Beer is the world's most popular drink. And it comes in an amazing variety of recipes.
The kind of beer brewed in Milwaukee, WI, by Adam Koenig in BirthRights: A Dangerous Brew appealed to the many German immigrants who arrived in the growing city in the mid 19th century. The fictitious Koenig Brewery followed the German model of purity for beer: the ingredients are water, malted barley, and hops -- plus yeast. Nothing else.
Hops
Tom Robbins is best know for his adult novels (such as Even Cowgirls Get the Blues, et.al.). He has also written a clever little book for kids called B is for Beer. He has concocted a wonderfully expressive definition of beer:
"...when brewers combine hops with yeast and grain and water, allow the mixture to ferment -- to rot -- it magically produces an elixir so gassy with blue collar cheer, so regal with hints of gold, so titillating with potential mischief, so triumphantly refreshing, that it seizes the soul and thrusts it toward that ethereal plateau where, to paraphrase Baudelaire, all human whimsies float and merge."
Now that is writing!!! Hooray, Tom! We sincerely recommend B is for Beer.
Beer has been around in one form or another for six to eight thousand years, give or take a few! There are many kinds of fermented beverages, brewed from almost any vegetable or fruit. The German immigrants to the US preferred lager, the type of beer they’d
enjoyed in Europe. It is brewed differently
than ales, popular since colonial days. Some of the recent arrivals knew precisely
how to satisfy their new countrymen’s thirst for the lighter, golden lager that soon dominated local markets.
The explosive growth of several of the great
Milwaukee breweries was at least partly due to the great Chicago Fire of
October, 1871. By a fateful coincidence, refrigerated railroad cars had
recently been developed; they were soon filled with Milwaukee’s favorite
product traveling south 90 miles to replace the output of Chicago breweries,
many of which were lost in the flames.
In the novel BirthRights:
A Dangerous Brew, Adam Koenig is one of the men who responds quickly to
Chicago’s trauma. Before long, his beer – paralleling that of the real
Milwaukee breweries – was shipped worldwide.
Milwaukee County Historical Society
Barnes & Noble Nook: http://www.barnesandnoble.com/s/BirthRights--A-Dangerous-Brew?keyword=BirthRights%3A+A+Dangerous+Brew&store=nookstore
Smashwords: http://www.smashwords.com/books/view/129111
ISBN
978-1-4658-4220-6
All this hoppy talk has me about to head to the refrigerator for a tall, cool one--it's five o'clock somewhere after all! Seriously, though, I just found two books I want to read: Birthrights and B is for Beer! Bravo, Summit!
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