few carboys, kettles and blowoff valves floating around the White House residence tickles us in happy places.  We’re not quite the homebrewers we wish we were, but we’ve got at least 2 years and probably 6 to hone our skills – and Mr. President, if you want to hang out in your garage some afternoon and brew up another batch, give us a holler.  We’ll be there.

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While we’d love to get our hands on just one of these extremely limited edition beers (and the thought of J.Lo getting her hands on one while we don’t is mildly infuriating – but no one ever said celebrity didn’t have its perks), if we’re lucky the White House will at least post the recipe online for future election nights and potential inauguration celebration brews.  They’re pretty transparent – and if not, how about posting a photo of the President enjoying a White House Honey at the game on your Flickr stream?

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All politics aside (or as much as humanly possible), it’s pretty awesome to have a President that not only enjoys a good beer every now and again, but has a crew that boils and sparges and bottles inside the White House.  Very cool.

*We were totally going to start an Obama Food Blog called “First Foodie” but never did, but we’re very glad O-F is picking up our slack.

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About the Author

Karl

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Karl has written about food, travel and beer for Chicago Magazine, Thrillist, Time Out Chicago, AskMen and more. His book, Beer Lovers Chicago, is now available via Amazon and other booksellers. If you're buying, he's likely having a porter or a pale ale.

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