begins! Have fun, Brewers! And, drinking those patriotic brewskis!

Thanks bigtree~

Haven't brewed a batch for some 12 years but these recipes look too yummy!

I'll bet the Obamas would have quite a following with this and the honey and other food products they produce at the White House, similar to a Newman's Own brand.

First, hint that the president may have put a brewery in the White House. Then once curiosity is aroused, release the recipes as an excuse to mention it again. This appeals to college students and working class types, and goes right to the question of whom you'd rather have a beer with. Yet it soft-pedals it as if to tread lightly around the obvious disadvantage Mormons have in this regard.

I got ten bucks says this was Axelrod's brainchild.

What are the specific gravities at start of ferment, end of primary and end of secondary fermentations?

Other than that, I love it...not only is this a president you'd want to have a beer with, you'd want to have the president's beer.

I know very little, especially about the 'gravities at start of ferment.' Hope someone comes on and advises . . . maybe a brew blog can nail it down.

... it's got to be pretty high. Not sure it really matters if you're just following a recipe.

Especially if you let it go too low; too low SG means the yeast has fermented too much sugar into alcohol, giving you a beer with no body.

My grandfather used to make dago red without a hydrometer...because he was relying on the old "taste it and when it's getting good, leave it in the barrel another day" method, he made vinegar more times than you want to think about. You tend to get your ass kicked when the family comes over to try this year's batch and finds it on their salads.

Taking hydrometer readings before and after fermentation is how you can know the alcohol content, but that's only important if your trying to meet the standards of a particular style. I never worried about that. The other typical use for a hydrometer is to know when the fermentation is finished, but what I always read was that when you got the same reading three days in a row, it was finished -- never heard of it being "too low." I did use that method my first few batches, but when one batch got "skunked" it occurred to me it might have been infected while taking the samples. That (plus hating to waste a few ounces on each sample) convinced me to just use the method of watching the airlock for no bubbles for a few minutes and waiting a day or two after that. That seems to work okay, since you're going to add more sugar and let it ferment in the bottle a couple more weeks, anyway. If the main fermentation wasn't finished, you might end up with a fizzy beer, which is why I'd give it an extra day or two, but I'd rather take that risk than the extra opportunities for infection, which is the more likely reason your grandfather's beer went wrong sometimes.

want

I wonder if there are any commercial honey ales available?

good info though!