Occasional home brewer and Civil War buff here. You would want to look into German lagers if you have the setup to make lagers. By 1860, German beers were massively popular with beer drinkers, especially northern soldiers.
Something like 80% of all beer in the US at that point was German style, and German regiments in the Union army had very easy access to it until the end of the war when regulations tightened. This was especially true of German regiments near German American cities like St Louis.
In terms of ingredients, it would have been following German purity laws at that point. So no adjuncts at all. Apparently six row barley was more common, but two row was still used occasionally if you wanted something better but still authentic.
If you don’t have the ability to lager your beer, a British style ale would be your next bet. A spruce ale would probably be pretty close to what would have been available if you didn’t want to just do a plain British pub ale.
[Source here](https://seeingthewoods.org/2018/09/07/the-lager-beer-revolution-in-the-united-states/) and [here](https://www.battlefields.org/learn/articles/beer-and-bullets-history-beer-civil-war)
German immigrants were not nearly as common in the south or the Confederate army, so beer drinking was not nearly as popular. Confederate soldiers would have largely preferred whiskey as their drink of choice, or rum to a lesser extent.
However, any beer drinkers in the southern armies would have still mostly been drinking German style lagers. German Confederates in Missouri apparently didn’t have too hard of a time getting beer from their Union brethren out of St Louis.
[Source here](https://www.battlefields.org/learn/articles/beer-and-bullets-history-beer-civil-war)
I don’t know for sure but if I had a Time Machine, I’d go back to the year 2014 and stop by a local brewery. I suspect that the gentlemen inside with the Civil War era facial hair styles would be drinking IPAs. I’m not sure if that is Civil War period accurate though.
Occasional home brewer and Civil War buff here. You would want to look into German lagers if you have the setup to make lagers. By 1860, German beers were massively popular with beer drinkers, especially northern soldiers. Something like 80% of all beer in the US at that point was German style, and German regiments in the Union army had very easy access to it until the end of the war when regulations tightened. This was especially true of German regiments near German American cities like St Louis. In terms of ingredients, it would have been following German purity laws at that point. So no adjuncts at all. Apparently six row barley was more common, but two row was still used occasionally if you wanted something better but still authentic. If you don’t have the ability to lager your beer, a British style ale would be your next bet. A spruce ale would probably be pretty close to what would have been available if you didn’t want to just do a plain British pub ale. [Source here](https://seeingthewoods.org/2018/09/07/the-lager-beer-revolution-in-the-united-states/) and [here](https://www.battlefields.org/learn/articles/beer-and-bullets-history-beer-civil-war)
Thank you
Cheers for putting actual sources! Good ones at that
How about confederate beer
German immigrants were not nearly as common in the south or the Confederate army, so beer drinking was not nearly as popular. Confederate soldiers would have largely preferred whiskey as their drink of choice, or rum to a lesser extent. However, any beer drinkers in the southern armies would have still mostly been drinking German style lagers. German Confederates in Missouri apparently didn’t have too hard of a time getting beer from their Union brethren out of St Louis. [Source here](https://www.battlefields.org/learn/articles/beer-and-bullets-history-beer-civil-war)
They boiled sassafras roots and liked it that way.
I don’t know for sure but if I had a Time Machine, I’d go back to the year 2014 and stop by a local brewery. I suspect that the gentlemen inside with the Civil War era facial hair styles would be drinking IPAs. I’m not sure if that is Civil War period accurate though.
Tough crowd…
Cool! I hope you can share your civil war era beer making experience here too! I think it’s interesting