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'Senate Beer' has history on tap

'It's the beer that people would've had in their refrigerators in Washington,' Kimberly Bender, Heurich House’s Executive Director, says.

WASHINGTON -- If you're looking for a beer with a taste of history, you're in luck. Beer experts have recreated a brew from the 1880s. 

The brew is Christian Heurich Brewing Company's Senate Lager. The 1872 brewery grew to be the largest in D.C., and even survived the Prohibition. 

While a fire in the 1938 consumed the brewery's archives, the staff at the Heurich House have preserved the brewery's history, which closed in 1956.

Historian and home-brewer Pete Jones came across a Korean War-era appeal by Heurich's son while searching through the National Archives. The appeal had lab reports from the 1940s detailing the recipe and brewing process for Senate Lager.

Credit: Kimberly Bender

"Our recreation of Senate Beer is very important and very historical for us because it is a document that was found in the National Archives that really talks through an original recipe for the beer," Bender said. "Otherwise we wouldn't have anything because of this fire."

The beer is a light lager with some bitterness, a member of the staff said. 

"It's the beer that people would've had in their refrigerators in Washington," Kimberly Bender, executive director of the Heurich House, said.

The historic beer draws history buffs and home-brewers alike.

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Credit: Kimberly Bender

"The reaction of people to the beer and the way the beer tastes is one of the most fun parts of this," Bender said. "They've been really excited about drinking it in this space with all of the Heurich Brewing memorabilia."

The museum near DuPont Circle us keeping the legacy alive, one beer at a time.

"They have a piece of the story in their hands while they're looking at the history," Bender said.

If you're interested in attending more events at the Heurich House Museum, check them out on Facebook. 

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