MONTGOMERY, Ohio — JC Jordan is always cleaning. So much so, he sometimes feels like a janitor.
Once an engineer, he now makes beer at MPH Brewing. And his No. 1 job is to keep the mold away — especially in the summer. Jordan tells me this, standing over a few kegs he’s trying to get the gas out of.
“I cleaned most of these yesterday,” Jordan said. “And then today, I fill them back up.”
This beer will take you back 250 years. See why in the video below:
He takes some to a cooler near the kitchen, and he rolls a few more behind the bar.
“My job is mostly to make the yeast happy,” Jordan said. “Because it does the real work.”
Work that now involves making a beer that tastes like something people drank hundreds of years ago. At least as close as he can get.
Jordan got the recipe from a local group that wants to honor our country’s beginnings. Scott Freeman is the president of Cincinnati’s chapter of the Sons of the American Revolution. He’s the one who brought a homebrewed version of this beer to MPH Brewing.
“It’s kind of become my home away from home,” Freeman said. “It preserves the memory of those who founded the nation.”
Before he meets a friend inside the brewery in Montgomery, Freeman puts on an American Revolution tricorn hat. Then, he walks inside and orders a beer.
“I think I’ll try something else tonight,” Freeman said. “Just kidding. I’ll have the Monty Liberty.”
That's the recipe that came from a family member of one of his club’s members. Originally, it was called Yankee Ale and was given out as a reward for the chapter’s work in the community.
Because taverns played a huge role in the Revolutionary War, and bartenders often worked as spies.
“They were America’s first veterans,” Freeman said. “This is the beer they were drinking in America 250 years ago."
The bar's manager tells me it’s been the best-selling beer since they tapped it. Jordan doesn’t know if they’ll make it again, but Freeman gave him several other throwback recipes, too.
"Maybe I'll make all three of them," Jordan said.
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