The Brewers Tale: A History of the World According to Beer

I am notoriously hard to buy gifts for, so many people buy me beer. My aunt Ann knows that I like to read, so to thank me for driving my dad from Fredericksburg, Texas to Fredericksburg, Virginia, she bought me a copy of The Brewers Tale: A History of the World According to Beer by William Bostwick and gave it to me when we arrived.

I, of course, was horribly rude and informed her that I already owned a copy. I should have graciously accepted the gift and given it to Satan. So, Ann, I apologize. I'm a jerk.

On the other hand, I did gush excitedly about the book to her. Bostwick's leads you on a journey of beer's history through several stages: The Babylonian (where he explores how beer came to be), The Shaman (which explores mystical and healing side), The Monk (where he traces the history of monastic brewing), The Farmer (brewing in Belgium), The Industrialist (the rise of Porter and the big brewing companies of England), The Patriot (early brewing in America), The Immigrant (the German influence on brewing in America), and The Advertiser (the dominance of big breweries).

The Babylonian chapter is a light, humorous history of brewing. Other books have tried to tell that story, but it always gets boring. Bostwick makes the story compelling. Several times I had to go back just to reread a nice twist of phrase. I got the most out of this chapter.

Don't get me wrong! The rest of the chapters were good, but for some reason, The Babylonian was more educational for me.

I had recently completed Hops and Glory by Pete Brown, wherein I learned of the rise of India Pale Ale as the driving force of England's economy.  Large companies made beer for the market, and got filthy rich selling beer to the East India Trading Company (which got even richer when their ships were emptied of beer and filled with Indian imports bound for the English Market). The Industrialist chapter started a bit earlier. Porter beer originated in London, and it was made by large corporations that quickly took brewing away from the home. The chapter wonderfully dovetails with Brown's history of the same companies.

The Patriot chapter explores some of the ways the early settlers of this country made beer from local ingredients, which reminded me of a story I ran across last month about a persimmon beer made from a 300 year old recipe recently released by Ardent Craft Ales.

I haven't finished the book yet, so I can't mention any more about it. I do know, however, you need to read this book. Buy it at the link below.

Great Ideas Come in The Middle of the Night

I have been halfheartedly working on revising my book, Historic Texas Breweries (click image to the left to purchase the first edition) for a year or so. I'm easily distracted.

At my little speech last month, they organizers emphasized that I was writing a book. So I got back to work and organized the revision to focus on the regions of Texas, rather than on an alphabetical list of towns.

Last week, I woke up at 4 am for a trip to the bathroom. Afterwards, while snuggling back under the covers, it occurred to me that organizing by regions was the wrong approach, and that the book should be divided into three parts: Pre-Prohibition, Post-Prohibition until 1994 (the birth of brew pubs), and 1994 to Present. Further, I should sort the breweries by opening date, so the reader can track the spread of breweries, particularly in Pre-Prohibition days.

This doesn't affect much of the brewery write ups, but it does significantly change the framing structure I had set up.

I don't know that I will ever finish the darned thing!

The Search for God and Guinness - Review

I love the San Antonio Flying Saucer. The location is perfect. It's less than an hour from my house, lest than 20 minutes from my nephew's and it's a great place for us to meet and visit every couple of months. Unfortunately, the location sux. It's three doors down from a Half Price Books. After a couple of pints, the part of my brain that normally says "You have plenty of books, already!" starts saying "Why not?"

My last visit, I picked up a couple of beer related books: a history of Prohibition and The Search for God and Guinness: A Biography of the Beer that Changed the World, written by Stephen Mansfield.
Mansfield has written several books, including The Faith of George W. Bush (for which he received no death threats) and The Faith of Barack Obama (for which he received several). As a minister, all of his books use faith as a major theme. He's also a frequent commentator on Fox News and CNN.

The book starts, as any good book on beer should, with the history of beer. Mansfield's telling of the story describes the religious uses of beer, from the offerings of the Egyptians and Sumerians, to role of beer in the Roman Empire and Catholic Church.  When Martin Luther nailed his Ninety-Five Theses to the cathedral door and initiated the Reformation, monastic breweries closed all over Germany. Mansfield is quick to point out that was not part of Luther's plan.  Luther, John Calvin and John Wesley were all proponents of moderate drinking. They called beer and alcohol gifts from God.

Then Mansfield starts the story of Arthur Guinness and his beer. Unlike most histories, this doesn't go into so much detail that you forget what is going on. And his history shows the progression of Guinness' philanthropy from the beginning to today. In an age where corporations will fire thousands of Americans so they can outsource production and phone banks to increase profits, it's astounding that a corporation like Guinness helped restore a cathedral in Dublin, give their employees health care, and had the company doctor make strides in eradicating diseases among Dublin's poorest residents in the 1900 slums (which eventually earned that doctor a knighthood). Corporations don't give back to the community! They give back to their stockholders. And if they can shift some bank accounts to the Cayman Islands to prevent paying more taxes, then all the better.

Mansfield argues otherwise. He boils the lessons from the Guinness legacy to a few steps all corporations (and by extension, us) should take to be more socially responsible: 1) Discern the way of God for life and business; 2) Think in terms of generations to come; 3) Whatever else you do, do one thing extremely well; 4) Master the facts before you act; and, perhaps the most important, 5) Invest in those you would have invest in you (Guinness paid high wages, offered education, health care, entertainment to all their employees and their families--unlike corporations today, who use all their employees energies and when they are drained, turn them over to the church and state to take care of them. Bascially, they repaid the loyalty of their employees with loyalty to their employees. That doesn't happen today.).

I'm not particularly religious. I do not believe that religion (specifically of the protestant Christian variety) makes you a moral caring person. In fact, these days, listening to the GOP tell us what God's plan for America is makes them seem like the exact opposite. (Sometimes I think they'd like to revise the loaves and fishes story to have Jesus saying, "I know many of you are hungry. Go out and get a job! Don't mooch off other people! Leave the people who brought loaves and fishes alone!") So to read a self confessed conservative espouse such views is a delight.

Mansfield may be getting more death threats for this book, mainly from the CEOs of Wal-Mart and GE.

Is it a great beer book? No. But it is a great book to remind people about the role of corporations is our lives.

Houston Beer: A Heady History of Brewing in the Bayou City

When Beer Across Texas: A Guide to the Brews and Brewmasters of the Lone Star State came out, I eagerly searched the book for a mention of my Beer History site, Historic Texas Breweries, and found it! I was excited.

So when I got my copy of Houston Beer: A Heady History of Brewing in the Bayou City, I ripped the padded envelope to shreds to quickly get to the book. As the envelope debris rained down around me, I thumbed through the bibliography and discovered that Ronnie Crocker didn't use my website. This realization made sweeping up the remains of the envelope seem to last forever!

I've been following Ronnie Crocker's blog for a couple of years, and I follow him on Twitter. He has been a good source for news for this blog. When I learned he was publishing this book, I quickly pre-ordered it, and I was not disappointed!

Although this a slim book, it's packed with pictures and brewing history. The main focus of the book is the burgeoning beer scene, chronicling not only the history of the Anheuser Busch brewery, but Saint Arnolds, Buffalo Bayou, Karbach Brewing, No Label Brewing, and Southern Star Brewing. He also covers Houston's vibrant home brewing culture.

As I update my book over the coming year, I will be referring to this book quite a bit. Now go buy yourself a copy!

Red, White, and Brew: An American Beer Odyssey

Each time Satan and I have gone on our Missions from God (or gone to NHC), we have tried to stop at a brew pub in each town we pass through. Sometimes we succeed, and sometimes we fail, but we always find some good beer. But we seldom stay long enough to visit with the brewer and learn their stories.

Brian Yaeger, though, did exactly that. He stopped at 26 breweries, 17 brewpubs and talked to the brewers, and got enough stories to fill a book he called Red, White, and Brew: An American Beer Odyssey.

Check out his website, and follow along with Brian as he crosses the country. He's given me something to think about while Satan and I are en route to Oakland next year.

And if your going to be in Austin on 10/27, Brian will be signing his book at Opal Divine's Freehouse, 700 West 6th Street, from 6-9 pm. I think I might try to make that. . .