Article

Prohibition Pilsner

A Colorado brewer has resurrected a lager originally brewed during Prohibition in an illegal Chicago distillery owned by Al Capone.

“When you think of what people were drinking in those days, you tend to think of bathtub gin,” says Sandy Jones, president and brewmaster of HC Berger Brewing Co. “But the beer was really pretty decent.”

Jones, who claims to have one of the world’s largest collections of memorabilia from the 1930s (Bonnie and Clyde, John Dillinger, etc.), proved this to himself and those who frequent his Ft. Collins microbrewery when a fellow collector from Chicago sent Jones a 1924 recipe for the lager. “It supposedly came from the Sieben Brewery, which was owned by Capone,” he says. Wanting to see what beer was like “back then,” he decided to homebrew a batch before committing his microbrewery to the task.

Brewing that first batch, he says, was “unmitigated hell.”

“We have a single-infusion mashing system, and the recipe calls for a step mash. So we had to step mash in a single-infusion system, which we did very successfully.”

In addition to six-row malt and rice, the recipe calls for another ingredient that is, well, different. “Soy beans,” says Jones. “Back then, in the Midwest, they were probably used as a filler. And because it was Prohibition, bringing in truckloads of soy beans to a warehouse in Chicago probably didn’t attract as much attention as bringing in truckloads of malt would have.”

His test batch of what would later come to be known as “Prohibition Pilsner” turned out to be a pretty good lager, he says. “It was a typical speakeasy beer, with overtones of a German pilsner.”

The big test came when he took a bottle from that first batch to a gentleman in Ft. Collins who had consumed the beer during Prohibition. “He said, ‘Yep, that’s it—tastes just like Canadian Ace,’” says Jones.

With that vote of confidence, he decided to add the beer to his brewpub menu. “We wanted to brew a historical beer that the public could taste and realize was better than what they thought beer was like back then.”

When brewed commercially, it turned out to be a really good lager, he adds. “It sold well. We even had some ‘Prohibition Pilsner’ freaks.” Many customers liked the fact that it was a lager rather than an ale. “So many of us microbrewers just do ales,” he says.

The brewery no longer makes Prohibition Pilsner, but if you want to try this beer originally brewed by gangsters, Jones has shared his recipe and homebrewing instructions.

Just don’t forget the soy beans.

Al Capone’s Beer — Recipe from Chicago 1924

(5-gallon/19-L all-grain batch)
O.G. – 1.040, T.G. 1.010

Ingredients:
• 6 lbs. six-row lager malt
• 2 lbs. rice (ground)
• 1/2 lbs. soy grits (from health food store)

Step by Step:
1. Cook rice in 1 gallon plus 3 cups water for 30 minutes.
2. Preheat mash tun and add 1 3/4 gallons of 120˚F water.
3. Adjust rice temperature to 190˚F with 1 gallon of hot water.
4. Add rice to mash tun and immediately mash in malt and soy grits.
5. The temperature should end up between 150 and 155˚F.
6. Hold at 150-155˚F for 1 hour and 30 minutes.
7. Sparge with 165˚F water to collect 5 1/2 gallons of wort.
8. Boil wort for 1 hour using the following hop schedule:
• 60 minutes – 1 1/2 oz. of 6%     alpha-acid Hersbrucker
• 30 minutes – 1/2 oz. of 5%   alpha-acid Hallertauer
• 10 minutes – 1/8 oz. of 6%   alpha-acid Hersbrucker
9. Add 1/2 oz. of Hallertauer after turning off the boil and cover brew kettle.
10. Cool to 55˚F.
11. Pitch with about 14 grams Red Star lager Yeast (remember this is 1924).
12. Ferment & Condition at 55˚F.
13. Bottle with 3/4 – 1 cup of priming sugar.

For a better brew:
• Underlet prior to sparge to make run-off easier.
• Use soft brewing water (this is a Pilsner-style beer, after all).
• Add 1 tsp. Irish moss 20 minutes before the end of boil.
• Transfer to secondary keg for natural carbonation when gravity is about 1.016.

Issue: June 1995