Major Thomas Fenner's Receipt to Make Bear

Classification: historical, 1700s

Source: Thomas Manteufel, (tomm@pet.med.ge.com) Issue #748, 10/25/91

Ingredients:

Original ingredients description: One ounce of Sentry Suckery or Sulindine one handful Red Sage or Large 1/4 Pound Shells of Iron Brused fine take 10 quarts of Water Steep it away to Seven and a quart of Molases Wheat Brand Baked Hard. one quart of Malt one handful Sweeat Balm Take it as Soone as it is worked.

Translated ingredients description:

One ounce of the dried leaves of the senna tree, chicory, or celandine.
One handful of red sage or crushed 1/4 pound shells of iron [which may be the hop-like fruit from an ironwood, Ostrya Virginica, also known as the hophornbeam. The ironwood is known as hophornbeam because the fruit it produces look so much like hop bracts, unlike the fruit of the American Hornbeam, which don't.]
10 quarts of water, boiled down to seven.
A quart of molasses.
A cake of hard baked wheat bran.
A quart of malt.
One handful of barm. [brewers yeast cake from a previous batch]

Procedure:

Drink it as soon as it's fermented.