Brewing Battles: A History of American Beer
Amy Mittelman
Language: English
Pages: 228
ISBN: 0875865720
Format: PDF / Kindle (mobi) / ePub
Brewing Battles is the comprehensive story of the American brewing industry and its leading figures, from its colonial beginnings to the present. Although today s beer companies have their roots in pre-Prohibition business, historical developments since Repeal have affected industry at large, brewers, and the tastes and habits of beer-drinking consumers as well.
Brewing Battles explores the struggle of German immigrant brewers to establish themselves in America, within the context of federal taxation and a growing temperance movement, their losing battle against Prohibition, their rebirth and transformation into a corporate oligarchy, and the determination of home and micro brewers to reassert craft as the "raison d etre" of brewing.
Brewing Battles looks at beer s cultural meaning from the vantage point of the brewers and their goals for market domination. Beer consumption changed over time, beginning with an alcoholic high in the early 19th century and ending with a neo-temperance low in the early 21st. The public places where people drank also changed from colonial ordinaries in peoples homes to the saloon and back to home via the disposable six pack. The book explores this story as brewers fought to create and control these changing patterns of consumption.
Drinking alcohol has remained a favored activity in American society and while beer is ubiquitous, our country harbors a persistent ambivalence about drinking. An examination of how the industry prevailed in a sometimes unreceptive environment exemplifies how business helps shape public opinion.
Brewing Battles reveals the complicated changes in the economic clout of the industry. Prior to the institution of the income tax in 1913 the liquor industry contributed over 50% of the federal government s internal revenue; 19th century temperance advocates portrayed the liquor industry as King Alcohol. Today their tax contribution is only 1% yet brewing actually has a much more pervasive influence, touching on almost every aspect of modern American life and contributing greatly to the GNP. Brewing Battles is this story.
Internal Revenue, 48. 233 Witte, The Federal Income Tax, 79; Gilbert, American Financing, 76. 234 Kerr, Organized for Prohibition; 205-207. 235 U.S. Office of Internal Revenue, Annual Report of the Commissioner (Washington, D.C., 1918), 2-3. 81 Brewing Battles : A History of American Beer yer, doctor, the grocer, the druggist, the barber, the butcher, dry goods man and teamster? How will they raise this revenue?”236 Such pleas fell on deaf ears as prohibitionists narrowed the net around the
“Wets are Jubilant, Drys Disappointed,” New York Times, June 2, 1923, 2; David Fahey, “National Prohibition (United States),” in Blocker, et al., Encyclopedia, 440-443. 277 Oscar Handlin, Al Smith and His America (Boston: Little, Brown, 1958) 109, 127, 130; Richard O’Connor, The First Hurrah, A Biography of Alfred E. Smith (New York: Putnam,1970), 191-192. 93 Brewing Battles : A History of American Beer drink. You see, when they vote, it’s counted; but when they drink it ain’t. If you could
restless welcome to a new season. For Billy Bock, bellicose Billy who recognized no master remains fettered and forgotten this spring.”413 The promotion of bock beer was an attempt to generate sales; from Repeal until the start of World War II, brewers faced slow sales and intense competition. Beginning in 1943, increased consumer spending due to greater workforce participation, the limited nature of rationing, and their required production for military purposes led to high consumption. Internal
time period. In 2000, when Philip Morris was the nation’s largest tobacco manufacturer, it also owned Kraft Foods, the country’s largest 502 “Grace Cancels Miller Purchase,” New York Times, June 12, 1969, 65; “Philip Morris is Seeking Miller,” New York Times, June 13, 1969, 67. 503 John Gurda, Miller Time: A History of Miller Brewing Company 1855-2005 (Milwaukee, WI: 2005), 147. 504 “Top Officers Selected by Miller Brewing Co.,” New York Times, January 22, 1970, 59; “Acquisition is Set by
Minnesota Brewing. Rainier Beer, the iconic beer of Seattle, Washington, had been a large regional brewery for almost seventy years. Stroh’s was the final owner of both the brewery and the beer. Stroh’s acquired Rainier in its purchase of Heileman in 1996. When it sold the company to Pabst, Rainier’s million barrel capacity made it “too small to be big and too big to be small.”593 Craft brewing has four segments; micro-breweries, brewpubs, contract brewers, and regional breweries. Micro-brewing