Synopses & Reviews
"From lager-making German immigrants to today's microbrew-meisters, a sudsy, briskly told survey of American beer."--
Entertainment Weekly
Grab a pint and settle back with Ambitious Brewthe fascinating history of American beer. Here are the stories of ingenious German immigrant entrepreneurs, titans of nineteenth-century industrial brewing (including Frederick Pabst and Adolphus Busch), the temperance movement, Prohibition, and twentieth-century microbrewers. Maureen Ogle tells a wonderful tale of the American Dreamand the great American brew.
This 'first ever history of American beer' . . . is as much a painstakingly researched microcosm of American entrepreneurialism as it is a love letter to the country's favorite buzz-producing beverage . . . Ambitious Brew goes down as brisk and refreshingly as, well, you know."--New York Post
"It is one of the virtues of her history of American beer that Ms. Ogle isn't afraid to admit admiration for the bold risks and ambitions of the capitalists--then and now--who have made beer their business."The Wall Street Journal
Maureen Ogle is a historian and the author of two previous books, All the Modern Conveniences and Key West. She lives in Ames, Iowa, a town of fifty thousand whose only liquor store stocks nearly six hundred different beers.Visit www.AmbitiousBrew.com and www.MaureenOgle.com. Reading Group Guide available at www.HarcourtBooks.com.
Review
PRAISE FOR
AMBITIOUS BREWand#160;"A fascinating and well-documented social history that sheds fresh light on the bubbly sociable beverage."--
Chicago Tribune and#160;"From lager-making German immigrants to today's microbrew-meisters, a sudsy, briskly told survey of American beer.
B+."--
Entertainment Weekly Synopsis
In the first-ever history of American beer, Maureen Ogle tells its epic story, from the immigrants who invented it to the upstart microbrewers who revived it. Beer might seem as American as baseball, but that has not always been true: Rum and whiskey were the drinks of choice in the 1840s, with only a few breweries making heavy, yeasty English ale. When a wave of German immigrants arrived in the middle of the nineteenth century, they promptly set about re-creating the pleasures of the biergartens they had left behind.
Just fifty years later, the American-style lager beer they invented was the nation's most popular beverage, and brewing was the nation's fifth-largest industry, ruled over by fabulously wealthy titans Frederick Pabst and Adolphus Busch. But when anti-German sentiments aroused by World War I fed the flames of the temperance movement (one activist even declared that the worst of all our German enemies are Pabst, Schlitz, Blatz, and Miller), Prohibition was the result. In the wake of its repeal, brewers replaced flavor with innovations like marketing and lite beer, setting the stage for a generation of microbrewers whose ambitions reshaped the drink.
Grab a glass and settle in for the surprising story behind your favorite pint.
Synopsis
Ambitious Brew, the first-ever history of American beer, tells an epic story of American ingenuity and the beverage that became a national standard. Not always Americas drink of choice, beer finally took its top spot in the nations glasses when a wave of German immigrants arrived in the mid-nineteenth century and settled in to re-create the beloved biergartens they had left behind. Fifty years later, the American-style lager beer they invented was the nations most popular beverageand brewing was the nations fifth-largest industry, ruled over by titans Frederick Pabst and Adolphus Busch. Anti-German sentiments aroused by World War I fed the flames of the temperance movement and brought on Prohibition. After its repeal, brewers replaced flavor with innovations such as flashy marketing and lite beer, setting the stage for the generation of microbrewers whose ambitions would reshape the brew once again.Grab a glass and a stool as Maureen Ogle pours out the surprising story behind your favorite pint.
About the Author
MAUREEN OGLE is a historian and the author of several books, including Ambitious Brew: The Story of American Beer. She lives in Ames, Iowa.
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Table of Contents
CONTENTS
INTRODUCTIONand#160;
CHAPTER ONEand#160;German Beer, American Dreamsand#160;
CHAPTER TWOand#160;and#147;I Must Have Nothing But the Very Bestand#8221;and#160;
CHAPTER THREEand#160;and#147;Masters of the Situationand#8221;and#160;
CHAPTER FOURand#160;The Enemy at the Gatesand#160;
CHAPTER FIVEand#160;Happy Days?and#160;
CHAPTER SIXand#160;and#147;You Have to Think About Growthand#8221;and#160;
CHAPTER SEVENand#160;Make Mine Small, Pure, Real, and Liteand#160;
CHAPTER EIGHTand#160;Something Old, Something Newand#160;
EPILOGUEand#160;
ACKNOWLEDGMENTSand#160;
ENDNOTESand#160;
BIBLIOGRAPHYand#160;
INDEXand#160;