History of American Beer Part 1

Last week I started a book called Ambitious Brew: The Story of American Beer by Maureen Ogle. Normally, one waits for the end of the book to share info, but there's a really good chance I won't finish it. Here are some things I have learned thus far...

Ales to Rum To Whiskey To German Lager

Our first beers were English ales, which makes sense, but it'll quickly lose its popularity. Just surviving was paramount in the Northeast, and those Puritans didn't really have the luxury to grow hops and brew beer. Additionally, in the warm South, the ales had a tendency to go bad, and people tended towards ciders and bourbon.

The Caribbean plantations w/ their excess sugar (and slave trade) will flood the colonies w/ rum. But although the American Revolution will rid us of those dastardly Lobster Backs, it'll also cause the price of molasses to soar and make rum more expensive. Fortunately, due to an abundance of back country farmers with an overabundance of grain, the Whiskey Age will take root.

At this point in our history, liquor is going to be getting a fairly bad rap, and some of the first temperance movements will begin, with 12 states banning alcohol by 1855. But thank god for the Germans and their lager. This is also the time of mass immigration and the Germans will come in mass bearing beer. Not only will they sell the beer to their peers, but the prohibitionists will prefer the less potent lager to the much more dangerous, whiskey. Add in mass industrialization and some of our biggest new businesses will be breweries, spreading the lovely liquid across the burgeoning country.

Why We Love Budweiser

Ogle starts the book by critiquing the common story of American beer, that all the craft breweries were taken out by Prohibition, leading to the Budweiserization of our current top sellers. And it appears she is right that not only is this an oversimplification, but is most probably dead wrong. Instead, the big beer companies will take over well before prohibition. Also, it appears that unfortunately people wanted watered down tasteless beer.

Although I think of lagers as light, these German lagers were much darker then say, a Miller. And the German brewers are going to soon find that the drinking public actually wants their beer light. When in 1876 Carl Conrad introduced his ripped-off version of the Czech Pilsner Budweis(called the Beer of Kings there) with Budweiser, it will become one of the country's top-sellers even though it will also be one of the most expensive. The other big companies will follow with their own light pilsners.

Why people want this lighter beer is hard to say. One theory is that the populace was getting more protein through eating more in general and more meat in particular. No longer did one require a liquid dinner, just a nice supplement to intoxication. Another theory was that the fast-paced American life style preferred a quick easy drink to a darker one more meant for savoring. Regardless, I found this depressing. Besides the obvious advantages already held by mass-marketed beer companies, the idea that this is what people actually want makes me realize the micro brew revolution will probably only go so far. But then again, what do I care, I live in Portland where the only people drinking Miller are hipsters trying to be ironic.

But that's it for now. Although my reading pace is slowing a little, the fact that the main character's are named Schlitz, Blatz, Pabst, and Anheuser helps. If I finish it, I'll do a second update.