Excerpts from Business History Review, (Summer 2009 Vol. 83 Issue 2) of Brewing Battles:
Brewing Battles is a study of the relations between government and the beer industry, specifically on the impact of taxation and the industry’s continuing struggle to keep the forces of temperance at bay. The descriptions of the cultural history of beer, featuring the barons who developed dynastic businesses, add the froth.
Mittelman has drawn from a variety of trade-association publications, government reports, newspapers, and secondary sources for this overview of the development of beer and its place in the American cultural and economic landscape. The sections on business–government relations, determined prohibitionists, and internal industry dynamics are strong.
Brewing Battles offers the historian and beer enthusiast alike a competent overview of an important industry.
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NEW:
Brewing Battles was recently reviewed in Minnesota History and Mid-Atlantic Brewing News. To read the reviews go to Algora Publishing.
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CHOICE Science & Technology - RECOMMENDED - ALL READERS.
Mittelman, historian and writer, provides a detailed history of American beer in this book that spans the early Colonial days to the present. American beer has been influenced by many German and Czech immigrants who brought their brewing expertise to the US and founded many breweries. The important topics of taxation and regulation of alcoholic beverages are comprehensively described. Organizations such as the United States Brewers Organization, which enabled brewers to work cooperatively together, are a significant part of the history. Prohibition, dry geographic regions, and the legal drinking age have all impacted the brewing industry. As young adults began to drive regularly, auto accidents associated with alcohol consumption became an issue, and organizations such as Mothers against Drunk Driving (MADD) were established. Technology issues, such as the sterilization of beer and the development of better containers, are also part of this history. The work contains eight chapters and includes many references for those who want to read original sources. Summing up: RECOMMENDED – ALL READERS.
May 2008
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| Beer Coasters, photo courtsey of www.allaboutbeer.com/images/dads_coasters.jpg |
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| Reference & Research Book News - May 2008
An American historian specializing in the politics of alcohol production, Mittelman surveys the economics and regulation as well as official and popular political forces affecting the brewing, selling, and consumption of beer from colonial times to 2006. Central to her story, though by no means the whole thing, is the role that alcohol and tobacco taxes played in supporting the financial activities of the US government from 1862 to 1913, and how beer brewers reacted by forming the country's oldest trade association, which lasted 124 years.
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by Alan (Ontario) [ 8:51 AM May 3, 2008] - A Good Beer Blog
Well, I am now coming up to half way through Amy Mittelman's book Brewing Battles and I have to tell you that as far as I am concerned this is the best book on US beer history I have had my hands on. That being said, I admit I have not got a copy of 1962's Brewed in America The level of research and detail is simply richer that found in Ambitious Brew and, unlike Beer In America: The Early Years, it's not just about the early years.
There is a good explanation of the role of taxation and beer from the Civil War when it became a prime source of Federal Revenue to WWI when income tax replaced it, thus assisting in the freeing up beer to be part of prohibition. While not as dry as Tremblay and Tremblay, there is an academic tone to the book but once you are rolling along with the text, it's not an issue.
The quality of the footnoting which, combined with internet news archiving and Google Books, allows the reader to corroborate much of the detail on the go if that is what you are into.
Buy it.
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Appellation Beer Blog
March 19, 2008
http://appellationbeer.com/blog/book-review-learning-from-brewing-battles/
The countdown to April 7 has begun…. It will be 75 years ago April 7 that breweries resumed shipping beer, albeit lower strength (3.2% alcohol by weight) until Prohibition was repealed later in 1933. Thus the Brewers Association, Beer Institute and National Beer Wholesalers Association are promoting a 75 Years of Beer celebration.
So far you won’t see many events listed, but it would be fun to find something like the one Portneuf Valley Brewing plans closer than Idaho. The brewpub will sell a nine-ounce glass of Ligertown Lager for 10 cents, compared with the usual cost of about $2.
Heck, the taxes on a glass of beer run more than 10 cents, which — to be honest — is one of the reasons Prohibition ended. As long as we are celebrating history it’s good to view it from more than one perspective. Beer back = good. Why = more complicated.
If you view American beer history through the filter of Stanley Baron’s “Brewed in America” and then Ogle’s “Ambitiious Brew” you’ll see facts hidden in the shadows in one look different in the bright light of the other. Same with “Beer & Food: An American History” and “The U.S. Brewing Industry: Data and Economic Analysis.”
Add Amy Mittelman’s “Brewing Battles: A History of American Beer” to the list.
Mittleman has a Ph.D. in history with a special focus on the politics of alcohol production. Obviously that includes examining the role of Prohibitionists, but also taxation — an issue with beer long before the first European settlers arrived in America.
The United States Brewers Association (USBA), the nation’s oldest trade association, was formed in 1862, not coincidentally the same year the federal government started taxing beer. The USBA worked with the government, the government assured that taxes would be collected and the brewers minimizing (as much as they could) how much they would be taxed.
Despite increasing rhetoric from Prohibitionists this was a solid partnership for more than 50 years. Until ratification of the Sixteenth Amendment (introducing federal income tax) in 1913 liquor industry taxes provided more than 50 percent of the federal government’s revenue. Little wonder that if you browse through the USBA’s annual yearbooks from the ‘teens you get a sense that the government surely would not ban the sale of alcohol and eliminate the source of most its income. By 1920 they were wrong about the income and wrong about Prohibition.
Prohibition did not end simply because the federal government, and now the states (which generally had not taxed liquor), reconsidered the need for the taxes liquor generated. However it did take them only a week after beer resumed shipping to pass new taxes. And 75 years later we’re still debating “sin” taxes.
That’s not all there is to this book. It’s certainly academic in tone, with even more footnotes than “Ambitious Brew” (don’t take that wrong; I like footnotes), but Mittleman doesn’t settle for just economics and politics.
Often the details are more interesting than sweeping generalizations, most of which you may already have read. These may be quick facts, such as what brewery workers were paid in the 1860s, or a mixture of culture and politics, like the debate between those who wanted to make the annual release of bock beer a major promotion and those who wanted to discontinue production altogether.
She certainly sees the big picture, for instance using the Miller Brewing arc — beginning with Frederick Miller in the 19th century, rattling the brewing industry in the mid-20th century when Philip Morris buys the company, and continuing in the 21st century as a global company after being acquired by South African Breweries — to take us right up to today.
She does not linger over modern micro/craft brewing, but does get to a point at least one person (me) thinks matters.
“The emergence of craft brewing highlights a battle within the brewing industry over authenticity and identity. Since World War II the national brewers have connected beer to all things American — baseball, barbeques, race cars, and pretty, sexy women. Yet the nationalizing of the beer industry removed one of the most potent aspects of beer’s identity — localism. The new generation of brewers emphasizes its connection to place and community even more than taste. They stake a claim to authenticity via their roots in a specific locale.”
There’s little chance they’ve been around 75 years, but go ahead and toast them on April 7 . . .
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Book release party on tap in Amherst
The Springfield Republican
George Lenker
Thursday, February 21, 2008
If news reports about the war in Iraq have got you down, let me recommend some reading about a more enjoyable set of hostilities: "Brewing Battles" by Amherst author Amy Mittelman.
Mittelman, who holds a doctorate in history (with a focus on alcohol production - more on that later) from Columbia University, recently published this exhaustive tome which touches on numerous aspects of brewing history in the United States. Mittelman will hold a book release party on Feb. 27 from 5 to 7 p.m. at the Amherst Brewing Company.
"Brewing Battles" (published by Algora Publishing) peers through a glass brightly at the American brewing industry from colonial days to the present. From the early days of the nation, through the struggles of German immigrant brewers to establish themselves up to Prohibition and the modern craft beer movement, the book leaves no stone - or coaster - unturned in its search for how beer has affected both American culture and government.
Mittelman said she decided to write the book for several reasons.
"I had done earlier work on the liquor industry and I saw so many areas of change, but also of continuity," she said. "If you look at what brewers said in 19th century, it's not that different than what they say today and I wanted to explore that. I also felt that the whole nexus of alcohol and government income before Prohibition was fascinating."
This nexus to which Mittelman refers is the fact that prior to the institution of the income tax in 1913, the liquor industry taxation provided more than 50 percent of the federal government's internal revenue.
It was when she learned this fact years ago, she said, that led her to focus on alcohol production in her doctoral program.
With her background, Mittelman could have chosen other alcoholic beverages for the topic of her book, but she believed beer was the right choice.
"When I was looking at it, I wanted something with a long historical span and the history of beer appeared more cohesive," she said. "There were also more identifiable players in the beer industry. Beer has a more indispensable everyday image."
Mittelman said while she wasn't necessarily surprised by anything during her research for the book, she was amazed by several things.
I was amazed how modern those 19th century brewers were in how they approached economic and government issues," she said. "And if you look at the modern period, beer has achieved the goal of those early German brewers to make it a national beverage."
The book also looks at how brewers shape changing patterns of American alcohol consumption: What we drink, how we drink and even where we drink. And be forewarned, this is not light reading, nor a book to be read after more than one or two beers. There are footnotes and references that rival the most scholarly of publications.
"I wanted to write a book that was easy to read but one that was also well-researched," Mittelman said.
Although larger breweries continue to merge and craft brewers make inroads into the market, Mittelman sees little changing in brewing's foreseeable future.
"I think we really have had a two-tiered industry for a while now and we'll probably continue to have that," she said. "Going back a long way in 1880s, when some brewers started adding corn to make a lighter beer, there was always a percentage of market that wanted hoppier beers, and that's who the microbrewers are serving today." George Lenker can be reached at thebeernut@ verizon.net
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Strange Brew
Valley Advocate
February 20, 2008
By Sarah Gibbons
Since German brewers first attempted to institute themselves in America and effectively created the brewing industry, beer has gone from marginalized to outlawed to mass-produced.
For many, the act of drinking beer is no longer in pursuit of effect, but is rather a thing of taste. Amherst writer Amy Mittelman’s love of beer extends beyond taste. Inspired by the number of establishments in the area that celebrate beer and make legions of micro-brews available to more discerning imbibers, Mittelman penned Brewing Battles, a comprehensive history of American beer and its journey from humble beginnings to its current iconic status. Mittelman is hosting a book party at the Amherst Brewing Company, where she’ll give a talk and sign books before partaking of the heady brew she so admires.
Feb. 27, 5-7 p.m., Amherst Brewing Company, 24 North Pleasant St., Amherst, (413) 253-4400.
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Amherst Bulletin, December 14, 2007
Attention beer lovers: This one's for you
Everyone knows the name Sam Adams - if not the beer then the colonial-era patriot and prominent maltster who encouraged home production and consumption of beer. But fewer are familiar with Colonel Jacob Ruppert.
The George Steinbrenner of the mid-20th century, Ruppert owned the New York Yankees from 1914 until his death in 1939. He also owned the Ruppert Brewery, which had million-barrel sales prior to Prohibition and was a leader of the brewing industry during Prohibition and Repeal. Babe Ruth was at his deathbed and over 15,000 people attended his funeral including Mayor Fiorello LaGuardia and Lou Gehrig.
Such tidbits of American breweriana are available in a new book by Amherst historian and writer Amy Mittelman. "Brewing Battles: The History of American Beer" (Algora Publishing, 2007) is a story of the American brewing industry and its leading figures, from colonial days to the present. The chronicle includes the story of the struggle of German immigrant brewers to establish themselves in America, and the more recent emergence of micro-brewers.
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