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Publisher: United States Brewers Association, 1909.
Hard Cover, 105 pages, 6.00 x 8.75.
Item #1327
A large part of the function of the U.S. Brewers' Association during the pre-prohibition years was to promote the benefits and economic value of beer to the American public, particularly in light of the ever-growing prohibition movement. Toward that end, this hardcover book was published in 1909 by the USBA. It is a nice history of beer and brewing in America, starting in New England and moving through New York, Pennsylvania and into the South. The book then moves on to a thorough description of the contemporary (1909) brewing process. Portions of this book were borrowed from the 1891 book Twenty-Five Years of Brewing (see above). It is a super rare early brewing text -- a true treasure, and a great pre-pro collectible. TABLE OF CONTENTS:
Chapter 1: New England
Chapter 2: Brewing in New York
Chapter 3: Excise in New Netherland
Chapter 4: Brewing in Pennsylvania
Chapter 5: Brewing in the South
Chapter 6: Decline of Brewing
Chapter 7: The Rise of Lager Beer
Chapter 8: How Beer Is Brewed
Chapter 9: Water, Ice, Steam, and Light
Chapter 10: American Hop Culture
Chapter 11: American Barley EXCERPT:
Lager beer, as a product of American industry, although introduced, as has been intimated, about the year 1842, did not gain popular favor until the decade following its introduction; nevertheless, all authorities agree that it tended even at that time to impart a strong impetus to brewing. As to the exact date of its introduction, and the person by whom it was first introduced, there still exists so much uncertainty that no writer on the subject has ventured to go beyond mere hypothetical assertions. Did we not live in an enlightened age, the mystery in which the origin of American lager beer is shrouded might add another legend to the many mythical tales which, variously colored by different nations, are current concerning the father of real beer. We say real beer, for, although the use of a wine like beverage, extracted from barley, extends far into the pre-historic ages, real beer (that is, the drink known to us by that name) is of more recent origin; yet, as to the place and date of the latter, nothing definite can be known. While some attribute the invention of hopped malt beer to Jan Primus (John I), a scion of the stock of Burgundy princes, who lived about the year 1251, others ascribe it to Jean Sans Peur (1371-1419), otherwise known as Ganbrivius. A corruption of either name may plausibly be shown to have resulted in the present name of the King of Beer, viz., Gambrinus, whom we are accustomed to see represented in the habit of a knight of the middle ages, with the occasional addition of a crown. Popular imagination, it seems, attached so much importance to beer that in according the honor of its invention, it could not be satisfied with anything less than a king; just as the Egyptians, in remote antiquity, ascribed the invention of their barley drink to their benevolent god Osiris, while the ancient Germans conceived of a brew house in Walhalla, under the supervision of a presiding deity. As a bit of amusing anachronism, it may be mentioned that there is a poetical apotheosis of Gambrinus, which elevates that personage to the dignity of a heathen god, alongside Bacchus.
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