Ambitious Brew - A Review
By
James Wudarczyk - posted August 25, 2007

One may purchase beer at ballgames, in bars, lounges, restaurants, or through distributors. Like most products, beer is so commonplace that little or no thought is given to how it is produced, who produces it, or why it is socially acceptable. While most people simply take beer for granted, Maureen Ogle set out to discover the story of American beer. Ambitious Brew: The Story of American Beer proves to be one of those easy-to-read, yet highly informative histories. The author accomplishes her goal of exploring the subject by providing the reader with ample text, fascinating photographs, extensive endnotes, and a large bibliography. It is obvious that Ogle did her homework and thoroughly researched her subject.

Throughout the years, Lawrenceville has been home to a number of breweries. Of course, the last remaining of these major breweries is Pittsburgh Brewing Company – best known for Iron City and I C Light. Since the end of 2005, Pittsburgh Brewing has been in the news quite frequently in its battle for reorganization and financial stability. Although there are still a large number of microbreweries and contract brewers, smaller breweries like Pittsburgh Brewing Company remain a rare breed in today’s beer market. Unlike the 19th century when thousands of breweries existed throughout the country, today the beer market is dominated by a handful of giants that control the lion’s share of the business. Maureen Ogle’s history makes only a brief mention of Pittsburgh Brewing when she discusses Jim Koch and his success with Samuel Adams Beer. After discussing Koch’s financing of his venture, she wrote, “That was enough to produce a sample batch, which he brewed on contract at Pittsburgh Brewing, a struggling small brewery with plenty of vat space for rent.” She also includes a photograph of Jim Koch holding two bottles of his famous beer as he stands outside the White House. Ogle contends, “Since 1987 Samuel Adams has been served at the president’s residence, at Camp David, and on Air Force One.”

Although most of Ogle’s history centers on the history of the major breweries, she also discusses the rise of the microbreweries and contract brewers, and makes for a strong case illustrating that the rise of early beer manufacturing was directly attributed to German immigration. Ogle goes so far as to contend that the early Republican Party, founded in Rippon, Wisconsin in 1852, rejected the concept of temperance because it was eager to incorporate the growing German population into its new political movement. To a certain extent Ogle is correct on this issue. When the Republicans and other third parties were organized as a national political organization under the Republican banner in Pittsburgh in February 1856, they swept the temperance and prohibitionists to the back of the room. However, the temperance people found a natural home in the Republican Party. For example, the 1855 preamble for the true Republicans in Salem Township in Columbiana County, Ohio, included a plank calling for the prohibition of alcoholic beverages.

Ogle saw the American Civil War as a boom to beer manufacturers since even the United States Sanitary Commission considered lager to be non-intoxicating. While hard liquor was banned from most camps, military clerks often purchased large quantities of lager since it traveled better than ale and was considered a suitable substitute for vegetables. However, Ogle notes that the popularity of beer and ale was not completely a windfall for most breweries since the federal government levied a tax of one dollar per barrel, and required the brewers to purchase a federal manufacturers’ license at a cost of $100 for any brewer that produced over 500 barrels per year. The license fee was set at $50 for those brewers who produced less than 500 barrels.

Working in a brewery in the 1880’s was not without its downside. Although brewery workers were the highest paid industrial workers in the nation, they often called for strikes and boycotts in protest to the brutal working conditions. It was not uncommon for a workweek to constitute seven 14-hour days.

From the end of the Civil War until 1920 beer was a man’s drink, and saloons were popular “hang outs.” Ogle very interestingly tracks historical periods and attributes the changes in society to beer consumption. For example, she notes that during the 1920’s after women “abandoned serge skirts and high-neck blouses in favor of clingy rayon stitched into mere slips of gowns,” weight became an obsession. She added that “fear of fat left a loathing for beer” since the beverage was associated with the “Munich matron with double chins running all the way down to her ankles.” Also, between 1911 and 1934 there was a tremendous increase in the popularity of martinis and soft drinks. Thus, even prior to Prohibition, beer consumption was waning, and it was impossible to keep the nation’s two to three thousand breweries in operation. After Prohibition, the advancements in trucks, cars, and better roads made it possible for “fewer breweries to fulfill more demand.”

Contrary to public belief that the repeal of Prohibition was an automatic boom that restored the brewing industry to its 19th century heights, Ogle points out that the number of breweries continued to decrease from 739 in 1936 to 625 in 1938. She attributes the decrease in part to the drought of 1936 and the recession of 1937, which put additional pressure on the smaller breweries. The shortage of materials resulting from World War II forced brewers to look for cheaper substitutes as ingredients for beer. Ogle packs her book with interesting trivia. For example, she indicates that in 1943 the Food Distribution Administration ordered 15 percent of all beer production be handed over for those serving in the military. Although there was a general overall increase in beer consumption between 1950 and 1960, Ogle is quick to point out that there various ups and downs in the market during that period. These downturns negatively impacted the smaller breweries. She demonstrates how the 1960’s became the era of corporate beer. Throughout her book, and especially in the latter chapters, Ogle contends that beer manufacturing is a highly speculative business.

Maureen Ogle is a natural historian. She demonstrates a keen ability to tackle a vast amount of material and condense it into a single volume without sacrificing pertinent information. While it was hoped that Ogle would have delved more into some of the smaller breweries, to do so would have detracted from her goal of producing a national history. Reading Ambitious Brew: The Story of American Beer surely creates a greater awareness of how national trends impacted local breweries. Ogle did her job. Now the documentation of smaller breweries rests with local historical communities.