Hop Talk

Over at the PassMeABeer blog, Stan Hieronymous has a three-part interview with Maureen Ogle, the author of Ambitious Brew: The Story of American Beer, tracing the history of brewing in the new world from the start of the golden age in the mid 1800s to the craft beer revolution of the 1980s. An excerpt from the interview:

1. Why start in 1840?

From the perspective of someone in the brewing industry, a more logical place to start the book might have been, say, 1620 and the first colonists. But I’m a historian, not a beermaker. So I was looking for the historically significant story. And that tale – the moment when beer surpassed spirits in popularity and an industry emerged – began with the vast wave of German immigration that began in the 1840s.

Read the rest of the interview: Part I, Part II, Part III

The book also has an official site: Ambitious Brew, or you can buy it at Amazon.com.