Customer Reviews

Ambitious Brew: The Story of American Beer

5 star:		(11)
4 star:		(11)
3 star:		(1)
2 star:		(1)
1 star:		(0)

 

 

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.

This is a great book if you're looking to learn something about the history of American lager brewing, and in particular about the giants (and now-deceased giants) of the industry. It covers quite a bit of ground I have never seen covered in any other book on the subject.

The author does have some biases which I think do color the book a bit. She has a contrarian tilt which seems to lead her to the view that big "industrial beer" from the giant lager-brewers is a better product than it really is. She does not seem to be as familiar as might be hoped with brewing itself, and consequently does not appreciate the extent to which the American brewing industry compromised product quality by relying on highly tannic, six-row malts and the notoriously bad-smelling Cluster hop, for example. And her interest in American brewing does not extend to ale (apart from the ales of the microbrew era); she seems to accept all too readily the notion that American ale-brewing in the pre-lager era was a cesspool of bad beer.

The upshot is that the book is perhaps a bit too favorable to the point of view of the great national brewers, and to their insipid style of high-adjunct, low-hop lager. But the early history of the large brewers is fascinating, and she shows genuine interest in the microbrew movement and its impact upon American tastes. A very, very enjoyable book.

This is a very good book about the history of American brewing post-1850. If you're looking for a book that looks at brewing in colonial or early American history, this isn't going to help you. It's basically about the roots of the current American brewing industry and how it got its start with German immigrants. A lot of detail is spent on why pilsner was so popular, why American tastes changed for blander beer, and how microbrewing has changed the industry. The author's research shows that the industry was less to blame for light, pale, bland beer, and was instead a response to changing tastes of the American public. There's quite a bit of information about the interesting characters who ran the big breweries and the rise and fall of various brewing companies.

Very good read about the origins of beer and beer brewing in the US. Enjoyed the character studies of the early titans of brewing and their innovations in brewing, marketing and distribution. If you're interested in beer..and who isn't..you'll enjoy this book!

I'd first like to note that the edition I'm reviewing is the hardcover version from 2006.

I'll keep it simple. This is an extremely well-written, well-researched, and well-sourced book on a history of many things. This book goes much deeper than just the history of beer in America, which is a much more intriguing subject than it sounds. This is a history of the human spirit, assimilation, Prohibition, entrepreneurship, and several other products of beers' influence on American culture. The author, Maureen Ogle, writes in a manner that is understandable and at times humorous. She also remains unbiased, making a case for "Big Beer" (A-B and the few other gigantic beer makers) and its place in history as well as craft beer and microbreweries writing the pages of history as you read this. I will recommend this book to all my friends and family and hope you take the time to read this great book on the history of beer in America.

Good, quick history of the old taste-alike beers we had when I was growing up,
and ultimately what happened to most of them (up to 2006).

Ambitious Brew The Story Of American Beer is a social history tracing the roots of American beer back to the German American immigrants and their American Dream. As German immigrants poured into America, they brought with them their craft of making beer. From time immeasurable, beer was a focal point of the German cultural life. For German American immigrants, beer making was not only a business trade but also a deeply steeped cultural tradition.

Ambitious Brew chronicles the history of American beer beginning with the first German American immigrants. Phillip Best was one of the earliest German immigrants to construct a brewery in Milwaukee, Wisconsin. The book highlights iconic beer moguls and their immigrant stories with well documented facts and historic photographs. Histories include: Best, Pabst, Anheuser, Busch, Budweiser, Schlitz, Schandein and Uihleins, to name a few. It was during the early 1840's that most of the German immigrant beer makers came to America. These Germans were part of the Second Great Wave of European Immigration, which took place between the years of 1865- 1890. German immigrants came to America for many reasons. "The Bests had emigrated from a village called Mettenheim, where a Marley-like chain of war and poverty, taxes and regulations, shackled their ambitions."(5) "In America one knows nothing about taxes. Here one does not need to worry about beggars as we do in Germany. Here a man works for himself. Here the one is equal to the other. Here no one takes off his hat to another. We no longer long for Germany." "Everyday," he added, "we thank the dear God that he has brought us...out of slavery into Paradise,"(9)

With an entrepreneurial can do spirit, these German beer makers first established their businesses amongst a market of fellow German immigrants. "Germans for the most part who had set up shop in order to supply beer to the other immigrants. But both the tavern owners' and the brewers' market was driven by their clientele: In the first ten years of German-American brewing, lager was consumed almost exclusively by German-speaking immigrants."(16) American Beer making by German immigrants was also an adaption method, a way for the Germans to preserve part of their heritage by continuing their traditional craft. "Brewing and beer had been part of Germanic culture for centuries. Ancient northern sagas, among them Kalevala and Edda, memorialized fermented beverages as gifts from the gods and as the source of poetry. For centuries, Germanic tribes prized ale as food, and as the centerpiece of the drinking fests that preceded and followed warfare. By the fourteenth century, beer-- fermented barley cooked with hops as a preservative--had become central to German culture. To drink with friends was to celebrate life and its bounty. People affirmed wedding vows, settled arguments, and sealed contracts with glasses of beer, which served in those cases as a sacramental offering to the event."(17)

The author presents the German immigrants historic relationship to beer making from both a cultural and business perspective. The combination of immigration history and famous American brewery stories makes this book very entertaining. The inclusion of more recent American Beer success stories gives the book a contemporary usefulness offering a nod to the future brewers every where.

A very interesting read, and one that constantly made me thirsty. I found myself getting both angry and excited as I read this book. While the likes of Anheuser-Busch and Miller devised evil ways to beat down the small brewers, it was stories of Jim Koch starting Boston Beer Co, Yuengling surviving prohibition and the great depression, and Michael Lewis inspiring homebrewing that made this book hard to put down. I wasn't surprised that the big beers became corporate conglomerate (jerks) as they aged, but was happy to see that there were times they didn't play cut-throat (ie, battling prohibition).

I think the book could have included some detail regarding beers in America before 1830, such as beers imported from England that we not made in the US. This could have shed a little more light on the argument about who really brewed beer in the US first - the Germans or the British.

Craft beers are evolving at a fast pace nationwide. I'd be interested to see how this book might be different in 10 or 15 years. Ogle did a good job with highlighting this revolution in the last 2 chapters of the book, which left me smiling.

I enjoyed this book immensely, being both a history buff and a beer reader. Once I started, I couldn't put it down. And then I sent it to a relative who will no doubt devour it as I did. Yes, it gets a bit dense at times, but only occasionally, and after all, it's history, so one has to expect at least a little of that. You can't go wrong with this one.

This book offers a very scattered view of the history of beer in America. Rather than focusing solely on the A-B, Schlitz, or Pabsts of the world (all of whom could likely have their own books), the author gives tidbits of each, along with a general history of beer, the forces working against it, prohibition, the period after prohibition, then finishes up with a short history of microbrewing.

Overall, I enjoyed the book for its telling of the tale of beer in only a couple hundred pages, but its greatest strength, its brevity, was also its biggest weakness. It could have used a couple additional rounds with the editor to refine the focus and ensure that it didn't take on too much. I think with some revision it could have been a 5 star book, but the current iteration is a solid 4 stars.

It did inspire me to go out and read some more about beer, where it came from, and how we got to where we are.