♪♪ (music playing) ♪♪
Sam Kass:
We are in the
White House kitchen.
And we are very excited
because we are brewing our
second round of
White House beer.
This round we are actually
brewing another honey ale
and we are going to
brew a honey porter.
Brewing beer is becoming
a thing that Americans
are doing in their your homes
and garages across the country.
And the President certainly
thought it would be a good
idea to see if we can join the
American people in that time
honored tradition and brew
some of our own beer.
So we got the recipe
from a local brew master.
Matt Slateri helped us get
this going from the Navy mess,
and Charlie Brandts who
actually is our beekeeper
also who is at home
and gave us some tips.
We adapted our recipe and
really made it our own.
Tafari Campbell:
This is the steeping
grain for the honey porter.
So what you are doing
is you put this in the
beginning stages.
After that, you
add in the hops.
Each one is different.
Honey porter has
three stages of hops.
First we have to get
it up to 170 degrees.
We extract the flavors
from the grains.
And then we take
the grains out.
And then we add the
malt with the honey.
Sam Kass:
The official White House
beer cellar beer group,
check in on how
our beer is going.
I am not sure if any camera
has been down here before.
All right.
Welcome to the White
House beer room.
Here is the honey porter
and the honey brown.
We are monitoring temperature.
We are monitoring how often
the, we have bubbles.
So this will continue to
ferment for a few more days.
Then we'll transfer it into
these and let it distill.
Tafari Campbell:
I transferred the honey porter
into the second fermentor.
As it is siphoning like this,
you don't want to go too fast
creating a lot of air which
will make the beer taste bad.
They are all topped off.
You want to at least get the
water to the, to the neck.
Cap is back on it.
Now we wait.
Got it keep it
under lock and key.
You don't see any settlement
and that is due in part to that
screen that is at the
bottom of the siphoning.
Once it is in here, the only
thing that has to be done is
add the bottling sugar.
So now, we hope there is --
what you do is, you take the
beer bottle and you basically
you might have to fill it all
of the way to the top.
And once you remove the
bottle, the beer drops
automatically to
the right level.
You let it sit in the bottle
for another two to three weeks
and then from there, into the
refrigerator, and then it is
ready for consumption.
The only thing you have left
to do is put the labels on and
pop the top.
Sam Kass:
So this is the honey ale.
The President, inspired by brew
masters brewing in their homes
and garages all over
the country, wanted to
try this out.
And so he, he has paid for all
of the equipment and all of
the ingredients and our
chefs have worked on it
in our spare time.
And it has just become an
amazing new tradition here
at the White House.
There has been a long
history with presidents
in various out causes.
George Washington had a
whiskey distillery and he
brewed beer at Mount Vernon.
And Thomas Jefferson grew grapes
and made wine at Monticello.
But we asked the curators, is
there any history of brewing
or distilling here
at the White House?
And so they looked.
And it turns out that there
was some evidence of drinking
during prohibition, but beyond
that there is no evidence that
any beer or liquor has
been brewed or distilled.
So we are very proud of our,
of our new tradition here.
And we hope it last
for years to come.
God, that is one incredible
beer if I do say so myself.
America, I wish everybody
could taste this, but we --
we don't quite brew enough.
♪♪ (Hail to the Chief) ♪♪
