Old Jewish beer gets new life in Quebec

Long before bagels and smoked meat, there was beer.

In 1796, the first Jewish residents ofQuebec started brewing in Trois-Rivires,more than 130years before the Bronfmansbegan selling liquor.

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Now theold Hart family recipe is getting a new life, thanks to a little nudgefromthe Museum of Jewish Montreal and the skills of a modern day craftbrewery.

NathanMcNutt,master brewer at Montreal'sResevoirBrewery, has recreated Quebec's first Jewish beer and named it L'affaire Hart beer.

"We know that it was all barleymalt, no other adjuncts like sugar or corn or anything like that and it was Quebec hops," said McNutt,master brewer at Montreal's Resevoir Brewery.

And for those whofear it mighttastelike the beer equivalentofManischewitz, Kosher wine, they'rein for a surprise.

"I find it absolutely fantastic," saidMcNutt."It's a big malty beer, nothoppy,not bitter."

Not an easy recipe to follow

The recipe was sitting on the website of the Bibliotheque et Archives nationalesdu Qubecand discoveredby Toronto lawyer and beer blogger Gary Gillman.

Gillman wrote a blog entry aboutEzekiel Hartand the first Jewish brewery in Quebec. It caught the attention of the Museum of Jewish Montreal, which decided that someone had to brew it again.

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McNuttsaidit wasn't an easy recipe to follow.

"It was kind of vague," he said. "Itgave the ingredients and it gave some of the parameters of how it was brewed, but really what I was looking for is to re-create the technology at the time or the lack thereof."

"They didn't have indirect fire kilns, so their malt would be smokey tasting, so we we used someapple woodchips and smoked some of the malt."

Montreal brewer Nathan McNutt talks L'affaire Hart

8 years ago

Duration 0:58

Montreal brewer Nathan McNutt talks to CBC Montreal's Daybreak about L'affaire Hart, his re-creation of Quebec's first Jewish beer.

He said they had to opt for a wild yeast because at the time the recipe was invented, pure yeast cultures didn't exist.

"That gives it a very unique kind of flavour."

While all of the ingredients of the new brew are organic and despite the Jewish history behind it, the new beer is not kosher because the brewery did not have a rabbi oversee the process.