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| Ambitious Brew: The Story of American Beer | 
 enlarge | Author: Maureen Ogle
Publisher: Harvest Books
Category: Book
List Price: $15.00
Buy New: $4.46
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Avg. Customer Rating:  15 reviews
Sales Rank: 80880
Media: Paperback
Number Of Items: 1
Pages: 432
Shipping Weight (lbs): 1
Dimensions (in): 7.9 x 5.3 x 0.9
ISBN: 0156033593
Dewey Decimal Number: 973
EAN: 9780156033596
ASIN: 0156033593
Publication Date: October 8, 2007
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| Customer Reviews:
| Showing reviews 11-15 of 15 | | « PREV | | |
 Beer Lovers, Grab a Brew and Pull Up a Chair December 27, 2006
1 out of 4 found this review helpful
In the 1830s, few Americans had ever heard of, let alone tasted, beer. At that time, rum and whiskey were the favorite beverages of the American drinking public, with English ale running a distant third. Over the next half-century, however, thousands of enterprising German immigrants transformed American tastes so that, by 1880, beer had decisively supplanted all other liquors as the American national beverage. Ambitious Brew is an engaging account of that transformation.
The fashioning of an industry required the development of numerous technological and commercial innovations. Starting out as small operators that supplied local saloons, early brewers had to devise ways to ensure consistent quality in every batch of beer they made. Upon solving that problem, brewers who expanded their operations had to resolve issues related to the preservation, distribution and packaging of their products. They had to extend the shelf life of beer so that it would be consumable when it arrived at distant destinations. This was accomplished by experimenting with recipes and by using refrigerated railroad cars for shipping. Moreover, reliable transportation and sales networks had to be cultivated. And, to protect their reputations and prevent saloon keepers from diluting their brews, or replacing them with lower quality swill, brewers began shipping large quantities of their beer in labeled bottles rather than kegs. Thus, as the brewing industry expanded, secondary industries grew alongside it.
In the late nineteenth and early twentieth centuries, a growing temperance movement threatened to dismantle the empires of such brewing giants as Anheuser-Busch, Pabst, Schlitz and others. The brewers, aware that taxes on their products accounted for more than one-third of the American government's revenues, paid little attention to their critics. Their security was shattered in 1913, when Congress ratified the Sixteenth Amendment that established the income tax as a major source of revenue. This amendment, in conjunction with the cumulative successes of the temperance movement over the previous several decades, made conditions favorable for the passage of the Eighteenth Amendment, which prohibited the production, sale and consumption of all alcoholic beverages in the United States. In January 1919, Prohibition became the law of the land.
Prohibition lasted from 1919 until 1933. During that time, some brewers kept their businesses alive by producing soft drinks and "near" (non-alcoholic) beer. Others diversified their companies and produced a variety of goods. Needless to say, most brewers did not survive. Those who did discovered that American culture had changed dramatically in a short fourteen year span. The American public had developed a taste for Coca Cola rather than beer. An entire generation had grown up without ever tasting beer. Thus, in the post-Prohibition era, brewers had to cultivate new images and new markets for their products. These struggles continue to this day, as American liquor consumption is still lower than it was before Prohibition.
The period from the 1930s through the 1960s was a time of consolidation. Many small and medium sized breweries went out of business or were bought out by larger companies. In the latter decades of the twentieth century, this trend toward increased centralization was countered by the home brewing movement and the microbrewing industry. Currently, even though Anheuser-Busch and Miller dominate American brewing (these two companies sell over 50% of all beer consumed in the USA), small and regional brewers are making a comeback. In the early twenty-first century, large and small brewers are learning from each other and rejuvenating the brewing industry. In Ogle's opinion, an exciting future is open for business to the next generation of innovative brewers.
Carefully researched, filled to the brim with technical information and populated with colorful personalities, Ambitious Brew provides a unique lens through which to examine American culture. Ambitious Brew is more than a story about the indelible imprint German immigrants made on their adopted land. And it is more than a tale of how American consumers prompted those immigrants to adapt traditional products for new palates. Indeed, at its heart, Ambitious Brew is the fascinating story of how distinct cultural features have blended to enrich the fabric of a vibrant society. It is a story that needed to be told, and Ogle has told it very well. Beer aficionados and readers interested in popular culture and history will enjoy Ambitious Brew.
 A heady survey for any with more than a casual interest in beer or brewing. December 12, 2006
1 out of 2 found this review helpful
There are numerous 'brewer's guides' on the market and a few books which cover microbrew history; but AMBITIOUS BREW is one of the most comprehensive titles yet on how big brewers evolved in America. From early pioneers and founding fathers to immigrants who brought their brews to America, AMBITIOUS BREW follows the rise of corporate manufacturing in the country and provides a heady survey for any with more than a casual interest in beer or brewing.
Diane C. Donovan
California Bookwatch
How Beer Made History November 29, 2006
2 out of 9 found this review helpful
The Pilgrims brought beer to the United States, so we have from the beginning been a beer-drinking nation. But we drank porter and ales, as well as rum and other spirits. It wasn't until the immigration of the Germans in the nineteenth century that brewmasters started making lager and the brewing entrepreneurs joined the lists of their fellow robber barons in other fields. In _Ambitious Brew: The Story of American Beer_ (Harcourt) historian Maureen Ogle has chronicled a story as intricate as that of the rise of the oil, transportation, and banking tycoons, detailing how American taste has shaped beer and vice versa. Beer would become not only an employment for millions and the nation's fifth-largest business, but a focus of social and religious reform. Eventually manufacturing beer would be attempted by small-scale brewers devoted to a more "authentic" product than the big breweries were putting out. The story of American beer making thus extends into immigration, big business, individual rights, and more, so that Ogle's is a valuable social history not restricted to just the beverage.
In the 1840s, Germans poured into the area around Milwaukee, and German brewers started making lager (rather than ale that was already here). The "new" beverage was touted as a healthier drink than spirits, and by 1860 there were lager saloons in large and small cities, and not just Germans came in for the fun. Making lager on a large scale, though, was a new idea, and the giants of the industry came into it almost by chance. Eberhard Anheuser, for instance, had made his fortune in soap-making, but acquired a brewery in 1859 as a debt settlement. A common charge against American beer is that it is insubstantial compared with traditional European versions, and has been watered down to cut costs. This is an oversimplification. The big change in American lager came over a hundred years ago when brewers started experimenting with rice or corn in their mashing tuns. American barley had more protein than the European barley the brewmasters were used to, and the protein clouded and soured the beer. It was not a change to cut costs; corn and rice actually cost more than barley, but had the necessary carbohydrates without the excess protein. The successful brewers, and the saloons that they supplied on contract, became the target of such organizations as the Anti-Saloon League at the turn of the last century. The temperance movement was at least partially powered by anti-German feeling, especially as the First World War loomed. The beer magnates, in a rare inability to respond to a commercial change, did little, and national prohibition was adopted in 1919. When America had had enough of the hypocrisy of prohibition, brewers were ready, but demographics meant that there were subsequent lows in the 20-to-40 age group of beer drinkers, and drinkers had gotten used to using spirits or sugary or bland soft drinks (and had the same hankering for bland foods). Beer was also implicated in weight gain. Responding to the market, beer got lighter and blander, until there was rebellion in the 1960s and more flavorful beers became popular again.
The taste for out-of-the-ordinary beers climaxed with the microbrew movement in which brewers with verve and ambition that could rival the Germans of the nineteenth century put out beers that were distinctive, like Fritz Maytag who brought out Anchor Steam Beer. Home brewing only became legal again in 1978, and many of the microbrewers were essentially homebrewers trying something bigger. Most of the time, for all their enthusiasm, it didn't work. Producing the volumes of a commercial product is just too different from making a few gallons in the basement, and the pursuit of the elusive twin goals of quality and consistency was fraught with poor odds. Craft beers now get less than 5% of the beer market, probably because Anheuser-Busch is holding on to its large market share, but even so, big brewers have made a show of bringing out small brews. It's all part of the continuing bustle to find a market and fill it, a distinctly American tale here served up as an entertaining history.
A story for beer aficionado's, history buffs, or brewing insiders November 10, 2006
9 out of 9 found this review helpful
Once I had penetrated the first three chapters of this book, I found it a fascinating and quick read. However, those first three chapters took about two weeks, despite a persistent interest in beer and brewing. I covered the remaining five chapters in two days.
The first several chapters (and 40 or so years of chronology) cover the beginnings of American brewing by explaining the origins of the Best brewery (which would become Pabst), the Uihlein's (Schlitz), and Adolphus Busch. These chapters passed slowly, and didn't entertain the way that popular history can (like Winchester's A Crack in the Edge of the World or Bryson's A Short History of Nearly Everything, Stephen Ambrose, etc).
However, I was extremely engaged by everything that followed. I thought the explanation of the causes and context of Prohibition was excellent. The narrative of changes in brewing in post-World War II America (consolidation, the dawn of modern marketing) was also very interesting, and did a nice job integrating societal and business changes into that story. I erroneously thought I'd experienced first-hand the rise of craft beer in America, but Maureen did a very nice job educating me on the true origins of this trend.
I was bogged down by the beginning of this book, but thrilled with the middle and end of it. This book would be a great resource for beer connoisseurs looking for an understanding of why American brewing is what it is, and as a cautionary tale for brewing executives.
Fine overview October 21, 2006
7 out of 13 found this review helpful
Why does US beer taste the way it does? This question is very ably answered by Ambitious Brew, an overview of the historical development of the US brewing industry. It turns out that the golden age of US brewing is a myth- Bud and Schlitz have pretty much always tasted like they do now. Native-born Americans' prodigious drinking habits, the big breweries' desire for national markets, the effects of Prohibition on competition (only the biggest breweries had the cash to diversify to non-acoholic products and survive) and the national preference for sweet and bland food and drink after WWII, all inexorably resulted in the tasteless yellow swill we had to put up with until imports and microbreweries came to the rescue.
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