Presenting choc beer
Well it’s not exactly what you’re thinking.
This beer was named after its place of origin, the Choctaw Nation. The Choctaw brewed this homemade beer and taught the Italian immigrants, who had come to work in the local mines, how to do the same.
It has been sold legally in a restaurant called Pete’s Place in Krebs, Oklahoma, since 1995. But it was not always so.
Pete Pritchard, born Pietro Piegari, was one of those immigrants that came to America with his family in 1903. He started working in the coal mines at the age of 11. He worked the mines for ten years. Then a mining accident nearly took his life; his leg was crushed, and he was unable to go back to work.
Pritchard started brewing beer from the old Choctaw recipe that used the abundant supply of local golden wheat. He sold it from his home, along with cheese and sausages, to the local miners. He called the brew Choc in honor of the Choctaw.
In 1925 he opened ‘Pete’s Place’. He continued brewing and serving during prohibition when he concealed the whole operation in his basement. He still served the beer in the restaurant.
Then prohibition went, but the illegality of home beer making remained.
The ‘Pete’s Place’ was passed on to two more generations of Pritchard’s before Choc beer could finally be sold legally in 1995.
The micro brewery produces six bottles of Choc beer to commemorate the life of the original owner. Each beer tells a different part of Pete Pritchard’s life.
I thought this was a great story about a true icon in the home beer world. So if you wanna learn more about this great home beer making story go to http://www.ratebeer.com/beer/petes-place-1919-choc-beer/10441/61281/.
Pete’s Place is at http://www.petes.org/
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