Beer Break

It didn't hit me until I was reading the Lewis & Clark journals today. Every day I read what the captains wrote on this date 200 years ago. I vaguely remember this reference to beer making but admit I'd forgotten it until I came across it today.

Captain Clark:
October 21, 1805

"One of our party, J. Collins, presented us with some very good beer made of the pa-shi-co-quar - mash bread, which bread is the remains of what was laid in as a part of our stores of provisions, at the first Flatheads, or Chopunnish nation at the head of the Kooskooskee River, which, by being frequently wet, molded and soured."

There it was my permission to drink beer today. After further research it's the only reference to beer or any kind of spirits from July 4, 1805 until Sept. 13, 1806. So who am I to go against history. Wasn't the design of this L&C Abstinence Reenactment journal to follow the drinking patterns of the Corp of Discovery? So with much thought I selected a 6-pack of Hefeweizen Wheat Beer. That's bread right? And it's brewed in Portland, Ore,. an area Lewis & Clark passed through. So in theory this beer could be made of water they canoed through. It was delicious! My first beer in almost 4 months. But this is the only reprise, now it's dryness until next September....unless another journal entry surprises me. Maybe they made wine at Fort Clatsop?