History Day – Prized Old Ale

I want to bring a documentary to your attention about an English brewery, Gale & Co. in the town of Horndean.

From the start, I was worries about how this was going to end but, thankfully, there is a bittersweet ending that gave me hope about how brewing and people history can be honored at least a bit.

History Day – Beer Book Review – Over-The-Rhine

Over-the-Rhine or the OTR is probably not known much past the city limits of Cincinnati but for a period of time in the late 19th and early 20th centuries, it was the Portland or San Diego of its craft beer day.

Michael Morgan starts and ends the book with a bit of archaeology as a street is surreptitiously dug up to find lagering caverns (felsens) that had been used by Cincinnati brewers to keep their beers chilled.  And throughout the rest of the book, Morgan digs up a lot history including the small possibility that lager was a Mid-West invention as much as a German one.

German immigrants being the connector as they arrived in the OTR in a couple of waves that created a bustling brewery, beer garden and saloon trade.  The latter being the example used most often by temperance campaigners as the font of all America’s ailments.

What sets this history apart is that Morgan delves into the thorny issues of anti-immigrants, machine politics and riots with an even tone.  Of course many Cincinnati and Ohio natives do not come off well and Morgan is quick to compare current to past without losing the thread of the narrative.

There is not a lot of brewing talk in the pages, as with many histories the actual brewers and the ingredients and processes used are not brought up as the bulk of it is about the men with their names on the side of the brewery.

After reading this history, I did feel that it would be great to have one for each major brewing city.

To the Visitor Center!

In my mind, there are not enough beer centered visitor centers out in the world. Maybe we do not think 30-40 years of craft beer is enough I guess.

Belgium does not have that length of time issue and do have a beer center that you can read about HERE.

In this lovely old building….

Dark-tober

This post isn’t sponsored by the Pumpkin Beer Alliance, but beer is pulled into history at many points, some of them not good.

The below video is labeled as the Dark History of Oktoberfest but I would say it is more bad shit that happened in history in Munich whilst Oktoberfest was happening.

Blitzing

Ron Pattinson if the Shut Up About Barclay Perkins blog has been amassing a history of brewing in the United Kingdom and his latest chunk of the timeline has been released ( find it HERE ) .

Blitzkrieg! covers the World War II years and along the other three books: Armistice!, Peace! and Austerity!. The years 1914 to 1973 are now accounted for.

Blitzkrieg! is in two parts, according to Pattinson, “the first volume cover all the fun history bits: brewing materials, techniques and equipment. Along with beer styles and background information about taxation, pubs and brewing restrictions.” The second volume has the recipes along with more brewery information.

The next book is in the pipeline, Free!, covers the years from 1880 to 1914. 

Peoples Brewing

Do you know who the owner of the first black owned brewery was?  I didn’t.  But if you read Clint Lanier’s book about Ted Mack and Peoples Brewing like I plan to, then we will both learn some beer history.

Here is a teaser of the story:

“Born a sharecropper in rural Alabama in 1930, Theodore A. (Ted) Mack, Sr., fought in the Korean War and then played football at Ohio State while earning a college degree. Brewing and selling beer, he believed, would be just another peak to attain. After all, it couldn’t be more challenging than his experience in organizing buses to the March on Washington or picketing segregated schools in Milwaukee. This is the story of Mack’s purchase of Peoples Brewing Company in Oshkosh, Wisconsin. Though he had carefully planned for the historic acquisition, he underestimated the subtle bigotry of Middle America, the corruption of the beer industry, and the failures of the federal government that plagued his ownership. Mack’s ownership of Peoples Brewing is an inspirational story of Black entrepreneurship, innovation and pride at a time when America was at an important racial justice crossroads.”

Strangely, this book is in paperback at a first edition hard cover price, so Kindle may be the way to go.  But I would suggest plumping for the actual book at a smaller local bookstore if you can.

Beer History Podcast – Lite Beer

Now this a grand combo.  The strange and fascinating lite beer and historian Maureen Ogle.  First, click HERE for the podcast.

This podcast episode is a great primer for the timeline of “lite” beer and how it came to be such a juggernaut from humble “diet” beginnings.

Check out their other podcasts as well.

The Truth about Lambic

Do you think you know everything about Lambic beers? You might want to read Lambic by Raf Meert. You will probably have some myths busted.

Don’t let the plain blue cover fool you, this book covers, “The historic origin of lambic had already been lost by the middle of the 19th century. This gave rise to patriotically inspired legends, and recently also marketing-driven stories.

This book aims to deconstruct those fictions, and offers an overview of the historical origin and evolution of lambic beers through painstaking and meticulous research done in various historical archives and documents.

For the first time, the origins of lambic are linked to historical events and their contexts. It provides surprising new insights into where, when and why lambic came into being, North-America’s role in it, and the most original faro, lambic and gueuze and their etymology. This book is a must-read for the lambic enthusiast who is genuinely interested in this unique and world-renowned beer.”

Brewchive

We need to keep our eye on history in order to not repeat mistakes or be able to re-create a tasty beer recipe from years past. Which leads us to this news item…

More Pattinson

I am a fan of many things in #independent beer world and one of them is both the reverence and irreverence to old styles. American breweries will add anything and everything to Gose, IPA, Stouts and Saisons. But there is also an undercurrent of bringing back the classics in a more pure form.

So I was excited to see this label from Jester King

…that is made with noted beer historian Ron Pattinson. Who I hope will make more of these beers with many different breweries across the country. The future is limitless but the past can be mined for good beers too.