Coloradan taps into ale history to honor Franklin:
Special brew made for 300th birthday of Founding Father
Special to the News ©
By John Accola, Rocky Mountain News
January 4, 2006
Tony Simmons loves beer and history.
Turns out those two passions propelled the brewer from Pagosa
Springs to center stage in Philadelphia, where the city is
celebrating the 300th birthday of its most famous resident,
Benjamin Franklin.
"It's an incredible honor," said Simmons, creator
of a special beer brewed for Franklin's 300th birthday bash
Jan. 17. "He was truly an amazing guy. A real Renaissance
man."
As of last week, more than 100 commercial microbreweries
in Colorado and 34 other states were using Simmons' recipe
to brew their own batches of Poor Richard's Ale - all part
of a national January promotion organized by the Colorado-based
Brewers Association.
Association spokesman Ray Daniels said the multibrewing effort
"recalls the coming together of America's colonies to
form a new nation under Franklin's influence."
"The goal is to have enough of it on tap for January
17 so that everyone can raise a toast to Ben Franklin,"
Simmons said Tuesday.
The craft beer was concocted to emulate the ale of Franklin's
day and presumably the inspiration behind his famous quote
"Beer is living proof that God loves us and wants to
see us happy."
Simmons, whose speciality is historic beers, is quick to
note that Franklin - the prolific inventor and Founding Father
who penned some of the most popular newspaper columns in Philadelphia
and Boston - was both a thinker and a drinker.
In his "design statement" to the Franklin beer
selection committee, Simmons recommended an alcoholic content
of 6.6 percent, which he surmised was effective as a healthful
tonic after one or two pints but not so excessively strong
as to hinder intellectual conversation at one's local tavern.
Simmons, who plans to open his own microbrewery in Pagosa
Springs this year, submitted his Franklin-inspired suds with
scores of other hobby-brewer entries last September at a tasting
competition at the Great American Beer Festival in Denver.
The judges, including representatives of Philadelphia's Franklin
Tercentenary, were impressed with Simmons' research and attention
to historic detail.
For authenticity, Simmons said he used molasses and corn,
locally grown ingredients that were readily available in the
Colonies.
For yeast selection, he chose a low-to-moderate English or
Scottish yeast strain, noting commercial production of yeast
in America didn't begin until the 1860s.
Simmons described the final product as having a "complex
aroma with a pleasant malty, corny and slightly nutty character"
enhanced by the molasses.
The name of the ale comes from Franklin's Poor Richard's
Almanak, which was published in the mid-1700s.
Rockyard American Grill & Brewing Co. in Castle Rock
is among the nine Colorado microbreweries participating in
the Franklin promotion.
Rockyard brewmaster James Stinson said he used Simmons' recipe
to brew nine barrels, or roughly 18 beer kegs.
"I was able to pull some of it out and put it into an
old whiskey barrel, so that may pick up a few woody notes,"
Stinson said. "It's not overly bitter. I'd say it's a
balance of slightly sweet. I want it to lay down for a while
and get some good maturing."
Stinson said January isn't a particularly good month for
breweries, with the exception of New Year's celebrations.
At $3.50 a pint, he figures a Poor Richard's Ale toast to
Franklin is a worthy cause for one of America's earliest industries.
Said Stinson, "That saying of his that beer is living
proof that there is a God . . . I figure that kinda overrides
that he wanted the turkey to be the national bird."
A list of retail sites is on a Web site set up by the Brewers
Association, www.poorrichardsale.com
Good for what ales you
Poor Richard's Ale, brewed to celebrate Benjamin Franklin's
300th birthday, could be similar in gravity and strength to
Franklin's favorite type of beer. In Franklin's words, that's
"the type of strong, harvest-time ale, or October ale,"
according to Tony Simmons, head brewer of Pagosa Springs Brewing
Co., who created Poor Richard's Ale after some pretty extensive
research.
"My recipe for Poor Richard's Ale is a well-rounded,
moderately strong ale. It has a medium copper to light brown
color," Simmons says.
"Poor Richard's Ale has a complex aroma with a pleasant
malty, corny and slightly nutty character, enhanced by a slight
molasses-spiced undertone that adds an almost fine tobaccolike
quality."
Source: www.poorrichardsale.com
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