Although alcohol fermentation is not strange to POTUSes (Washington distilled whiskey and Jefferson made wine), brewing beer actually at the White House have never happened in the Union’s first few hundred years.
In 2011, however, then President Barack Obama decided to buy a home brewing kit to try making the White House’s very own beer. Promoting housemade or craft food was a longtime feature of the first couple – in 2009, the First Lady opened part of the estate as a vegetable garden as part of her nutrition campaign, and the first beehives of the grounds were set up at that same year.
The first batch of the White House Honey Ale was served at – not surprisingly – a Super Bowl party, and by 2012, the executive branch could pride themselves with three different beer. These were the White House Honey Ale, the White House Honey Porter and the White House Honey Brown. Publishing their recipes was quite unusual as well. Two attorneys, who were – what a coincidence – homebrewers too, sent separate Freedom of Information Act requests, which resulted in the full disclosure of the recipes on the White House Blog.
To feel as the most powerful man of the planet, try out the White House Honey beers’ recipes on this link:
https://obamawhitehouse.archives.gov/blog/2012/09/01/ale-chief-white-house-beer-recipe
