Beer History – What If Abe Lincoln Was A Craft Beer Guy?

It’s President’s Day and we thought we’d explore how American history might have been different had craft beer been around…

And it’d not like American Presidents didn’t…Some drank a lot…John Adams drank beer for breakfast!

Obama was said to have brewed a craft beer in the White House (but most likely he directed his staff to brew something presidential).

But since President Trump doesn’t drink (certainly not Russian Imperial Stout), we expect this trend will be on hold for the next couple of years.

Which gives us time to consider how history might have been completely different had Honest Abe been a craft beer fan.

Is it possible that Abraham Lincoln might have actually avoided his fateful end at Ford’s Theater on April 14, 1865 had he been a serious craft beer drinker? After all Lincoln was still reeling from the brutal aftermath of the Civil War…the dude seriously needed a beer.

And overwhelmed by Reconstruction worries he probably would have slept a hell of a lot better with a decent IPA by his bedside.

Some presidential scholars have reported Lincoln actually had a nightmare about his own assassination three days prior to the event.

In fact Lincoln told his biographer, Ward Hill Lamon, about the dream he’d had where he saw people mourning over his body.

Honestly, Honest Abe rarely drank beer at all. And when he did he stuck with lagers due to his doctor’s orders and the fact that Stone Brewing didn’t introduce Arrogant Bastard Ale until 1995.

But if craft beer had been a thing back in 1865, surely Lincoln would have made a pit-stop at his favorite DC tavern where he could power-pound a couple high-octane IPAs before sitting through another evening of sub-par community theater.

And fueled on a hefty pre-theatrical buzz, Lincoln might have started to put the pieces together: spooky death dream + it being Good Friday + having just saved the union from destruction + a stupid play…and thought “Fuck This!”

After all, who need another obligatory evening at the Ford Theater when you could be drinking a decent Smoked Porter?

If Lincoln had been a craft beer guy, he’d have just blown off the play entirely and spent the night with something barrel-aged night his favorite watering hole…and why not?

Then John Wilkes Booth would have come up empty-handed, and Lincoln could have had a potentially history-changing run…

Sure Mary Todd Lincoln would have been pissed at Abe for a while (but she’d get over it). And besides it beats the alternative….right?