We tried George Washington's secret beer recipe

It's hard to imagine George Washington as anything but the stoic, grey-haired military commander who led America to independence.

But apparently, the founding father was also a tippler - and an experimental brewer.

Among the pages of a military notebook he kept while overseeing troops in Virginia during the French and Indian war, Washington left a recipe for "small beer," a porter made with molasses.

In 2011, to honor of the 100th anniversary of the New York Public Library's main building, where the original version of the recipe is housed, Coney Island Brewing Co. recreated Washington's original brew. Business Insider tried it.