of the English Protectorate, there were offered a number of petitions from English merchants who were anxious to obtain licenses to export malt to Virginia;[1] the quantity brought in steadily increased, the landowners in good circumstances purchasing it to be used in making beer. They also imported the beer itself. The poorest class of people had recourse to various expedients as a substitute for malt. They brewed with dried Indian corn or with bran and molasses; or they brewed with the baked cakes of the fruit of the persimmon tree; or with potatoes; or the green stalks of maize chopped into fine pieces and mashed; or with pumpkins; or the Jerusalem artichoke, which was planted like barley to be consumed in the manufacture of spirits. It is said, however, that the liquor made from this vegetable was not very much esteemed.[2] There are many references in the county records to malt-mills and also to malt-houses,[3] which were the private property of planters. Some owned distilleries,[4] others worms and limbecks.
- ↑ British State Papers, Colonial, vol. XIII, No. 12.
- ↑ Beverley’s History of Virginia, p. 238. The following letter relating to the importation of malt is preserved in the York Records:
- ↑ Reference has been made to the malt-house of Francis Page. Edmund Scarborough had also erected a house for this purpose. Records of Accomac County, original vol. 1666-1676, p. 31. The malt was generally kept in the cellars. Giles Mode writes in 1657 to Mr. Bushrod as follows: “I am sensible the mault you had in ye sellar was betwixt six and seven bushels. . . .” Records of York County, vol. 1657-1662, p. 48, Va. State Library.
- ↑ Records of Rappahannock County, vol. 1664-1673, p. 83, Va. State Library.
