Beer for Pete's Sake: The Wicked Adventures of a Brewing Maverick [Hardcover]

Pete Slosberg (Author)

Book Description

Publication Date: April 14, 1998

Pete reflects on his life with beer, and shares everything he knows about beer and brewing. Written for the average person who doesn't know everything about beer, but would love to ask.

Editorial Reviews

From the Inside Flap

Pete Slosberg charts his life in terms of beer--before and after he learned to like it. From his first beer at sixteen (he hated it), his dislike for the taste stayed with him. Then serendipity stepped in. In 1979 he tried making wine. Unwilling to wait five years for it to mature, he decided to make beer instead because it took only six weeks. The result was a revelation--he loved it. He was twenty-nine and his life was forever changed. During the next seven years he became an avid homebrewer, and word of his excellent ale spread. In 1986, in partnership with a colleague from ROLM/IBM, he incorporated Pete's Brewing Company. Their mission was to make a world-class beer and have fun doing it. They would take the business seriously but not themselves. It worked.

Pete's is now the second-largest specialty craftbrewer in the country. The company's success is a reflection of Pete himself, and his willingness to embrace a slightly wacky, outrageous approach to the business of beer. He is the most recognized face behind one of the most recognized craft beers in America.

He has been called a brewing maverick, a brilliant entrepreneur, an iconoclast, and a marketing icon. But who is Pete Slosberg really, this man with the beard and Wicked smile? What happened on the way from his first homebrew to the Inc. 500 company he founded?

Pete reflects on his life with beer, his unabashed passion for its place in history and civilization, and the path that led him from a corporate career to doing what he loves. This is Pete at his best.

From the Back Cover

Pete Slosberg, America's maverick beer ambassador, is best known as the creator of Pete's Wicked Ale, and founder of Pete's Brewing Company.

There really is a Pete. He's the hottest, most recognized celebrity in America's hottest industry. A true defender of the brew, Pete Slosberg has singularly popularized the craftbrewing movement. This wickedly charming look at how one man's passion for his homebrewed beer led him to found what became an Inc. 500 company is rich in anecdote and humor. Pete shares priceless moments filled with adventure, celebrity tidbits, and little-known revelations: Taking on Anheuser-Busch over their respective dog labels, Millie vs. Spuds Mackenzie; his role in Governor Pete Wilson's mangled bid for the U.S. Presidency; on stage with Homer Simpson; brewing with the TOPGUN Crew; learning to like eggplant; his brief stint as a New York cabbie; studying rocket science at Columbia University; and his three passions--beer, barbeque, and cigars. Pete reflects on his life with beer and brewing, and shares it all.

"Is it reason that makes dreams happen? I never set out to start a company of my own and never anticipated that studying space mechanics--yes, I majored in rocket science--would lead me to live a life with beer at its center. It began with my first homebrewed beer. The year was 1979 and the stars were starting to align."--from the book

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Product Details

• Hardcover: 300 pages
• Publisher: Brewers Publications (April 14, 1998)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 0937381632
• ISBN-13: 978-0937381632
• Product Dimensions: 10 x 7.1 x 1 inches
• Shipping Weight: 1.6 pounds (View shipping rates and policies)
• Average Customer Review: 3.2 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (6 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #1,723,874 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)

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Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

4 of 4 people found the following review helpful:

4.0 out of 5 stars I liked this book. A must for beer aficianados., January 21, 1999

By A Customer

This review is from: Beer for Pete's Sake: The Wicked Adventures of a Brewing Maverick (Hardcover)

I just finished this book and thought it deserved plugging for a couple of reasons. First, even though this book was clearly not intended as a "how-to" treatise, it has THE BEST introductory overview of the brewing process and, more importantly, the various factors involved in brewing and how they affect the final product that I have yet read, surpassing every homebrew how-to book in this important regard. These other books tend to either be too general or too detailed in addressing these issues, so that the most basic general principles the reader needs to appreciate to understand brewing can often get lost, but Pete nails most of them dead-on in his brief coverage of the matter. For this portion of the book he deserves at least a FOUR-star rating. The rest of the book is fun and informative without going into too much detail for the sake of detail, a common failing of many beer books, making for a quick and lighthearted read. His interest in beer lore has enabled him to bring together many anecdotes concerning beer in a single volume which one would probably have to look all over the place to find. The book concludes with a comprehensive bibliography which was interesting to read in and of itself. In fact, I was so impressed with the book and so dissapointed that is ended as soon as it did that I am going to write Pete and ask him to recommend some particular titles for further reading enjoyment.

I would rate this book overall at FOUR Stars and intend to seek an autographed copy to add to my collection.

2 of 2 people found the following review helpful:

2.0 out of 5 stars Good for Beer History - Bad for Beer Business, December 27, 2007

By 

Reed Braman (Springville, NY) - See all my reviews
(REAL NAME)   

This review is from: Beer for Pete's Sake: The Wicked Adventures of a Brewing Maverick (Hardcover)

Interested in learning more about the microbrewing/brewpub business, I have been reviewing success stories such as the stories of Dogfish Head, Brooklyn, and Redhook. While none of them offer a true game plan for success they all had good anecdotes on things they did right or wrong.

I had hoped that this book would provide additional insight. Alas, it did not. The book was filled with a myriad of beer trivia; beer history, beer myths, and so on. It wasn't however filled with the wicked adventures of a brewing maverick as advertised. There are many chapters that digress into self-indulgencies like cigars and barbecues and really has nothing to do with Pete's Wicked Ales.

If you're interested in an easy to read beer history and trivia book check this one out at your local library. If you are looking to learn from the people who made it check out the aforementioned books.

3 of 4 people found the following review helpful:

3.0 out of 5 stars Recommended for beer geeks only., May 14, 1998

By A Customer

This review is from: Beer for Pete's Sake: The Wicked Adventures of a Brewing Maverick (Hardcover)

Pete Slosberg, the "Pete" of Pete's Wicked Ale, started as a homebrewer and became a craft or "micro" brewer. This biography starts well, but ends up chatty and full of self-congratulatory anecdotes. Slosberg has a good discussion of beer types and why brewers shouldn't worry too much about what category their beer is in. Not much useful information on the business side of craft brewing. Slosberg repeats a number of stories about beer origins and phrases, most of them reprinted in other books. Definitely recommended for brewing aficionados.