Virginia brewery taps 300-year-old beer recipe

What do you get when you combine water, American persimmons and hops and ferment it with yeast? A beer based on a 300-year-old recipe scribbled in a cookbook kept by Virginia's prominent Randolph family. Ardent Craft Ales in Richmond recently brewed "Jane's Percimon Beer" unearthed from the book in the Virginia Historical Society's collections from the 1700s that contains food, medicinal remedies and beer recipes. The formula for the Colonial-era concoction is one of thousands of alcoholic recipes in the society's collection that provide a glimpse into what Virginians and others were drinking in the 18th century and other points in history. "You can feel a connection across time when you're drinking something that maybe hasn't been drunk for a couple hundred years," said Paul Levengood, president and CEO of the Virginia Historical Society, a privately funded nonprofit that collects, preserves and interprets the state's history. "It's a fun way to bring the past into the present." The libation is considered a table beer, clocking in at an extremely easy-drinking 3 percent or less of alcohol by volume. That would be pretty typical of alcoholic beverages of the time that were enjoyed with many meals. In 1790, annual per-capita alcohol consumption for those over age 15 was 34 gallons of beer and cider, five gallons of distilled spirits and one gallon of wine, according to US government figures cited in an article in the "Colonial Williamsburg" history magazine...more

 Damn, I'd like to "feel a connection" right now.