BOULDER, Colo. — Travis Rupp is a beer archaeologist.
Yup. That is a real job. And it is something he does full time at Avery Brewing Company in Boulder, Colo.
“I tend to do stuff that’s way more ancient, like thousands of years old,” Rupp said.
While Rupp, a lecturer in CU Boulder’s classics department, has researched beer recipes that date back to 1350 BCE, his latest findings are a little more current.
“Our marketing team said, ‘I know you like that ancient, old stuff, but is there any way that you’d be willing to work on something more historic American, and bring it more back home?’” Rupp said.
He followed their lead, and traveled east to do some digging into what George Washington brewed and drank 250 years ago.
“What I wanted to do was dive in a little more from a scholarly perspective, and actually try to recreate the beer a little more according to the methodology he would use, the equipment he might use, and actually make a beer in the way they might have done it in the 18th century,” Rupp said.
Rupp, and the team at Avery, came up with George Washington Porter-- just in time for President’s Day.
“They did brew beer at Washington’s estate, but we don’t’ know if he ever brewed porter,” Rupp said. “We do know he bought a lot of porter, so a lot of our research was where he was buying it, how they were producing it, where their ingredients were coming from.”
As Avery’s Research and Development Manager and Beer Archaeologist, Rupp has helped Avery with their Ales of Antiquity series, which started in September 2016. The porter is their newest creation in the series, and the first available in cans at the taproom.
“It’s pretty awesome to have him on the team, coming up with these very random, archaic recipes that are super fun, but very challenging to make,” said Fred Rizzo, Avery’s director of brewing operations. “It’s really cool that he was able to travel to DC and go onto the homestead and get all this wild information and look through his [Washington’s] notes on making beer.”
Rupp said all of the Ales of Antiquity are challenging to brew on a modern brew system, but with tweaks, the brewery has been able to come up with seven beers since their series started. The porter is in the style of a brown porter, which Ruup said, not many people make anymore.
As for what Washington might think of this beer?
“I think he’d be completely flabbergasted by the technology we have employed to make it, but I actually think he might be kind of proud of what’s come of it,” Rupp said.
To learn more about Avery’s George Washington Porter and other Ales of Antiquity, go to their website.
SUGGESTED VIDEOS | Next with Kyle Clark