White House Beer Recipe - You Didn't Build That

In an attempt to show one thing he can do better than Mitt Romney, Preznit Barack Obama has released the long sought after beer recipes:

Obama has been mentioning his love of beer regularly on the campaign trail in recent weeks, talking about how much he enjoys drinking a cold one at the end of a long day and even sharing a White House-made beer from his campaign bus with a man he met in Iowa last month. Although there’s no evidence that Obama is faking his love of beer, his regular willingness to pose with it is serving a political purpose: helping him appear to be an everyman who drinks a beverage favored by millions of Americans. And you can even serve the White House beer in a Vice President Biden can holder.

Perhaps coincidentally, Obama was back in Iowa on Saturday, one of the most competitive battlegrounds in his race against Republican Mitt Romney, when he released the recipes and video. It was during a three-day bus tour across Iowa in early August when he mentioned beer at almost every stop.

One could interpret this as a mild rebuke to Mitt Romney, who, following his Mormon faith, doe not drink beer or any other alcoholic beverage.  While I like a good beer (or an occasional bourbon and diet coke or gin and tonic) myself, the idea of having someone who abstains in the White House isn't the end of the world.

Obama’s attention to beer prompted an online petition urging the president to release the recipes. He also was asked to do so during an online Reddit chat Wednesday. He promised to do so, and the White House released the recipes Saturday — along with a four-and-a-half minute video that looked like it had been weeks in the making.

The White House released instructions for two beers: “White House Honey Ale” and “White House Honey Porter.” The recipes were developed with help from Matt Slattery, a brew master with the White House Mess, and White House beekeeper Charlie Brandt. Both beers use honey from the property’s beehives. Kass was also careful to point out that all the equipment was paid for by Obama — and that the kitchen staff donates its time to making the beer.

Also noted in the article is the fact that the recipe's were not actually created by Barack Obama, who was too busy golfing to do anything but test the final products, but rather created by White House assistant chef Sam Kass and sous chef Tafari Campbell.  And while the honey used was reportedly from bees from the Whitehouse hives (I wouldn't eat honey grown in Washington D.C.), the other ingredients were grown by farmers far away, trucked to the White House by vehicles made by private enterprises, on roads made of concrete and asphalt made by private enterprises, and sold to him by private enterprise.

UPDATE:  Electoral shenanigans involved in release beer recipe?