May 15, 1909 - Weiss Beer Soup

100 Years Ago: Since I used today's article last week, here's an odd recipe from May from The Rensselaer Eagle [NY 41 Rensselaer 93-32173].

A Recipe for Weiss Beer Soup

1 bottle Weiss beer; 1 small piece whole cinnamon; 1 egg, 1-2 cup of milk; 1 teaspoon sugar; bring weiss beer, sugar and stick of cinnamon to a boil; beat egg and milk together; then pour boiled weiss beer on egg and milk and serve at once with small pieces of toasted bread. One egg will also answer for two bottles of weiss beer.

As early as 1642 a brewery was in operation in Greenbush. I can't confirm that Rensselaer had a brewery in 1909, but this article shows that weissbier was an 19th century staple in Albany.

Albany Evening Journal, Fri., Aug. 16, 1878, Lively Runaway [large PDF]

A team of horses attached to the delivery wagon of George Weber, Weiss beer brewer, while standing on South Pearl street at noon today, took fright and dashed down the street at a tremendous pace. At the corner of South Ferry the wagon ran into the curb and upset, scattering the load of bottles in every direction, breaking about two hundred bottles. The wagon, which cost $300, was badly damaged. The horses broke loose and continued on down the street, but were captured by Officer Burke at the corner of Clinton and Catherine streets. No personal injury resulted, although there were several narrow escapes.

I don't think we'll be making this soup any time soon, but we'll certainly visit Wolff's Biergarten in Albany for some weissbier. (They're finding the challenges of beer supply and delivery are a little different now than in the 1800's.)