When Was Beer Invented In America? - 2023, Información de la cerveza

Beginnings – The earliest record of brewing dates from 1587, and the first commercial brewery in the United States was built by the Dutch West India Company in 1632 in Lower Manhattan on Brewers (later Stone) Street, On February 5, 1663, Nicholas Varlett obtained from Peter Stuyvesant a patent for a brewery on Castle Point in Hoboken, New Jersey,

The brewing traditions of England and the Netherlands (as brought to New York ) ensured that colonial drinking would be dominated by beer rather than wine. Until the middle of the 19th century, British-style ales dominated American brewing. This changed when the longer shelf-life lager styles brought by German immigrants turned out to be more profitable for large-scale manufacturing and shipping.

The hops in lager had preservative qualities, while non-hopped local ales of the time quickly turned sour and were a perceived risk to drink. The lager brewed by these companies was originally based on several different styles of Central Europe, but the Pilsener style, using mild Czech hops, pale, lightly roasted six-row barley and often adjuncts such as rice and corn, gradually won out.

Steam beer, the first uniquely American beer style, evolved in the San Francisco area during the 19th century. It was born out of the desire to produce lager beer without the use of refrigeration. After prohibition ended, the Anchor Brewing Company was left as the sole producer of steam beer. The company was near closure in 1965, whereupon Fritz Maytag, great-grandson of the Maytag Corporation founder, rescued the brewery and with it the steam beer style.

Anchor has since trademarked the term “Steam Beer” and all subsequent renditions of the style are now termed California common, D.G. Yuengling & Son, commonly called Yuengling (pronounced “ying-ling”), is the oldest operating brewing company in the United States, having been established in 1829 by David Yuengling, and is one of the largest breweries by volume in the country. Headquartered in Pottsville, Pennsylvania, it is currently the largest American-owned brewery. Best Brewing Co., Juneau Avenue, Milwaukee, Wisconsin, circa 1885 One of the earliest large-scale brewers was Best Brewing (later renamed Pabst Brewing Company ), a Milwaukee brewery built by German immigrant Phillip Best in the 1840s. It began shipping its beer to Chicago and St.

Louis the following decade, first by ferry and eventually by rail, establishing an early trans-market beer brand in the United States. Other successful breweries of the era begun by German immigrants in Milwaukee included Valentin Blatz Brewing Company, Joseph Schlitz Brewing Company, and Miller Brewing Company,

The Weston Brewing Company was first established in 1842 by German immigrant John Georgian. Georgian brought the tradition of lager brewing with him when he settled in Weston. The brewery was designed to utilize ice from the river during winter and lagering cellars dug deep into the ground to create ideal conditions for his beer which needed to be stored below 60 degrees for more than six weeks.

In creating the brewery, the Weston Brewing Company became one of the first lager breweries in the United States. In St. Louis, a prosperous German soap maker, Eberhard Anheuser, purchased a struggling brewery in 1860. His daughter married a brewery supplier, Adolphus Busch, who took over the company after his father-in-law’s death, and renamed it Anheuser-Busch,

The Ancient History of Beer: Invention, Importance and Development of Beer

Busch soon toured Europe, discovering the success of Bohemian lager, and introduced Budweiser beer (named after a beer brewed in the town of Budweis in Bohemia ) in 1876. Anheuser-Busch, and its Budweiser beer, would go on to be the largest brewery and beer brand in the world.

The company innovated the use of refrigeration in rail cars to transport its beers, which helped make bottled Budweiser the first national beer brand in the United States.
A massive increase in immigration to the United States from Central and Eastern Europe led to an increase in beer consumption between 1880 and 1920 despite an overall decline in per capita alcohol consumption.

In 1912, the use of brown bottles began to be used by Joseph Schlitz Brewing Company of Milwaukee, Wisconsin, This innovation has since been accepted worldwide and prevents harmful rays from destroying the quality and stability of beer.

Which country invented beer first?

The Sumerians – There are some theories that beer brewing happened at Godin Tepe settlement (now in modern-day Iran) as early as 10,000 BCE when agriculture first developed in the region. The people who lived in the land between the Euphrates and Tigris rivers considered beer a very important part of their diet. They called it ” the divine drink ” because of its intoxicating effect. Alulu beer receipt – This records a purchase of “best” beer from a brewer, c.2050 BC from the Sumerian city of Umma in ancient Iraq The first solid proof of beer production comes from the period of the Sumerians around 4,000 BCE. During an archeological excavation in Mesopotamia, a tablet was discovered that showed villagers drinking a beverage from a bowl with straws.

Did they drink beer in the 1800s?

Beer in America – From 19th century immigration to Prohibition to today’s explosion of microbreweries, the beer industry in America has evolved over time. We have German immigrants and Prohibition to thank for how we drink beer. Beer is the most popular alcoholic beverage in America — and has been for a very long time. Theresa McCulla What does the early American beer scene look like? Who’s making it? Who’s drinking it? How much are they drinking? In colonial America and until the mid-19 th century, Americans drank prolifically. They drank a variety of things. Most popular was hard cider — typically around 10 percent alcohol — as well as imported wine and rum, which became especially popular beginning in the early 1700s.

They brewed what was called “small beer” in the home, which had a very low alcohol content — about 1 percent. Beer, like cider, was very much considered a domestic product; it was something that women typically made in the home. In the slaveholding South, the household’s brewer was likely an enslaved person.

Beer wasn’t considered a special product; it was something that was drunk by everyone all the time. When did an American beer industry begin to emerge? The mode of beer consumption changed a lot from the mid-19 th century onward. The 1840s marked the beginning of a large wave of immigration from what we know today as Germany.

Immigrant German men came and transformed brewing into a professional industry in America. For the first time, you have truly large-scale breweries in urban centers around the country. And they’re brewing for a new class of workers — which is another important trend. After the end of the Civil War, you have an increasing number of people who are going to work for wages in factories.

At the end of the day, they have a little bit of money to spend. They take it to the corner saloon, which becomes a very important place socially — especially for immigrant groups who are new to America and might not speak English. It’s a great place to find someone who perhaps is from your own hometown, and maybe has advice to share about a place to work in this unfamiliar new city, or thoughts on the current political scene in America or back home. Horse-drawn beer wagons with teamsters at the reins line up in front of Baltimore’s John F. Wiessner & Sons Brewery in 1911. Credit: Walter Voigt/National Museum of American History, Kenneth E. Behring Center. So most of this beer is being brewed by German immigrants.

Is beer considered a German product, or an American one? I think that Americans who went to those kinds of saloons understood that what they were drinking was produced by a German brewer. That being said, brewers created an abundance of regional styles. Overall, though, brewers of this era produced a lager beer that required a different kind of yeast and a different brewing method than the previously common British-style ales.

Germans produced a very effervescent and light beverage that was enjoyable and easy to drink. These immigrants also brought with them a Biergarten atmosphere that became very popular among all kinds of Americans. In the mid- and late-1800s, German beer and places to enjoy it were really embraced by Americans.

That changed with World War I, when Germany became the enemy on the battlefield.
Then these breweries, whose beers people had grown up drinking, or had come to have an affection for, suddenly came to be seen as a kind of foreign entity within American borders.
So it was with the coming of the war that the ethnic nature of breweries became something for Americans to note.

This antipathy towards people who were not considered “American” was one factor that led to Prohibition. What was the relationship between the breweries and the saloons before Prohibition? Saloons were really the primary mode of distribution for beer at the time.

Mid-19 th century brewers packaged their beer in barrels, loaded them onto horse-drawn carts, and brought them down the street to the network of saloons that might be within a small radius of the brewery.
Many breweries essentially sponsored these saloons, supporting them financially if the saloons served their beer.

They also supplied all kinds of ornamentation within the space — colorful serving trays, for example. Saloons became a kind of advertising mechanism for breweries. You ended up with a system in which many of the saloons relied on the brewing industry in order to survive. Advertisement for Budweiser beer, Anheuser-Busch, St. Louis, Mo. Credit: Warshaw Collection of Business Americana, National Museum of American History, Archives Center. Prohibition goes into effect in January of 1920. How do breweries and saloons react? Do they think it will last? There were differing opinions about it — and that’s reflected in the ways that breweries and saloons dealt with the challenges of Prohibition.

The biggest brewers tried to weather the 13 years that Prohibition lasted by redirecting their infrastructure to different uses.
So companies like Anheuser-Busch made a malt extract syrup for home brewers; Pabst used their refrigerated facilities to store cold products like cheese and sodas; and Schlitz brewery made chocolate.

Some also made non-alcoholic “tonics” that contained hops or malt but did not count as intoxicating beverages. Consumers tried these things at the beginning of Prohibition but soon switched to sweet beverages like Coca-Cola. The growth of soda fountains and ice cream parlors during Prohibition was quite important.

They provided a new, more wholesome setting where families could go together to enjoy a drink or a sweet treat. One study found that in Grand Rapids, Michigan, one third of the saloons tried to wait out Prohibition by serving other things; one third of them closed; and another third of them converted to ice cream parlors.

Prohibition ends in 1933. What is the state is the American beer industry at that point? Prohibition was completely devastating to the American beer industry. One study counted more than 1,300 breweries before Prohibition and barely 30 after repeal, though reported numbers vary.

Generally, the bigger breweries fared better than the smaller ones.
They had resources at their disposal that allowed them to invest in modernizations to their facilities that smaller brewers could certainly never afford — whether you’re talking about refrigeration or fleets of vehicles to transport their products.

By the end of Prohibition, they were poised to take advantage of the market, and you see a shift from local beer culture to a national network of producers. The way mid-20 th century breweries conveyed their beer to consumers changed, too. Before Prohibition, brewers distributed their beer in barrels, for the most part.

After Prohibition, you have a big increase in bottling and canning.
One scholar estimates that as of 1935, shortly after Prohibition, one third of beer was packaged; by 1940, one half of beer was packaged; and by 1960, 80 percent of beer was packaged.
And that switch from unpackaged beer to packaged beer had quite a lot of interesting social implications.

If you’re drinking beer from a barrel or a keg, you’re most likely in a communal setting like a bar, pub, or tavern, and you’re probably drinking with other people. But packaged beer can be transported by highway right to your grocery store. Also, by the 1930s, refrigerators became much more prevalent in American homes, and once you have a fridge, then you can store your canned or bottled beer at home. Advertisement, Schlitz Beer, Milwaukee, Wi. Credit: Warshaw Collection of Business Americana, National Museum of American History, Archives Center. Does the number of breweries rise again in the decades after Prohibition? In the early 1930s, Americans were very excited to celebrate the end of Prohibition.

Many rushed to get licenses for new breweries, thinking it would be easy to cash in on consumers’ thirst.
But brewing has serious sanitation requirements.
Many of these new brewers did not know how to brew well.
They brewed bad batches, causing several food poisoning scares, which turned customers off of beer.

Prohibition was also repealed in the midst of the Depression. Despite early high hopes, many breweries soon found themselves in big financial trouble. This all led to industry consolidation. By the late 1970s and early 1980s, a handful of very large brewing companies produced upward of 90 percent of the beer Americans drank.

They produced a homogeneous style of beer — light, sweet, and pale. Home brewers and eventually craft brewers came to resist this. In the late 1960s and early 1970s you have the first hints of a craft beer movement. What does the American beer scene look like today? According to the Brewers Association, approximately 71 percent of the volume of beer consumed in America continues to be large domestic production.

Seventeen percent would be imported beer. And the other 12 percent is domestic craft production. But the number of breweries in America is at the highest point ever and growth is coming from the bottom, with the little guys. There are over 5,000 breweries now and many more in the planning.

Globally, the U.S.
Is now very much the epicenter of the craft or artisan beer movement.
That is a new phenomenon.
I would argue that it’s unique for American food or drink culture to be the reference point for the rest of the world.
Relatively recently, just 50 years ago, when there wasn’t a diverse range of beers being made in America, brewers looked elsewhere for inspiration.

But now brewers around the world look to America. They come and do internships or stages in American breweries to understand how they can bring those kinds of innovative methods back home. With these kinds of cultural exchanges and with all that’s happening from a business perspective in the beer world, it’s a fascinating moment be studying beer.

Was there beer in 1920?

While it has generally been well received one thing a couple of people have told us they’d have liked more of in 20th Century Pub (please buy a copy) is beer. – It’s absence was the result of having only 80,000 words to play with, and having already written an entire book focusing on beer and brewing covering a big chunk of the same period.

Also, we rather defer to Martyn Cornell and Ron Pattinson in this territory. Why read us on beer before World War II when you can read both or either of them? (We’d be surprised if one or both of them don’t pop up with corrections in the comments below.) Still, there’s something fun about the idea of mapping one project against the other, especially if it’s an opportunity to try something creative.

At this point we’d like to thank Patreon supporters like Owain Ainsworth and Jonathan Tucker for giving us the impetus to spend rather more of our spare time than was entirely sensible working on this post and its sequel. Thanks, gang! This piece generalises by necessity: of course there were regional variations, and individual pubs which didn’t follow the pattern, and breweries that bucked trends. At the beginning of the 20th century most English pubs sold what we would now call cask ale, with bottled beers just beginning to become seriously popular. “The varieties of beers brewed at the present day are exceedingly numerous. Roughly speaking, they may be divided into strong, medium and light.

X Ale (Mild) at 5% ABVPorter, 5%PA (pale ale, AKA bitter) at 6%KK (Burton), 7%Stout, 7%

The same book also tells us that a little more than 30 per cent of all the beer produced by the big London brewer Whitbread in 1910 was basic mild, with pale ales of various types making up around 25 per cent, porter about 12, and stouts the remaining 30 or so. In other words, there was a pretty even balance, and no single style was overwhelmingly dominant. ” The ales have chiefly a vinous character and possess a good percentage of alcohol and extract, strongly marked hop flavor and bitter taste, and are rich in carbonic acid Porter, with a rich and very heavy foam, was in former years a very heavy beverage, but at present is brewed lighter, and has, as a result of its composition, a characteristic bitter and dry taste.” — One Hundred Years of Brewing, 1901 Nationwide, though, mild was already dominant, with about three quarters of the market according to one contemporary writer,

In this period, the same source tells us, mild was characterised by “fullness and sweetness of flavour no flavour of age upon it”, and minimal hop bitterness. Smaller, less fancy pubs — basic beer-houses on back streets, or in villages — were less likely to have cellars, beer engines and hand-pumps, instead dispensing beer directly from the cask.

You might drink your beer from pewter tankards (still hanging on, but old-fashioned), ceramic mugs (popular) or glass (on the rise). “As the First World War progressed, it came to be regarded as an unqualified misfortune for Britain’s brewers intensifying the existing trend towards lower levels of beer consumption.” — Gourvish & Wilson The coming of war saw both a drive to reduce harmful drinking among vital industrial workers and a squeeze on materials, so beer became more scarce, weaker and less varied in style, while pubs had their opening hours reduced. From 1917 so-called ‘Government Ale’ was introduced, with brewers given permission to produce more beer (there was industrial unrest driven by shortages) as long as half of what was brewed had an original gravity lower than 1036°. That mean mild (X ale) had an ABV of about 3.5% — astonishingly weak compared to what pre-War drinkers had been used to. In his 1922 book The Art of Innkeeping Alexander Part, one of the key players in the improved pub movement of the inter-war years, gave details of the kinds of draught beer pubs might stock, depending on what the brewery to which they were tied provided: “Almost every house stocks Bass, Worthington, and Guinness. Whitbread’s and Watney’s Stout and Ale, which are of a lower gravity and price, are also popular. Pints and half-pints are the most usual sizes.” — Alexander Part, 1922 That might look quite similar to a line-up from the 1900s but the balance had shifted.

Porter was on its last legs, both in terms of quality and availability, brewed in token amounts by those breweries that hadn’t given up on it altogether.
In 1923 Manchester brewery Boddington’s was producing only four different beers, down from eight in 1914.
What most breweries were producing, and the vast majority of pub drinkers were consuming, was mild.

Mild in the 1920s was strong by modern standards, nudging into 4+% ABV territory, but still much weaker than before WWI. Oddly, it had also begun to get darker through the addition of brewing sugars and caramel, perhaps because people associated high colour with high strength, and stronger flavours. There was also a new push on lager, both English brewed and imported, picking up the thread of the embryonic lager boom that stalled with the advent of WWI, It represented a tiny part of the market, and was largely confined to the poshest bars and pubs, but was much talked about and advertised.

We’d imagine that someone drinking lager in the 1920s would be making quite a statement, much as craft beer drinkers were in 2008.
There was a reduction in the number of the smallest, tattiest pubs in slum areas, and they were replaced with larger, smarter, purpose-built modern pubs.
Many older pubs that survived were refurbished to modern standards.

As a result draught beer stored in cellars and served using hand-pumps became the ” prevailing system “. Most people were drinking out of glasses, the mass-production of which had been perfected. The 1930s is when information about what people were drinking in pubs starts to become easier to lay hands on. In Bolton, Lancashire, when the Mass Observation project came to town in the late 1930s they found that mild was by far the most popular type of beer, sold at 5d a pint.

There was also best mild (“light in colour, like bitter”) which cost a penny more per pint. Draught stout was all but extinct with draught IPA strangely more common, though still rarely seen. “It’s a good appetiser — but I wouldn’t like to have a lot of it.” — a Bolton barman on draught IPA The reduction in available draught styles seems to to have continued.

The average Bolton pubs, MO tells us, had three or four pumps which once served mild, best mild and stout. By the late 1930s, though, one or two were usually either disconnected or being used as backup mild pumps. Source: Bolton Worktown archive. Though the breweries wouldn’t divulge sales information the MO crew did manage to get an estimate of weekly sales from a loose-tongued barman:

2.5 barrels of mild16 doz. of bottled ale12 doz. of Guinness4 doz. small bottles stout

There was practically no demand for bitter, apparently, and individual landlords, when asked, estimated that draught mild made up around 90 per cent of their total sales, Of the remaining 10 per cent, a substantial part was made up by women drinking bottled beer, especially stout, which was somehow seen as more respectable than draught mild. Mr Robert Neve in a Watford pub. SOURCE: LIFE magazine, 24 April 1939. “Call for ale in the saloon bar of a London pub, and the barmaid will say, ‘Other side, please,’ jerking her wet thumb in the direction of the public, or four-ale bar; for ale in London is a vulgar word.

The middle-classes there drink bitter, a pale, golden beer so sharply hop-flavored that foreigners find it undrinkable.” — H.W. Seaman, 1933 In London, mild was also the default, according to T.E.B. Clarke in his What’s Yours? of 1938, to the extent that asking a non-specific order for “a glass of beer” was taken to mean that you wanted mild.

He also recorded that some London pubs still had porter (“a lowly brand of draught stout”); that bitter was the safest thing to order, being a high-class drink; and mentions Burton, AKA Old. So that’s four beer styles common enough on draught to be worth mentioning. World War II was difficult for brewers but nothing like as difficult as World War I in that there was none of Lloyd George’s moral objection to drinking wrapped up in restrictions on materials. Beer got terribly weak but there was plenty of it. Gourvish and Wilson put forward an interesting theory in The British Brewing Industry, 1830-1980 : The quality and strength of draught beers left considerable room for improvement, and may well have stimulated a distrust of the darker draught beers (such as mild) and a corresponding preference for bottled beers after the war. The price list at The Cricketers, Brighton, in 1944. © IWM ( D 18494 ) So, if you’d walked into a pub in England during World War II, you would probably have found beer (although there were shortages later on); probably a choice of beers, just about; but they would probably have been weak — 3% or less — and brewed to a compromised recipe, with fewer hops, Belgian fisherman in Brixham, Devon, 1944. © IWM ( PD 220 ) As things began to normalise, with rationing on the way out and reconstruction slowly getting underway, the beer in pubs not only began to regain its variety but also underwent some big changes. “How often he hears a licensee say, ‘Oh, yes, they call for that mixed with with half-a-pint of bitter.’ “That” is probably one of the bottled beers the brewer has brewed with extreme trouble to be drunk on its own.” — Pleasing All Palates, The Times, 1958 First, there was an unexpected surge in the popularity of bottled beer.

Pubs which had been built with cask ale in mind suddenly had customers who wouldn’t touch it with a barge-pole. Hammond’s of Bradford reported that in 1939 they were selling 75% draught beer to 25% bottled, but that by 1951 the split had shifted to 70/30. By 1958 Ind Coope was reporting that about half the beer it brewed was ending up in bottles, compared to less than 10 per cent before WWII.

You might have seen people (especially women) drinking Mackeson milk stout, or brown ale; would-be sophisticates drinking lager; and people mixing bottled ales with draught bitter to give the latter a lift. “Two bitters and a bottle of brown.” From What’s Brewing, Leeds Camera Club,1959. There was much speculation over this change: it was because people had become obsessed with hygiene, or because of TV advertising, or because bottles offered more opportunity for colourful packaging and branding, or because young people were rejecting “what Dad drinks”, or because men wanted to keep their best suits clean in the pub, or because more women were drinking in the pub, or All of the above, to some degree, were probably true. Daily Herald, 28 April 1958, via The British Newspaper Archive. Then there was a slow growth in the popularity of bitter. By the end of the decade mild was still far and away the biggest selling draught beer overall with 65 per cent of sales in 1959 (FT, 12/63) but bitter had made significant headway, especially in in cities like London and Birmingham, to take the remaining 35 per cent.

“Lower income groups prefer dark, mild beer — and brewers put colouring in to suit them. The more money you earn, the paler the beer you drink.” — Daily Herald, 28/04/58 ” of our people have never had it so good.” — Prime Minister Harold Macmillan, 1957 This decade also saw the emergence of keg bitter in earnest, having been invented as we know it in the 1930s.

It made up a tiny percentage of sales in pubs during the 1950s but was being heavily marketed, and this was the decade when many breweries first began to brew their own answers to Flower’s Keg and Watney’s Red Barrel. The Lilliput Beer Book, a pamphlet given away with a men’s magazine in 1956 and written by Andrew Campbell, offers a helpful snapshot: Mild — usually about 3% alcohol by volume, lightly hopped, brewed from a mixture of pale and amber malts with some sugar.

The popular drink of the public bar. Mild beer, chilled and filtered, is bottled as brown ale. There are two stouts, nationally distributed: Guinness Extra Stout and Mackeson’s Draught pale ale — Bitter — 1030º or a little stronger, is the popular drink of the saloon bar, smooth, dry, refreshing. Filtered, chilled to 33º it becomes the very popular Light Ale Strong draught beers go by the name of Best Bitter and sell for a few pence more than the ordinary bitters Brewers are introducing more and more strong pale ales in bottle.

They go by name are well known locally

When did beer become popular in the US?

A Concise History of America’s Brewing Industry 1650 to 1800: The Early Days of Brewing in America Brewing in America dates to the first communities established by English and Dutch settlers in the early to mid seventeenth century. Dutch immigrants quickly recognized that the climate and terrain of present-day New York were particularly well suited to brewing beer and growing malt and hops, two of beer’s essential ingredients.

A 1660 map of New Amsterdam details twenty-six breweries and taverns, a clear indication that producing and selling beer were popular and profitable trades in the American colonies (Baron, Chapter Three).
Despite the early popularity of beer, other alcoholic beverages steadily grew in importance and by the early eighteenth century several of them had eclipsed beer commercially.

Between 1650 and the Civil War, the market for beer did not change a great deal: both production and consumption remained essentially local affairs. Bottling was expensive, and beer did not travel well. Nearly all beer was stored in, and then served from, wooden kegs.

While there were many small breweries, it was not uncommon for households to brew their own beer.
In fact, several of America’s founding fathers brewed their own beer, including George Washington and Thomas Jefferson (Baron, Chapters 13 and 16).1800-1865: Brewing Begins to Expand National production statistics are unavailable before 1810, an omission which reflects the rather limited importance of the early brewing industry.

In 1810, America’s 140 commercial breweries collectively produced just over 180,000 barrels of beer. During the next fifty years, total beer output continued to increase, but production remained small scale and local. This is not to suggest, however, that brewing could not prove profitable.

In 1797, James Vassar founded a brewery in Poughkeepsie, New York whose successes echoed far beyond the brewing industry. After several booming years Vassar ceded control of the brewery to his two sons, Matthew and John. Following the death of his brother in an accident and a fire that destroyed the plant, Matthew Vassar rebuilt the brewery in 1811.

Demand for his beer grew rapidly, and by the early 1840s, the Vassar brewery produced nearly 15,000 barrels of ale and porter annually, a significant amount for this period. Continued investment in the firm facilitated even greater production levels, and by 1860 its fifty employees turned out 30,000 barrels of beer, placing it amongst the nation’s largest breweries.

Today, the Vassar name is better known for the college Matthew Vassar endowed in 1860 with earnings from the brewery (Baron, Chapter 17).1865-1920: Brewing Emerges as a Significant Industry While there were several hundred small scale, local breweries in the 1840s and 1850s, beer did not become a mass-produced, mass-consumed beverage until the decades following the Civil War.

Several factors contributed to beer’s emergence as the nation’s dominant alcoholic drink. First, widespread immigration from strong beer drinking countries such as Britain, Ireland, and Germany contributed to the creation of a beer culture in the U.S.

Second, America was becoming increasingly industrialized and urbanized during these years, and many workers in the manufacturing and mining sectors drank beer during work and after. Third, many workers began to receive higher wages and salaries during these years, enabling them to buy more beer. Fourth, beer benefited from members of the temperance movement who advocated lower alcohol beer over higher alcohol spirits such as rum or whiskey.

Fifth, a series of technological and scientific developments fostered greater beer production and the brewing of new styles of beer. For example, artificial refrigeration enabled brewers to brew during warm American summers, and pasteurization, the eponymous procedure developed by Louis Pasteur, helped extend packaged beer’s shelf life, making storage and transportation more reliable (Stack, 2000).

Finally, American brewers began brewing lager beer, a style that had long been popular in Germany and other continental European countries.
Traditionally, beer in America meant British-style ale.
Ales are brewed with top fermenting yeasts, and this category ranges from light pale ales to chocolate-colored stouts and porters.

During the 1840s, American brewers began making German-style lager beers. In addition to requiring a longer maturation period than ales, lager beers use a bottom fermenting yeast and are much more temperature sensitive. Lagers require a great deal of care and attention from brewers, but to the increasing numbers of nineteenth century German immigrants, lager was synonymous with beer.

As the nineteenth century wore on, lager production soared, and by 1900, lager outsold ale by a significant margin. Together, these factors helped transform the market for beer. Total beer production increased from 3.6 million barrels in 1865 to over 66 million barrels in 1914. By 1910, brewing had grown into one of the leading manufacturing industries in America.

Yet, this increase in output did not simply reflect America’s growing population. While the number of beer drinkers certainly did rise during these years, perhaps just as importantly, per capita consumption also rose dramatically, from under four gallons in 1865 to 21 gallons in the early 1910s.

Year	National Production (millions of barrels)	Per Capita Consumption (gallons)
1865	3.7	3.4
1870	6.6	5.3
1875	9.5	6.6
1880	13.3	8.2
1885	19.2	10.5
1890	27.6	13.6
1895	33.6	15.0
1900	39.5	16.0
1905	49.5	18.3
1910	59.6	20.0
1915	59.8	18.7

Source: United States Brewers Association, 1979 Brewers Almanac, Washington, DC: 12-13. An equally impressive transformation was underway at the level of the firm. Until the 1870s and 1880s, American breweries had been essentially small scale, local operations.

By the late nineteenth century, several companies began to increase their scale of production and scope of distribution.
Pabst Brewing Company in Milwaukee and Anheuser-Busch in St.
Louis became two of the nation’s first nationally-oriented breweries, and the first to surpass annual production levels of one million barrels.

By utilizing the growing railroad system to distribute significant amounts of their beer into distant beer markets, Pabst, Anheuser-Busch and a handful of other enterprises came to be called “shipping” breweries. Though these firms became very powerful, they did not control the pre-Prohibition market for beer.

Rather, an equilibrium emerged that pitted large and regional shipping breweries that incorporated the latest innovations in pasteurizing, bottling, and transporting beer against a great number of locally-oriented breweries that mainly supplied draught beer in wooden kegs to their immediate markets (Stack, 2000).

Table 2: Industry Production, the Number of Breweries, and Average Brewery Size 1865-1915

Year	National Production (millions of barrels)	Number of Breweries	Average Brewery Size (thousands of barrels)
1865	3.7	2,252	1,643
1870	6.6	3,286	2,009
1875	9.5	2,783	3,414
1880	13.3	2,741	4,852
1885	19.2	2,230	8,610
1890	27.6	2,156	12,801
1895	33.6	1,771	18,972
1900	39.5	1,816	21,751
1905	49.5	1,847	26,800
1910	59.6	1,568	38,010
1915	59.8	1,345	44,461

Source: United States Brewers Association, 1979 Brewers Almanac, Washington DC: 12-13. Between the Civil War and national prohibition, the production and consumption of beer greatly outpaced spirits. Though consumption levels of absolute alcohol had peaked in the early 1800s, temperance and prohibition forces grew increasingly vocal and active as the century wore on, and by the late 1800s, they constituted one of the best-organized political pressure groups of the day (Kerr, Chapter 5, 1985).

Their efforts culminated in the ratification of the Eighteenth Amendment on January 29, 1919 that, along with the Volstead Act, made the production and distribution of any beverages with more than one-half of one percent alcohol illegal.
While estimates of alcohol activity during Prohibition’s thirteen year reign — from 1920 to 1933 — are imprecise, beer consumption almost certainly fell, though spirit consumption may have remained constant or actually even increased slightly (Rorbaugh, Appendices).1920-1933: The Dark Years, Prohibition The most important decision all breweries had to make after 1920 was what to do with their plants and equipment.

As they grappled with this question, they made implicit bets as to whether Prohibition would prove to be merely a temporary irritant. Pessimists immediately divested themselves of all their brewing equipment, often at substantial losses. Other firms decided to carry on with related products, and so stay prepared for any modifications to the Volstead Act which would allow for beer.

Schlitz, Blatz, Pabst, and Anheuser-Busch, the leading pre-Prohibition shippers, began producing near beer, a malt beverage with under one-half of one percent alcohol.
While it was not a commercial success, its production allowed these firms to keep current their beer-making skills.
Anheuser-Busch called its near beer “Budweiser” which was “simply the old Budweiser lager beer, brewed according to the traditional method, and then de-alcoholized.

August Busch took the same care in purchasing the costly materials as he had done during pre-prohibition days” (Krebs and Orthwein, 1953, 165). Anheuser-Busch and some of the other leading breweries were granted special licenses by the federal government for brewing alcohol greater than one half of one percent for “medicinal purposes” (Plavchan, 1969, 168).

Receiving these licensees gave these breweries a competitive advantage as they were able to keep their brewing staff active in beer-making. The shippers, and some local breweries, also made malt syrup. While they officially advertised it as an ingredient for baking cookies, and while its production was left alone by the government, it was readily apparent to all that its primary use was for homemade beer.

Of perhaps equal importance to the day-to-day business activities of the breweries were their investment decisions. Here, as in so many other places, the shippers exhibited true entrepreneurial insight. Blatz, Pabst, and Anheuser-Busch all expanded their inventories of automobiles and trucks, which became key assets after repeal.

In the 1910s, Anheuser-Busch invested in motorized vehicles to deliver beer; by the 1920s, it was building its own trucks in great numbers. While it never sought to become a major producer of delivery vehicles, its forward expansion in this area reflected its appreciation of the growing importance of motorized delivery, an insight which they built on after repeal.

The leading shippers also furthered their investments in bottling equipment and machinery, which was used in the production of near beer, root beer, ginger ale, and soft drinks. These products were not the commercial successes beer had been, but they gave breweries important experience in bottling.

While 85 percent of pre-Prohibition beer was kegged, during Prohibition over 80 percent of near beer and a smaller, though growing, percentage of soft drinks was sold in bottles.
This remarkable increase in packaged product impelled breweries to refine their packaging skills and modify their retailing practice.

As they sold near beer and soft drinks to drugstores and drink stands, they encountered new marketing problems (Cochran, 1948, 340). Experience gained during these years helped the shippers meet radically different distribution requirements of the post-repeal beer market.

They were learning about canning as well as bottling. In 1925, Blatz’s canned malt syrup sales were more than $1.3 million, significantly greater than its bulk sales. Anheuser-Busch used cans from the American Can Company for its malt syrup in the early 1920s, a firm which would gain national prominence in 1935 for helping to pioneer the beer can.

Thus, the canning of malt syrup helped create the first contacts between the leading shipping brewers and American Can Company (Plavchan, 1969, 178; Conny, 1990, 35-36; and American Can Company, 1969, 7-9). These expensive investments in automobiles and bottling equipment were paid for in part by selling off branch properties, namely saloons (See Cochran, 1948; Plavchan, 1969; Krebs and Orthwein, 1953).

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Some had equipped their saloons with furniture and bar fixtures, but as Prohibition wore on, they progressively divested themselves of these assets.1933-1945: The Industry Reawakens after the Repeal of Prohibition In April 1933 Congress amended the Volstead Act to allow for 3.2 percent beer. Eight months later, in December, Congress and the states ratified the Twenty-first Amendment, officially repealing Prohibition.

From repeal until World War II, the brewing industry struggled to regain its pre-Prohibition fortunes. Prior to prohibition, breweries owned or controlled many saloons, which were the dominant retail outlets for alcohol. To prevent the excesses that had been attributed to saloons from reoccurring, post-repeal legislation forbade alcohol manufacturers from owning bars or saloons, requiring them instead to sell their beer to wholesalers that in turn would distribute their beverages to retailers.

Prohibition meant the end of many small breweries that had been profitable, and that, taken together, had posed a formidable challenge to the large shipping breweries.
The shippers, who had much greater investments, were not as inclined to walk away from brewing.
After repeal, therefore, they reopened for business in a radically new environment, one in which their former rivals were absent or disadvantaged.

From this favorable starting point, they continued to consolidate their position. Several hundred locally oriented breweries did reopen, but were unable to regain their pre-Prohibition competitive edge, and they quickly exited the market. From 1935 to 1940, the number of breweries fell by ten percent.

Year	Number of Breweries	Number of Barrels Produced (millions)	Average Barrelage per Brewery	Largest Firm Production (millions of barrels)	Per Capita Consumption (gallons)

1910	1,568	59.5	37,946	1.5	20.1
1915	1,345	59.8	44,461	1.1	18.7
1934	756	37.7	49,867	1.1	7.9
1935	766	45.2	59,008	1.1	10.3
1936	739	51.8	70,095	1.3	11.8
1937	754	58.7	77,851	1.8	13.3
1938	700	56.3	80,429	2.1	12.9
1939	672	53.8	80,059	2.3	12.3
1940	684	54.9	80,263	2.5	12.5

Source: Cochran, 1948; Krebs and Orthwein, 1953; and United States Brewers Almanac, 1956. Annual industry output, after struggling in 1934 and 1935, began to approach the levels reached in the 1910s. Yet, these total increases are somewhat misleading, as the population of the U.S.

Had risen from 92 to 98 million in the 1910s to 125 to 130 million in the 1930s ( Brewers Almanac, 1956, 10).
This translated directly into the lower per capita consumption levels reported in Table 3.
The largest firms grew even larger in the years following repeal, quickly surpassing their pre-Prohibition annual production levels.

The post-repeal industry leaders, Anheuser-Busch and Pabst, doubled their annual production levels from 1935 to 1940. To take for granted the growing importance of the leading shippers during this period is to ignore their momentous reversal of pre-Prohibition trends.

While medium-sized breweries dominated the industry output in the years leading up to Prohibition, the shippers regained in the 1930s the dynamism they manifested from the 1870s to the 1890s. Table 4 compares the fortunes of the shippers in relation to the industry as a whole. From 1877 to 1895, Anheuser-Busch and Pabst, the two most prominent shippers, grew much faster than the industry, and their successes helped pull the industry along.

This picture changed during the years 1895 to 1915, when the industry grew much faster than the shippers (Stack, 2000). With the repeal of Prohibition, the tides changed again: from 1934 to 1940, the brewing industry grew very slowly, while Anheuser-Busch and Pabst enjoyed tremendous increases in their annual sales.

Period	Anheuser-Busch	Pabst	Industry

1877-1895	1,106%	685%	248%
1895-1914	58%	-23%	78%
1934-1940	173%	87%	26%

Source: Cochran, 1948; Krebs and Orthwein, 1953; and Brewers Almanac, 1956. National and regional shippers increasingly dominated the market. Breweries such as Anheuser-Busch, Pabst and Schlitz came to exemplify the modern business enterprise, as described by Alfred Chandler (Chandler, 1977), which adeptly integrated mass production and mass distribution.

Brewery	Plant Location	1938 (bls)	1939 (bls)	1940 (bls)

Anheuser-Busch	St. Louis, MO	2,087,000	2,306,000	2,468,000
Pabst Brewing	Milwaukee, WI Peoria Heights, IL	1,640,000	1,650,000	1,730,000
Jos. Schlitz	Milwaukee, WI	1,620,000	1,651,083	1,570,000
F & M Schafer	Brooklyn, NY	1,025,000	1,305,000	1,390,200
P. Ballantine	Newark, NJ	1,120,000	1,289,425	1,322,346
Jacob Ruppert	New York, NY	1,417,000	1,325,350	1,228,400
Falstaff Brewing	St. Louis, MO New Orleans, LA Omaha, NE	622,000	622,004	684,537
Duquesne Brewing	Pittsburgh, PA Carnegie, PA McKees Rock, PA	625,000	680,000	690,000
Theo. Hamm Brewing	St. Paul, MN	750,000	780,000	694,200
Liebman Breweries	Brooklyn, NY	625,000	632,558	670,198

Source: Fein, 1942, 35. World War One had presented a direct threat to the brewing industry. Government officials used war-time emergencies to impose grain rationing, a step that led to the lowering of the alcohol level of beer to 2.75 percent. World War Two had a completely different effect on the industry: rather than output falling, beer production rose from 1941 to 1945. Table 6: Production and Per Capita Consumption, 1940-1945 =”607″>

Year	Number of Breweries	Number of barrels withdrawn (millions)	Per Capita Consumption (gallons)

1940	684	54.9	12.5
1941	574	55.2	12.3
1942	530	63.7	14.1
1943	491	71.0	15.8
1944	469	81.7	18.0
1945	468	86.6	18.6

Source: 1979 USBA, 12-14. During the war, the industry mirrored the nation at large by casting off its sluggish depression-era growth. As the war economy boomed, consumers, both troops and civilians, used some of their wages for beer, and per capita consumption grew by 50 percent between 1940 and 1945.1945-1980: Following World War II, the Industry Continues to Grow and to Consolidate Yet, the take-off registered during the World War II was not sustained during the ensuing decades.

Year	Number of Breweries	Number of barrels withdrawn (millions)	Per Capita Consumption (gallons)

1945	468	86.6	18.6
1950	407	88.8	17.2
1955	292	89.8	15.9
1960	229	94.5	15.4
1965	197	108.0	16.0
1970	154	134.7	18.7
1975	117	157.9	21.1
1980	101	188.4	23.1

Source: 1993 USBA, 7-8. The period following WWII was characterized by great industry consolidation. Total output continued to grow, though per capita consumption fell into the 1960s before rebounding to levels above 21 gallons per capita in the 1970s, the highest rates in the nation’s history.

Not since the 1910s, had consumption levels topped 21 gallons a year; however, there was a significant difference.
Prior to Prohibition most consumers bought their beer from local or regional firms and over 85 percent of the beer was served from casks in saloons.
Following World War II, two significant changes radically altered the market for beer.

First, the total number of breweries operating fell dramatically. This signaled the growing importance of the large national breweries. While many of these firms — Anheuser-Busch, Pabst, Schlitz, and Blatz — had grown into prominence in the late nineteenth century, the scale of their operations grew tremendously in the years after the repeal of prohibition.

Year	Five Largest (%)	Ten Largest (%)	Herfindahl Index
1947	19.0	28.2	140
1954	24.9	38.3	240
1958	28.5	45.2	310
1964	39.0	58.2	440
1968	47.6	63.2	690
1974	64.0	80.8	1080
1978	74.3	92.3	1292
1981	75.9	93.9	1614

Source: Adams, 1995, 125. The other important change concerned how beer was sold. Prior to Prohibition, nearly all beer was sold on-tap in bars or saloons; while approximately 10-15 percent of the beer was bottled, it was much more expensive than draught beer.

Year	Packaged sales as a percentage of total sales (bottled and canned)	Draught sales as a percentage of total sales
1935	30	70
1940	52	48
1945	64	36
1950	72	28
1955	78	22
1960	81	19
1965	82	18
1970	86	14
1975	88	12
1980	88	12

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Source: 1979 USBA, 20; 1993 USBA, 14.

The rise of packaged beer contributed to the growing industry consolidation detailed in Table 8.

1980-2000: Continued Growth, the Microbrewery Movement, and International Dimensions of the Brewing Industry

From 1980 to 2000, beer production continued to rise, reaching nearly 200 million barrels in 2000. Per capita consumption hit its highest recorded level in 1981 with 23.8 gallons. Since then, though, consumption levels have dropped a bit, and during the 1990s, consumption was typically in the 21-22 gallon range. Table 10: Production and Per Capita Consumption, 1980-1990

Year	Number of Breweries	Number of barrels withdrawn (millions)	Per Capita Consumption (gallons)
1980	101	188.4	23.1
1985	105	193.8	22.7
1990	286	201.7	22.6

Source: 1993 USBA, 7-8. Beginning around 1980, the long decline in the number of breweries slowed and then was reversed. Judging solely by the number of breweries in operation, it appeared that a significant change had occurred: the number of firms began to increase, and by the late 1990s, hundreds of new breweries were operating in the U.S.

	Production (millions of barrels)
Anheuser-Busch	99.2
Miller	39.8
Coors	22.7
Total Domestic Sales	199.4

Source: Beverage Industry, May 2003, 19. Although entrepreneurs and beer enthusiasts began hundreds of new breweries during this period, most of them were very small, with annual production levels of between 5,000 to 100,000 barrels annually. Reflecting their small size, these new firms were nicknamed microbreweries. Collectively, microbreweries have grown to account for approximately 5-7 percent of the total beer market. Microbreweries represented a new strategy in the brewing industry: rather than competing on the basis of price or advertising, they attempted to compete on the basis of inherent product characteristics. They emphasized the freshness of locally produced beer; they experimented with much stronger malt and hop flavors; they tried new and long-discarded brewing recipes, often reintroducing styles that had been popular in America decades earlier. Together, these breweries have had an influence much greater than their market share would suggest. The big three breweries, Anheuser Busch, Miller, and Coors, have all tried to incorporate ideas from the microbrewery movement. They have introduced new marquee brands intended to compete for some of this market, and when this failed, they have bought shares in or outright control of some microbreweries. A final dimension of the brewing industry that has been changing concerns the emerging global market for beer. Until very recently, America was the biggest beer market in the world: as a result, American breweries have not historically looked abroad for additional sales, preferring to expand their share of the domestic market. In the1980s, Anheuser-Busch began to systematically evaluate its market position. While it had done very well in the U.S., it had not tapped markets overseas; as a result, it began a series of international business dealings. It gradually moved from exporting small amounts of its flagship brand Budwesier to entering into licensing accords whereby breweries in a range of countries such as Ireland, Japan, and Argentina began to brew Budweiser for sale in their domestic markets. In 1995, it established its first breweries outside of the U.S., one in England for the European market and the other in China, to service the growing markets in China and East Asia. While U.S. breweries such as Anheuser-Busch have only recently begun to explore the opportunities abroad, foreign firms have long appreciated the significance of the American market. Beginning in the late 1990s, imports began to increase their market share and by the early 2000s, they accounted for approximately 12 percent of the large U.S. market. Imports and microbrews typically cost more than the big three’s beers and they provide a wider range of flavors and tastes. One of the most interesting developments in the international market for beer occurred in 2002 when South African Breweries (SAB), the dominant brewery in South Africa, and an active firm in Europe, acquired Miller, the second largest brewery in the U.S. Though not widely discussed in the U.S., this may portend a general move towards increased global integration in the world market for beer. Annotated Bibliography Adams, Walter and James Brock, editors. The Structure of American Industry, ninth edition. Englewood Cliffs, New Jersey: Prentice Hall, 1995. Apps, Jerry. Breweries of Wisconsin, Madison, WI: University of Wisconsin Press, 1992. Detailed examination of the history of breweries and brewing in Wisconsin. Baron, Stanley. Brewed In America : A History of Beer and Ale in the United States, Boston: Little, Brown, and Co, 1962: Very good historical overview of brewing in America, from the Pilgrims through the post-World War II era. Baum, Dan. Citizen Coors: A Grand Family Saga of Business, Politics, and Beer, New York: Harper Collins, 2000. Very entertaining story of the Coors family and the brewery they made famous. Beverage Industry (May 2003): 19-20. Blum, Peter, Brewed In Detroit : Breweries and Beers since 1830, Detroit: Wayne State University Press, 1999. Very good discussion of Detroit’s major breweries and how they evolved. Particularly strong on the Stroh brewery. Cochran, Thomas. Pabst Brewing Company: The History of an American Business, New York: New York University Press, 1948: A very insightful, well-researched, and well- written history of one of America’s most important breweries. It is strongest on the years leading up to Prohibition. Downard, William. The Cincinnati Brewing Industry: A Social and Economic History, Ohio University Press, 1973: A good history of brewing in Cincinnati; particularly strong in the years prior to Prohibition. Downard, William. Dictionary of the History of the American Brewing and Distilling Industries, Westport, CT: Greenwood Press, 1980: Part dictionary and part encyclopedia, a useful compendium of terms, people, and events relating to the brewing and distilling industries. Duis, Perry. The Saloon: Public Drinking in Chicago and Boston, 1880-1920, Urbana: University of Illinois Press, 1983: An excellent overview of the institution of the saloon in pre-Prohibition America. Eckhardt, Fred. The Essentials of Beer Style, Portland, OR: Fred Eckhardt Communications, 1995: A helpful introduction into the basics of how beer is made and how beer styles differ. Ehert, George. Twenty-Five Years of Brewing, New York: Gast Lithograph and Engraving, 1891: An interesting snapshot of an important late nineteenth century New York City brewery. Elzinga, Kenneth. “The Beer Industry.” In The Structure of American Industry, ninth edition, edited by W. Adams and J. Brock. Englewood Cliffs, New Jersey: Prentice Hall, 1995: A good overview summary of the history, structure, conduct, and performance of America’s brewing industry. Fein, Edward. “The 25 Leading Brewers in the United States Produce 41.5% of the Nation’s Total Beer Output.” Brewers Digest 17 (October 1942): 35. Greer, Douglas. “Product Differentiation and Concentration in the Brewing Industry,” Journal of Industrial Economics 29 (1971): 201-19. Greer, Douglas. “The Causes of Concentration in the Brewing Industry,” Quarterly Review of Economics and Business 21 (1981): 87-106. Greer, Douglas. “Beer: Causes of Structural Change.” In Industry Studies, second edition, edited by Larry Duetsch, Armonk, New York: M.E. Sharpe, 1998. Hernon, Peter and Terry Ganey. Under the Influence: The Unauthorized Story of the Anheuser-Busch Dynasty, New York: Simon and Schuster, 1991: Somewhat sensationalistic history of the family that has controlled America’s largest brewery, but some interesting pieces on the brewery are included. Horowitz, Ira and Ann Horowitz. “Firms in a Declining Market: The Brewing Case.” Journal of Industrial Economics 13 (1965): 129-153. Jackson, Michael. The New World Guide To Beer, Philadelphia: Running Press, 1988: Good overview of the international world of beer and of America’s place in the international beer market. Keithan, Charles. The Brewing Industry, Washington D.C: Federal Trade Commission, 1978. Kerr, K. Austin. Organized for Prohibition, New Haven: Yale Press, 1985: Excellent study of the rise of the Anti-Saloon League in the United States. Kostka, William. The Pre-prohibition History of Adolph Coors Company: 1873-1933, Golden, CO: self-published book, Adolph Coors Company, 1973: A self-published book by the Coors company that provides some interesting insights into the origins of the Colorado brewery. Krebs, Roland and Orthwein, Percy. Making Friends Is Our Business: 100 Years of Anheuser-Busch, St. Louis, MO: self-published book, Anheuser-Busch, 1953: A self-published book by the Anheuser-Busch brewery that has some nice illustrations and data on firm output levels. The story is nicely told but rather self-congratulatory. “Large Brewers Boost Share of U.S. Beer Business,” Brewers Digest, 15 (July 1940): 55-57. Leisley, Bruce. A History of Leisley Brewing, North Newton Kansas: Mennonite Press, 1975: A short but useful history of the Leisley Brewing Company. This was the author’s undergraduate thesis. Lender, Mark and James Martin. Drinking in America, New York: The Free Press, 1987: Good overview of the social history of drinking in America. McGahan, Ann. “The Emergence of the National Brewing Oligopoly: Competition in the American Market, 1933-58.” Business History Review 65 (1991): 229-284: Excellent historical analysis of the origins of the brewing oligopoly following the repeal of Prohibition. McGahan, Ann. “Cooperation in Prices and Capacities: Trade Associations in Brewing after Repeal.” Journal of Law and Economics 38 (1995): 521-559. Meier, Gary and Meier, Gloria. Brewed in the Pacific Northwest : A History of Beer Making in Oregon and Washington, Seattle: Fjord Press, 1991: A survey of the history of brewing in the Pacific Northwest. Miller, Carl. Breweries of Cleveland, Cleveland, OH: Schnitzelbank Press, 1998: Good historical overview of the brewing industry in Cleveland. Norman, Donald. Structural Change and Performance in the U.S. Brewing Industry, Ph.D. dissertation, UCLA, 1975. One Hundred Years of Brewing, Chicago and New York: Arno Press Reprint, 1903 (Reprint 1974): A very important work. Very detailed historical discussion of the American brewing industry through the end of the nineteenth century. Persons, Warren. Beer and Brewing In America : An Economic Study, New York: United Brewers Industrial Foundation, 1940. Plavchan, Ronald. A History of Anheuser-Busch, 1852-1933, Ph.D. dissertation, St. Louis University, 1969: Apart from Cochran’s analysis of Pabst, one of a very few detailed business histories of a major American brewery. Research Company of America. A National Survey of the Brewing Industry, self-published, 1941: A well research industry analysis with a wealth of information and data. Rorbaugh, William. The Alcoholic Republic : An American Tradition, New York: Oxford University Press, 1979: Excellent scholarly overview of drinking habits in America. Rubin, Jay. “The Wet War: American Liquor, 1941-1945.” In Alcohol, Reform, and Society, edited by J. Blocker. Westport, CT: Greenwood Press, 1979: Interesting discussion of American drinking during World War II. Salem, Frederick.1880. Beer: Its History and Its Economic Value as a National Beverage, New York: Arno Press, 1880 (Reprint 1972): Early but valuable discussion of American brewing industry. Scherer, F.M. Industry Structure, Strategy, and Public Policy, New York: Harper Collins, 1996: A very good essay on the brewing industry. Shih, Ko Ching and C. Ying Shih. American Brewing Industry and the Beer Market, Brookfield, WI, 1958: Good overview of the industry with some excellent data tables. Skilnik, Bob. The History of Beer and Brewing in Chicago : 1833-1978, Pogo Press, 1999: Good overview of the history of brewing in Chicago. Smith, Greg. Beer in America : The Early Years, 1587 to 1840, Boulder, CO: Brewers Publications, 1998: Well written account of beer’s development in America, from the Pilgrims to mid-nineteenth century. Stack, Martin. “Local and Regional Breweries in America’s Brewing Industry, 1865-1920.” Business History Review 74 (Autumn 2000): 435-63. Thomann, Gallus. American Beer: Glimpses of Its History and Description of Its Manufacture, New York: United States Brewing Association, 1909: Interesting account of the state of the brewing industry at the turn of the twentieth century. United States Brewers Association. Annual Year Book, 1909-1921. Very important primary source document published by the leading brewing trade association. United States Brewers Foundation. Brewers Almanac, published annually, 1941-present: Very important primary source document published by the leading brewing trade association. Van Wieren, Dale. American Breweries II, West Point, PA: Eastern Coast Brewiana Association, 1995. Comprehensive historical listing of every brewery in every state, arranged by city within each state. A barrel of beer is 31 gallons. One Hundred Years of Brewing, Chicago and New York : Arno Press Reprint, 1974: 252. During the nineteenth century, there were often distinctions between temperance advocates, who differentiated between spirits and beer, and prohibition supporters, who campaigned on the need to eliminate all alcohol. The major shippers may have been taken aback by the loss suffered by Lemp, one of the leading pre-Prohibition shipping breweries. Lemp was sold at auction in 1922 at a loss of 90 percent on the investment (Baron, 1962, 315). The Herfinhahl Index sums the squared market shares of the fifty largest firms. China overtook the United States as the world’s largest beer market in 2002. http://www.anheuser-busch.com/over/international.html tively extract content, Imported Full Body 🙁 May need to used a more carefully tuned import template.–> 1650 to 1800: The Early Days of Brewing in America Brewing in America dates to the first communities established by English and Dutch settlers in the early to mid seventeenth century. Dutch immigrants quickly recognized that the climate and terrain of present-day New York were particularly well suited to brewing beer and growing malt and hops, two of beer’s essential ingredients. A 1660 map of New Amsterdam details twenty-six breweries and taverns, a clear indication that producing and selling beer were popular and profitable trades in the American colonies (Baron, Chapter Three). Despite the early popularity of beer, other alcoholic beverages steadily grew in importance and by the early eighteenth century several of them had eclipsed beer commercially. Between 1650 and the Civil War, the market for beer did not change a great deal: both production and consumption remained essentially local affairs. Bottling was expensive, and beer did not travel well. Nearly all beer was stored in, and then served from, wooden kegs. While there were many small breweries, it was not uncommon for households to brew their own beer. In fact, several of America’s founding fathers brewed their own beer, including George Washington and Thomas Jefferson (Baron, Chapters 13 and 16).1800-1865: Brewing Begins to Expand National production statistics are unavailable before 1810, an omission which reflects the rather limited importance of the early brewing industry. In 1810, America’s 140 commercial breweries collectively produced just over 180,000 barrels of beer. During the next fifty years, total beer output continued to increase, but production remained small scale and local. This is not to suggest, however, that brewing could not prove profitable. In 1797, James Vassar founded a brewery in Poughkeepsie, New York whose successes echoed far beyond the brewing industry. After several booming years Vassar ceded control of the brewery to his two sons, Matthew and John. Following the death of his brother in an accident and a fire that destroyed the plant, Matthew Vassar rebuilt the brewery in 1811. Demand for his beer grew rapidly, and by the early 1840s, the Vassar brewery produced nearly 15,000 barrels of ale and porter annually, a significant amount for this period. Continued investment in the firm facilitated even greater production levels, and by 1860 its fifty employees turned out 30,000 barrels of beer, placing it amongst the nation’s largest breweries. Today, the Vassar name is better known for the college Matthew Vassar endowed in 1860 with earnings from the brewery (Baron, Chapter 17).1865-1920: Brewing Emerges as a Significant Industry While there were several hundred small scale, local breweries in the 1840s and 1850s, beer did not become a mass-produced, mass-consumed beverage until the decades following the Civil War. Several factors contributed to beer’s emergence as the nation’s dominant alcoholic drink. First, widespread immigration from strong beer drinking countries such as Britain, Ireland, and Germany contributed to the creation of a beer culture in the U.S. Second, America was becoming increasingly industrialized and urbanized during these years, and many workers in the manufacturing and mining sectors drank beer during work and after. Third, many workers began to receive higher wages and salaries during these years, enabling them to buy more beer. Fourth, beer benefited from members of the temperance movement who advocated lower alcohol beer over higher alcohol spirits such as rum or whiskey. Fifth, a series of technological and scientific developments fostered greater beer production and the brewing of new styles of beer. For example, artificial refrigeration enabled brewers to brew during warm American summers, and pasteurization, the eponymous procedure developed by Louis Pasteur, helped extend packaged beer’s shelf life, making storage and transportation more reliable (Stack, 2000). Finally, American brewers began brewing lager beer, a style that had long been popular in Germany and other continental European countries. Traditionally, beer in America meant British-style ale. Ales are brewed with top fermenting yeasts, and this category ranges from light pale ales to chocolate-colored stouts and porters. During the 1840s, American brewers began making German-style lager beers. In addition to requiring a longer maturation period than ales, lager beers use a bottom fermenting yeast and are much more temperature sensitive. Lagers require a great deal of care and attention from brewers, but to the increasing numbers of nineteenth century German immigrants, lager was synonymous with beer. As the nineteenth century wore on, lager production soared, and by 1900, lager outsold ale by a significant margin. Together, these factors helped transform the market for beer. Total beer production increased from 3.6 million barrels in 1865 to over 66 million barrels in 1914. By 1910, brewing had grown into one of the leading manufacturing industries in America. Yet, this increase in output did not simply reflect America’s growing population. While the number of beer drinkers certainly did rise during these years, perhaps just as importantly, per capita consumption also rose dramatically, from under four gallons in 1865 to 21 gallons in the early 1910s. Table 1: Industry Production and per Capita Consumption, 1865-1915 width=”540″>

Year	National Production (millions of barrels)	Per Capita Consumption (gallons)
1865	3.7	3.4
1870	6.6	5.3
1875	9.5	6.6
1880	13.3	8.2
1885	19.2	10.5
1890	27.6	13.6
1895	33.6	15.0
1900	39.5	16.0
1905	49.5	18.3
1910	59.6	20.0
1915	59.8	18.7

By the late nineteenth century, several companies began to increase their scale of production and scope of distribution. Pabst Brewing Company in Milwaukee and Anheuser-Busch in St. Louis became two of the nation’s first nationally-oriented breweries, and the first to surpass annual production levels of one million barrels.

Table 2: Industry Production, the Number of Breweries, and Average Brewery Size
1865-1915
width=”504″>

Year	National Production (millions of barrels)	Number of Breweries	Average Brewery Size (thousands of barrels)
1865	3.7	2,252	1,643
1870	6.6	3,286	2,009
1875	9.5	2,783	3,414
1880	13.3	2,741	4,852
1885	19.2	2,230	8,610
1890	27.6	2,156	12,801
1895	33.6	1,771	18,972
1900	39.5	1,816	21,751
1905	49.5	1,847	26,800
1910	59.6	1,568	38,010
1915	59.8	1,345	44,461

Their efforts culminated in the ratification of the Eighteenth Amendment on January 29, 1919 that, along with the Volstead Act, made the production and distribution of any beverages with more than one-half of one percent alcohol illegal. While estimates of alcohol activity during Prohibition’s thirteen year reign — from 1920 to 1933 — are imprecise, beer consumption almost certainly fell, though spirit consumption may have remained constant or actually even increased slightly (Rorbaugh, Appendices).1920-1933: The Dark Years, Prohibition The most important decision all breweries had to make after 1920 was what to do with their plants and equipment.

Schlitz, Blatz, Pabst, and Anheuser-Busch, the leading pre-Prohibition shippers, began producing near beer, a malt beverage with under one-half of one percent alcohol. While it was not a commercial success, its production allowed these firms to keep current their beer-making skills. Anheuser-Busch called its near beer “Budweiser” which was “simply the old Budweiser lager beer, brewed according to the traditional method, and then de-alcoholized.

Receiving these licensees gave these breweries a competitive advantage as they were able to keep their brewing staff active in beer-making.
The shippers, and some local breweries, also made malt syrup.
While they officially advertised it as an ingredient for baking cookies, and while its production was left alone by the government, it was readily apparent to all that its primary use was for homemade beer.

In the 1910s, Anheuser-Busch invested in motorized vehicles to deliver beer; by the 1920s, it was building its own trucks in great numbers.
While it never sought to become a major producer of delivery vehicles, its forward expansion in this area reflected its appreciation of the growing importance of motorized delivery, an insight which they built on after repeal.

While 85 percent of pre-Prohibition beer was kegged, during Prohibition over 80 percent of near beer and a smaller, though growing, percentage of soft drinks was sold in bottles.
This remarkable increase in packaged product impelled breweries to refine their packaging skills and modify their retailing practice.

They were learning about canning as well as bottling. In 1925, Blatz’s canned malt syrup sales were more than $1.3 million, significantly greater than its bulk sales. Anheuser-Busch used cans from the American Can Company for its malt syrup in the early 1920s, a firm which would gain national prominence in 1935 for helping to pioneer the beer can.

Some had equipped their saloons with furniture and bar fixtures, but as Prohibition wore on, they progressively divested themselves of these assets.1933-1945: The Industry Reawakens after the Repeal of Prohibition In April 1933 Congress amended the Volstead Act to allow for 3.2 percent beer.
Eight months later, in December, Congress and the states ratified the Twenty-first Amendment, officially repealing Prohibition.

Prohibition meant the end of many small breweries that had been profitable, and that, taken together, had posed a formidable challenge to the large shipping breweries.
The shippers, who had much greater investments, were not as inclined to walk away from brewing.
After repeal, therefore, they reopened for business in a radically new environment, one in which their former rivals were absent or disadvantaged.

Year	Number of Breweries	Number of Barrels Produced (millions)	Average Barrelage per Brewery	Largest Firm Production (millions of barrels)	Per Capita Consumption (gallons)

1910	1,568	59.5	37,946	1.5	20.1
1915	1,345	59.8	44,461	1.1	18.7
1934	756	37.7	49,867	1.1	7.9
1935	766	45.2	59,008	1.1	10.3
1936	739	51.8	70,095	1.3	11.8
1937	754	58.7	77,851	1.8	13.3
1938	700	56.3	80,429	2.1	12.9
1939	672	53.8	80,059	2.3	12.3
1940	684	54.9	80,263	2.5	12.5

had risen from 92 to 98 million in the 1910s to 125 to 130 million in the 1930s ( Brewers Almanac, 1956, 10). This translated directly into the lower per capita consumption levels reported in Table 3. The largest firms grew even larger in the years following repeal, quickly surpassing their pre-Prohibition annual production levels.

While medium-sized breweries dominated the industry output in the years leading up to Prohibition, the shippers regained in the 1930s the dynamism they manifested from the 1870s to the 1890s.
Table 4 compares the fortunes of the shippers in relation to the industry as a whole.
From 1877 to 1895, Anheuser-Busch and Pabst, the two most prominent shippers, grew much faster than the industry, and their successes helped pull the industry along.

Period	Anheuser-Busch	Pabst	Industry

1877-1895	1,106%	685%	248%
1895-1914	58%	-23%	78%
1934-1940	173%	87%	26%

Brewery	Plant Location	1938 (bls)	1939 (bls)	1940 (bls)

Anheuser-Busch	St. Louis, MO	2,087,000	2,306,000	2,468,000
Pabst Brewing	Milwaukee, WI Peoria Heights, IL	1,640,000	1,650,000	1,730,000
Jos. Schlitz	Milwaukee, WI	1,620,000	1,651,083	1,570,000
F & M Schafer	Brooklyn, NY	1,025,000	1,305,000	1,390,200
P. Ballantine	Newark, NJ	1,120,000	1,289,425	1,322,346
Jacob Ruppert	New York, NY	1,417,000	1,325,350	1,228,400
Falstaff Brewing	St. Louis, MO New Orleans, LA Omaha, NE	622,000	622,004	684,537
Duquesne Brewing	Pittsburgh, PA Carnegie, PA McKees Rock, PA	625,000	680,000	690,000
Theo. Hamm Brewing	St. Paul, MN	750,000	780,000	694,200
Liebman Breweries	Brooklyn, NY	625,000	632,558	670,198

Year	Number of Breweries	Number of barrels withdrawn (millions)	Per Capita Consumption (gallons)

1940	684	54.9	12.5
1941	574	55.2	12.3
1942	530	63.7	14.1
1943	491	71.0	15.8
1944	469	81.7	18.0
1945	468	86.6	18.6

Year	Number of Breweries	Number of barrels withdrawn (millions)	Per Capita Consumption (gallons)

1945	468	86.6	18.6
1950	407	88.8	17.2
1955	292	89.8	15.9
1960	229	94.5	15.4
1965	197	108.0	16.0
1970	154	134.7	18.7
1975	117	157.9	21.1
1980	101	188.4	23.1

Not since the 1910s, had consumption levels topped 21 gallons a year; however, there was a significant difference.
Prior to Prohibition most consumers bought their beer from local or regional firms and over 85 percent of the beer was served from casks in saloons.
Following World War II, two significant changes radically altered the market for beer.

Year	Five Largest (%)	Ten Largest (%)	Herfindahl Index
1947	19.0	28.2	140
1954	24.9	38.3	240
1958	28.5	45.2	310
1964	39.0	58.2	440
1968	47.6	63.2	690
1974	64.0	80.8	1080
1978	74.3	92.3	1292
1981	75.9	93.9	1614

Year	Packaged sales as a percentage of total sales (bottled and canned)	Draught sales as a percentage of total sales
1935	30	70
1940	52	48
1945	64	36
1950	72	28
1955	78	22
1960	81	19
1965	82	18
1970	86	14
1975	88	12
1980	88	12

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Source: 1979 USBA, 20; 1993 USBA, 14.

The rise of packaged beer contributed to the growing industry consolidation detailed in Table 8.

1980-2000: Continued Growth, the Microbrewery Movement, and International Dimensions of the Brewing Industry

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Year	Number of Breweries	Number of barrels withdrawn (millions)	Per Capita Consumption (gallons)
1980	101	188.4	23.1
1985	105	193.8	22.7
1990	286	201.7	22.6

	Production (millions of barrels)
Anheuser-Busch	99.2
Miller	39.8
Coors	22.7
Total Domestic Sales	199.4

Collectively, microbreweries have grown to account for approximately 5-7 percent of the total beer market.
Microbreweries represented a new strategy in the brewing industry: rather than competing on the basis of price or advertising, they attempted to compete on the basis of inherent product characteristics.

They emphasized the freshness of locally produced beer; they experimented with much stronger malt and hop flavors; they tried new and long-discarded brewing recipes, often reintroducing styles that had been popular in America decades earlier. Together, these breweries have had an influence much greater than their market share would suggest.

The big three breweries, Anheuser Busch, Miller, and Coors, have all tried to incorporate ideas from the microbrewery movement. They have introduced new marquee brands intended to compete for some of this market, and when this failed, they have bought shares in or outright control of some microbreweries.

A final dimension of the brewing industry that has been changing concerns the emerging global market for beer. Until very recently, America was the biggest beer market in the world: as a result, American breweries have not historically looked abroad for additional sales, preferring to expand their share of the domestic market.

In the1980s, Anheuser-Busch began to systematically evaluate its market position.
While it had done very well in the U.S., it had not tapped markets overseas; as a result, it began a series of international business dealings.
It gradually moved from exporting small amounts of its flagship brand Budwesier to entering into licensing accords whereby breweries in a range of countries such as Ireland, Japan, and Argentina began to brew Budweiser for sale in their domestic markets.

In 1995, it established its first breweries outside of the U.S., one in England for the European market and the other in China, to service the growing markets in China and East Asia. While U.S. breweries such as Anheuser-Busch have only recently begun to explore the opportunities abroad, foreign firms have long appreciated the significance of the American market.

Beginning in the late 1990s, imports began to increase their market share and by the early 2000s, they accounted for approximately 12 percent of the large U.S. market.
Imports and microbrews typically cost more than the big three’s beers and they provide a wider range of flavors and tastes.
One of the most interesting developments in the international market for beer occurred in 2002 when South African Breweries (SAB), the dominant brewery in South Africa, and an active firm in Europe, acquired Miller, the second largest brewery in the U.S.

Though not widely discussed in the U.S., this may portend a general move towards increased global integration in the world market for beer. Annotated Bibliography Adams, Walter and James Brock, editors. The Structure of American Industry, ninth edition.

Englewood Cliffs, New Jersey: Prentice Hall, 1995.
Apps, Jerry.
Breweries of Wisconsin,
Madison, WI: University of Wisconsin Press, 1992.
Detailed examination of the history of breweries and brewing in Wisconsin.
Baron, Stanley.
Brewed In America : A History of Beer and Ale in the United States,
Boston: Little, Brown, and Co, 1962: Very good historical overview of brewing in America, from the Pilgrims through the post-World War II era.

Baum, Dan. Citizen Coors: A Grand Family Saga of Business, Politics, and Beer, New York: Harper Collins, 2000. Very entertaining story of the Coors family and the brewery they made famous. Beverage Industry (May 2003): 19-20. Blum, Peter, Brewed In Detroit : Breweries and Beers since 1830,

Detroit: Wayne State University Press, 1999. Very good discussion of Detroit’s major breweries and how they evolved. Particularly strong on the Stroh brewery. Cochran, Thomas. Pabst Brewing Company: The History of an American Business, New York: New York University Press, 1948: A very insightful, well-researched, and well- written history of one of America’s most important breweries.

It is strongest on the years leading up to Prohibition. Downard, William. The Cincinnati Brewing Industry: A Social and Economic History, Ohio University Press, 1973: A good history of brewing in Cincinnati; particularly strong in the years prior to Prohibition.

Downard, William.
Dictionary of the History of the American Brewing and Distilling Industries,
Westport, CT: Greenwood Press, 1980: Part dictionary and part encyclopedia, a useful compendium of terms, people, and events relating to the brewing and distilling industries.
Duis, Perry.
The Saloon: Public Drinking in Chicago and Boston, 1880-1920,

Urbana: University of Illinois Press, 1983: An excellent overview of the institution of the saloon in pre-Prohibition America. Eckhardt, Fred. The Essentials of Beer Style, Portland, OR: Fred Eckhardt Communications, 1995: A helpful introduction into the basics of how beer is made and how beer styles differ.

Ehert, George. Twenty-Five Years of Brewing, New York: Gast Lithograph and Engraving, 1891: An interesting snapshot of an important late nineteenth century New York City brewery. Elzinga, Kenneth. “The Beer Industry.” In The Structure of American Industry, ninth edition, edited by W. Adams and J. Brock.

Englewood Cliffs, New Jersey: Prentice Hall, 1995: A good overview summary of the history, structure, conduct, and performance of America’s brewing industry. Fein, Edward. “The 25 Leading Brewers in the United States Produce 41.5% of the Nation’s Total Beer Output.” Brewers Digest 17 (October 1942): 35.

Greer, Douglas. “Product Differentiation and Concentration in the Brewing Industry,” Journal of Industrial Economics 29 (1971): 201-19. Greer, Douglas. “The Causes of Concentration in the Brewing Industry,” Quarterly Review of Economics and Business 21 (1981): 87-106. Greer, Douglas. “Beer: Causes of Structural Change.” In Industry Studies, second edition, edited by Larry Duetsch, Armonk, New York: M.E.

Sharpe, 1998. Hernon, Peter and Terry Ganey. Under the Influence: The Unauthorized Story of the Anheuser-Busch Dynasty, New York: Simon and Schuster, 1991: Somewhat sensationalistic history of the family that has controlled America’s largest brewery, but some interesting pieces on the brewery are included.

Horowitz, Ira and Ann Horowitz. “Firms in a Declining Market: The Brewing Case.” Journal of Industrial Economics 13 (1965): 129-153. Jackson, Michael. The New World Guide To Beer, Philadelphia: Running Press, 1988: Good overview of the international world of beer and of America’s place in the international beer market.

Keithan, Charles. The Brewing Industry, Washington D.C: Federal Trade Commission, 1978. Kerr, K. Austin. Organized for Prohibition, New Haven: Yale Press, 1985: Excellent study of the rise of the Anti-Saloon League in the United States. Kostka, William. The Pre-prohibition History of Adolph Coors Company: 1873-1933,

Golden, CO: self-published book, Adolph Coors Company, 1973: A self-published book by the Coors company that provides some interesting insights into the origins of the Colorado brewery. Krebs, Roland and Orthwein, Percy. Making Friends Is Our Business: 100 Years of Anheuser-Busch, St. Louis, MO: self-published book, Anheuser-Busch, 1953: A self-published book by the Anheuser-Busch brewery that has some nice illustrations and data on firm output levels.

The story is nicely told but rather self-congratulatory. “Large Brewers Boost Share of U.S. Beer Business,” Brewers Digest, 15 (July 1940): 55-57. Leisley, Bruce. A History of Leisley Brewing, North Newton Kansas: Mennonite Press, 1975: A short but useful history of the Leisley Brewing Company.

This was the author’s undergraduate thesis. Lender, Mark and James Martin. Drinking in America, New York: The Free Press, 1987: Good overview of the social history of drinking in America. McGahan, Ann. “The Emergence of the National Brewing Oligopoly: Competition in the American Market, 1933-58.” Business History Review 65 (1991): 229-284: Excellent historical analysis of the origins of the brewing oligopoly following the repeal of Prohibition.

McGahan, Ann. “Cooperation in Prices and Capacities: Trade Associations in Brewing after Repeal.” Journal of Law and Economics 38 (1995): 521-559. Meier, Gary and Meier, Gloria. Brewed in the Pacific Northwest : A History of Beer Making in Oregon and Washington,

Seattle: Fjord Press, 1991: A survey of the history of brewing in the Pacific Northwest. Miller, Carl. Breweries of Cleveland, Cleveland, OH: Schnitzelbank Press, 1998: Good historical overview of the brewing industry in Cleveland. Norman, Donald. Structural Change and Performance in the U.S. Brewing Industry,

Ph.D. dissertation, UCLA, 1975. One Hundred Years of Brewing, Chicago and New York: Arno Press Reprint, 1903 (Reprint 1974): A very important work. Very detailed historical discussion of the American brewing industry through the end of the nineteenth century.

Persons, Warren.
Beer and Brewing In America : An Economic Study,
New York: United Brewers Industrial Foundation, 1940.
Plavchan, Ronald.
A History of Anheuser-Busch, 1852-1933, Ph.D.
Dissertation, St.
Louis University, 1969: Apart from Cochran’s analysis of Pabst, one of a very few detailed business histories of a major American brewery.

Research Company of America. A National Survey of the Brewing Industry, self-published, 1941: A well research industry analysis with a wealth of information and data. Rorbaugh, William. The Alcoholic Republic : An American Tradition, New York: Oxford University Press, 1979: Excellent scholarly overview of drinking habits in America.

Rubin, Jay. “The Wet War: American Liquor, 1941-1945.” In Alcohol, Reform, and Society, edited by J. Blocker. Westport, CT: Greenwood Press, 1979: Interesting discussion of American drinking during World War II. Salem, Frederick.1880. Beer: Its History and Its Economic Value as a National Beverage, New York: Arno Press, 1880 (Reprint 1972): Early but valuable discussion of American brewing industry.

Scherer, F.M. Industry Structure, Strategy, and Public Policy, New York: Harper Collins, 1996: A very good essay on the brewing industry. Shih, Ko Ching and C. Ying Shih. American Brewing Industry and the Beer Market, Brookfield, WI, 1958: Good overview of the industry with some excellent data tables.

Skilnik, Bob. The History of Beer and Brewing in Chicago : 1833-1978, Pogo Press, 1999: Good overview of the history of brewing in Chicago. Smith, Greg. Beer in America : The Early Years, 1587 to 1840, Boulder, CO: Brewers Publications, 1998: Well written account of beer’s development in America, from the Pilgrims to mid-nineteenth century.

Stack, Martin. “Local and Regional Breweries in America’s Brewing Industry, 1865-1920.” Business History Review 74 (Autumn 2000): 435-63. Thomann, Gallus. American Beer: Glimpses of Its History and Description of Its Manufacture, New York: United States Brewing Association, 1909: Interesting account of the state of the brewing industry at the turn of the twentieth century.

United States Brewers Association.
Annual Year Book, 1909-1921.
Very important primary source document published by the leading brewing trade association.
United States Brewers Foundation.
Brewers Almanac, published annually, 1941-present: Very important primary source document published by the leading brewing trade association.

Van Wieren, Dale. American Breweries II, West Point, PA: Eastern Coast Brewiana Association, 1995. Comprehensive historical listing of every brewery in every state, arranged by city within each state. A barrel of beer is 31 gallons. One Hundred Years of Brewing, Chicago and New York : Arno Press Reprint, 1974: 252.

During the nineteenth century, there were often distinctions between temperance advocates, who differentiated between spirits and beer, and prohibition supporters, who campaigned on the need to eliminate all alcohol.
The major shippers may have been taken aback by the loss suffered by Lemp, one of the leading pre-Prohibition shipping breweries.

Lemp was sold at auction in 1922 at a loss of 90 percent on the investment (Baron, 1962, 315). The Herfinhahl Index sums the squared market shares of the fifty largest firms. China overtook the United States as the world’s largest beer market in 2002. http://www.anheuser-busch.com/over/international.html 1650 to 1800: The Early Days of Brewing in America Brewing in America dates to the first communities established by English and Dutch settlers in the early to mid seventeenth century.

Dutch immigrants quickly recognized that the climate and terrain of present-day New York were particularly well suited to brewing beer and growing malt and hops, two of beer’s essential ingredients.
A 1660 map of New Amsterdam details twenty-six breweries and taverns, a clear indication that producing and selling beer were popular and profitable trades in the American colonies (Baron, Chapter Three).

Despite the early popularity of beer, other alcoholic beverages steadily grew in importance and by the early eighteenth century several of them had eclipsed beer commercially. Between 1650 and the Civil War, the market for beer did not change a great deal: both production and consumption remained essentially local affairs.

Bottling was expensive, and beer did not travel well.
Nearly all beer was stored in, and then served from, wooden kegs.
While there were many small breweries, it was not uncommon for households to brew their own beer.
In fact, several of America’s founding fathers brewed their own beer, including George Washington and Thomas Jefferson (Baron, Chapters 13 and 16).1800-1865: Brewing Begins to Expand National production statistics are unavailable before 1810, an omission which reflects the rather limited importance of the early brewing industry.

In 1797, James Vassar founded a brewery in Poughkeepsie, New York whose successes echoed far beyond the brewing industry. After several booming years Vassar ceded control of the brewery to his two sons, Matthew and John. Following the death of his brother in an accident and a fire that destroyed the plant, Matthew Vassar rebuilt the brewery in 1811.

Second, America was becoming increasingly industrialized and urbanized during these years, and many workers in the manufacturing and mining sectors drank beer during work and after. Third, many workers began to receive higher wages and salaries during these years, enabling them to buy more beer. Fourth, beer benefited from members of the temperance movement who advocated lower alcohol beer over higher alcohol spirits such as rum or whiskey.

Finally, American brewers began brewing lager beer, a style that had long been popular in Germany and other continental European countries.
Traditionally, beer in America meant British-style ale.
Ales are brewed with top fermenting yeasts, and this category ranges from light pale ales to chocolate-colored stouts and porters.

Year	National Production (millions of barrels)	Per Capita Consumption (gallons)
1865	3.7	3.4
1870	6.6	5.3
1875	9.5	6.6
1880	13.3	8.2
1885	19.2	10.5
1890	27.6	13.6
1895	33.6	15.0
1900	39.5	16.0
1905	49.5	18.3
1910	59.6	20.0
1915	59.8	18.7

By the late nineteenth century, several companies began to increase their scale of production and scope of distribution.
Pabst Brewing Company in Milwaukee and Anheuser-Busch in St.
Louis became two of the nation’s first nationally-oriented breweries, and the first to surpass annual production levels of one million barrels.

Table 2: Industry Production, the Number of Breweries, and Average Brewery Size 1865-1915

Year	National Production (millions of barrels)	Number of Breweries	Average Brewery Size (thousands of barrels)
1865	3.7	2,252	1,643
1870	6.6	3,286	2,009
1875	9.5	2,783	3,414
1880	13.3	2,741	4,852
1885	19.2	2,230	8,610
1890	27.6	2,156	12,801
1895	33.6	1,771	18,972
1900	39.5	1,816	21,751
1905	49.5	1,847	26,800
1910	59.6	1,568	38,010
1915	59.8	1,345	44,461

Their efforts culminated in the ratification of the Eighteenth Amendment on January 29, 1919 that, along with the Volstead Act, made the production and distribution of any beverages with more than one-half of one percent alcohol illegal.
While estimates of alcohol activity during Prohibition’s thirteen year reign — from 1920 to 1933 — are imprecise, beer consumption almost certainly fell, though spirit consumption may have remained constant or actually even increased slightly (Rorbaugh, Appendices).1920-1933: The Dark Years, Prohibition The most important decision all breweries had to make after 1920 was what to do with their plants and equipment.

Receiving these licensees gave these breweries a competitive advantage as they were able to keep their brewing staff active in beer-making.
The shippers, and some local breweries, also made malt syrup.
While they officially advertised it as an ingredient for baking cookies, and while its production was left alone by the government, it was readily apparent to all that its primary use was for homemade beer.

In the 1910s, Anheuser-Busch invested in motorized vehicles to deliver beer; by the 1920s, it was building its own trucks in great numbers. While it never sought to become a major producer of delivery vehicles, its forward expansion in this area reflected its appreciation of the growing importance of motorized delivery, an insight which they built on after repeal.

While 85 percent of pre-Prohibition beer was kegged, during Prohibition over 80 percent of near beer and a smaller, though growing, percentage of soft drinks was sold in bottles.
This remarkable increase in packaged product impelled breweries to refine their packaging skills and modify their retailing practice.

They were learning about canning as well as bottling. In 1925, Blatz’s canned malt syrup sales were more than $1.3 million, significantly greater than its bulk sales. Anheuser-Busch used cans from the American Can Company for its malt syrup in the early 1920s, a firm which would gain national prominence in 1935 for helping to pioneer the beer can.

Some had equipped their saloons with furniture and bar fixtures, but as Prohibition wore on, they progressively divested themselves of these assets.1933-1945: The Industry Reawakens after the Repeal of Prohibition In April 1933 Congress amended the Volstead Act to allow for 3.2 percent beer.
Eight months later, in December, Congress and the states ratified the Twenty-first Amendment, officially repealing Prohibition.

Prohibition meant the end of many small breweries that had been profitable, and that, taken together, had posed a formidable challenge to the large shipping breweries. The shippers, who had much greater investments, were not as inclined to walk away from brewing. After repeal, therefore, they reopened for business in a radically new environment, one in which their former rivals were absent or disadvantaged.

Year	Number of Breweries	Number of Barrels Produced (millions)	Average Barrelage per Brewery	Largest Firm Production (millions of barrels)	Per Capita Consumption (gallons)

1910	1,568	59.5	37,946	1.5	20.1
1915	1,345	59.8	44,461	1.1	18.7
1934	756	37.7	49,867	1.1	7.9
1935	766	45.2	59,008	1.1	10.3
1936	739	51.8	70,095	1.3	11.8
1937	754	58.7	77,851	1.8	13.3
1938	700	56.3	80,429	2.1	12.9
1939	672	53.8	80,059	2.3	12.3
1940	684	54.9	80,263	2.5	12.5

Had risen from 92 to 98 million in the 1910s to 125 to 130 million in the 1930s ( Brewers Almanac, 1956, 10).
This translated directly into the lower per capita consumption levels reported in Table 3.
The largest firms grew even larger in the years following repeal, quickly surpassing their pre-Prohibition annual production levels.

While medium-sized breweries dominated the industry output in the years leading up to Prohibition, the shippers regained in the 1930s the dynamism they manifested from the 1870s to the 1890s. Table 4 compares the fortunes of the shippers in relation to the industry as a whole. From 1877 to 1895, Anheuser-Busch and Pabst, the two most prominent shippers, grew much faster than the industry, and their successes helped pull the industry along.

Period	Anheuser-Busch	Pabst	Industry

1877-1895	1,106%	685%	248%
1895-1914	58%	-23%	78%
1934-1940	173%	87%	26%

Brewery	Plant Location	1938 (bls)	1939 (bls)	1940 (bls)

Anheuser-Busch	St. Louis, MO	2,087,000	2,306,000	2,468,000
Pabst Brewing	Milwaukee, WI Peoria Heights, IL	1,640,000	1,650,000	1,730,000
Jos. Schlitz	Milwaukee, WI	1,620,000	1,651,083	1,570,000
F & M Schafer	Brooklyn, NY	1,025,000	1,305,000	1,390,200
P. Ballantine	Newark, NJ	1,120,000	1,289,425	1,322,346
Jacob Ruppert	New York, NY	1,417,000	1,325,350	1,228,400
Falstaff Brewing	St. Louis, MO New Orleans, LA Omaha, NE	622,000	622,004	684,537
Duquesne Brewing	Pittsburgh, PA Carnegie, PA McKees Rock, PA	625,000	680,000	690,000
Theo. Hamm Brewing	St. Paul, MN	750,000	780,000	694,200
Liebman Breweries	Brooklyn, NY	625,000	632,558	670,198

Year	Number of Breweries	Number of barrels withdrawn (millions)	Per Capita Consumption (gallons)

1940	684	54.9	12.5
1941	574	55.2	12.3
1942	530	63.7	14.1
1943	491	71.0	15.8
1944	469	81.7	18.0
1945	468	86.6	18.6

Year	Number of Breweries	Number of barrels withdrawn (millions)	Per Capita Consumption (gallons)

1945	468	86.6	18.6
1950	407	88.8	17.2
1955	292	89.8	15.9
1960	229	94.5	15.4
1965	197	108.0	16.0
1970	154	134.7	18.7
1975	117	157.9	21.1
1980	101	188.4	23.1

Not since the 1910s, had consumption levels topped 21 gallons a year; however, there was a significant difference. Prior to Prohibition most consumers bought their beer from local or regional firms and over 85 percent of the beer was served from casks in saloons. Following World War II, two significant changes radically altered the market for beer.

Year	Five Largest (%)	Ten Largest (%)	Herfindahl Index
1947	19.0	28.2	140
1954	24.9	38.3	240
1958	28.5	45.2	310
1964	39.0	58.2	440
1968	47.6	63.2	690
1974	64.0	80.8	1080
1978	74.3	92.3	1292
1981	75.9	93.9	1614

Year	Packaged sales as a percentage of total sales (bottled and canned)	Draught sales as a percentage of total sales
1935	30	70
1940	52	48
1945	64	36
1950	72	28
1955	78	22
1960	81	19
1965	82	18
1970	86	14
1975	88	12
1980	88	12

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Source: 1979 USBA, 20; 1993 USBA, 14.

The rise of packaged beer contributed to the growing industry consolidation detailed in Table 8.

1980-2000: Continued Growth, the Microbrewery Movement, and International Dimensions of the Brewing Industry

Year	Number of Breweries	Number of barrels withdrawn (millions)	Per Capita Consumption (gallons)
1980	101	188.4	23.1
1985	105	193.8	22.7
1990	286	201.7	22.6

	Production (millions of barrels)
Anheuser-Busch	99.2
Miller	39.8
Coors	22.7
Total Domestic Sales	199.4

Collectively, microbreweries have grown to account for approximately 5-7 percent of the total beer market. Microbreweries represented a new strategy in the brewing industry: rather than competing on the basis of price or advertising, they attempted to compete on the basis of inherent product characteristics.

The big three breweries, Anheuser Busch, Miller, and Coors, have all tried to incorporate ideas from the microbrewery movement. They have introduced new marquee brands intended to compete for some of this market, and when this failed, they have bought shares in or outright control of some microbreweries.

In the1980s, Anheuser-Busch began to systematically evaluate its market position. While it had done very well in the U.S., it had not tapped markets overseas; as a result, it began a series of international business dealings. It gradually moved from exporting small amounts of its flagship brand Budwesier to entering into licensing accords whereby breweries in a range of countries such as Ireland, Japan, and Argentina began to brew Budweiser for sale in their domestic markets.

Beginning in the late 1990s, imports began to increase their market share and by the early 2000s, they accounted for approximately 12 percent of the large U.S. market.
Imports and microbrews typically cost more than the big three’s beers and they provide a wider range of flavors and tastes.
One of the most interesting developments in the international market for beer occurred in 2002 when South African Breweries (SAB), the dominant brewery in South Africa, and an active firm in Europe, acquired Miller, the second largest brewery in the U.S.

Englewood Cliffs, New Jersey: Prentice Hall, 1995.
Apps, Jerry.
Breweries of Wisconsin,
Madison, WI: University of Wisconsin Press, 1992.
Detailed examination of the history of breweries and brewing in Wisconsin.
Baron, Stanley.
Brewed In America : A History of Beer and Ale in the United States,
Boston: Little, Brown, and Co, 1962: Very good historical overview of brewing in America, from the Pilgrims through the post-World War II era.

Detroit: Wayne State University Press, 1999. Very good discussion of Detroit’s major breweries and how they evolved. Particularly strong on the Stroh brewery. Cochran, Thomas. Pabst Brewing Company: The History of an American Business, New York: New York University Press, 1948: A very insightful, well-researched, and well- written history of one of America’s most important breweries.

Downard, William.
Dictionary of the History of the American Brewing and Distilling Industries,
Westport, CT: Greenwood Press, 1980: Part dictionary and part encyclopedia, a useful compendium of terms, people, and events relating to the brewing and distilling industries.
Duis, Perry.
The Saloon: Public Drinking in Chicago and Boston, 1880-1920,

Greer, Douglas.
Product Differentiation and Concentration in the Brewing Industry,” Journal of Industrial Economics 29 (1971): 201-19.
Greer, Douglas.
The Causes of Concentration in the Brewing Industry,” Quarterly Review of Economics and Business 21 (1981): 87-106.
Greer, Douglas.
Beer: Causes of Structural Change.” In Industry Studies, second edition, edited by Larry Duetsch, Armonk, New York: M.E.

Golden, CO: self-published book, Adolph Coors Company, 1973: A self-published book by the Coors company that provides some interesting insights into the origins of the Colorado brewery.
Rebs, Roland and Orthwein, Percy.
Making Friends Is Our Business: 100 Years of Anheuser-Busch, St.
Louis, MO: self-published book, Anheuser-Busch, 1953: A self-published book by the Anheuser-Busch brewery that has some nice illustrations and data on firm output levels.

This was the author’s undergraduate thesis.
Lender, Mark and James Martin.
Drinking in America,
New York: The Free Press, 1987: Good overview of the social history of drinking in America.
McGahan, Ann.
The Emergence of the National Brewing Oligopoly: Competition in the American Market, 1933-58.” Business History Review 65 (1991): 229-284: Excellent historical analysis of the origins of the brewing oligopoly following the repeal of Prohibition.

Seattle: Fjord Press, 1991: A survey of the history of brewing in the Pacific Northwest.
Miller, Carl.
Breweries of Cleveland,
Cleveland, OH: Schnitzelbank Press, 1998: Good historical overview of the brewing industry in Cleveland.
Norman, Donald.
Structural Change and Performance in the U.S.
Brewing Industry,

You might be interested: How To Infuse Flavor Into Moonshine?

Persons, Warren.
Beer and Brewing In America : An Economic Study,
New York: United Brewers Industrial Foundation, 1940.
Plavchan, Ronald.
A History of Anheuser-Busch, 1852-1933, Ph.D.
Dissertation, St.
Louis University, 1969: Apart from Cochran’s analysis of Pabst, one of a very few detailed business histories of a major American brewery.

Rubin, Jay.
The Wet War: American Liquor, 1941-1945.” In Alcohol, Reform, and Society, edited by J. Blocker.
Westport, CT: Greenwood Press, 1979: Interesting discussion of American drinking during World War II.
Salem, Frederick.1880.
Beer: Its History and Its Economic Value as a National Beverage,
New York: Arno Press, 1880 (Reprint 1972): Early but valuable discussion of American brewing industry.

Skilnik, Bob. The History of Beer and Brewing in Chicago : 1833-1978, Pogo Press, 1999: Good overview of the history of brewing in Chicago. Smith, Greg. Beer in America : The Early Years, 1587 to 1840, Boulder, CO: Brewers Publications, 1998: Well written account of beer’s development in America, from the Pilgrims to mid-nineteenth century.

United States Brewers Association. Annual Year Book, 1909-1921. Very important primary source document published by the leading brewing trade association. United States Brewers Foundation. Brewers Almanac, published annually, 1941-present: Very important primary source document published by the leading brewing trade association.

During the nineteenth century, there were often distinctions between temperance advocates, who differentiated between spirits and beer, and prohibition supporters, who campaigned on the need to eliminate all alcohol.
The major shippers may have been taken aback by the loss suffered by Lemp, one of the leading pre-Prohibition shipping breweries.

When was beer invented in Europe?

Alulu beer receipt – This records a purchase of “best” beer from a brewer, c.2050 BC from the Sumerian city of Umma in ancient Iraq, Beer is one of the oldest drinks humans have produced. The first chemically confirmed barley beer dates back to the 5th millennium BC in modern-day Iran, and was recorded in the written history of ancient Egypt and Mesopotamia and spread throughout the world.

As almost any cereal containing certain sugars can undergo spontaneous fermentation due to wild yeasts in the air, it is possible that beer-like drinks were independently developed throughout the world soon after a tribe or culture had domesticated cereal. Chemical tests of ancient pottery jars reveal that beer was produced as far back as about 7,000 years ago in what is today Iran.

This discovery reveals one of the earliest known uses of fermentation and is the earliest evidence of brewing to date. Author Thomas Sinclair says in his book, “Beer, Bread, and the Seeds of Change: Agriculture’s Imprint on World History” that the discovery of beer may have been an accidental find.

The precursor to beer was soaking grains in water and making a porridge or gruel, as grain were chewy and hard to digest alone. Ancient peoples would heat the gruel and leave it throughout the days until it was gone. A benefit to heating the gruel would be to sanitize the water and the temperature required to denature grain proteins would also denature disease microbes.

Leaving the gruel to sit would change it. Fermentation would occur and they noticed the change in taste and effect. Yeasts would settle on the mixture and rapidly consume the oxygen in the mixture. The low oxygen would force the yeast to digest sugars by anaerobic respiration.

Then the yeast would release ethanol (alcohol) and carbon dioxide as by-products and, hence, beer was born.
In Mesopotamia, the oldest evidence of beer is believed to be a 6,000-year-old Sumerian tablet depicting people consuming a drink through reed straws from a communal bowl,
A 3,900-year-old Sumerian poem honouring Ninkasi, the patron goddess of brewing, contains the oldest surviving beer recipe, describing the production of beer from bread made from barley.

In China, residue on pottery dating from around 5,000 years ago shows beer was brewed using barley and other grains. The invention of bread and beer has been argued to be responsible for humanity’s ability to develop technology and build civilization.

The earliest chemically confirmed barley beer to date was discovered at Godin Tepe in the central Zagros Mountains of Iran, where fragments of a jug, from between 5,400 and 5,000 years ago was found to be coated with beerstone, a by-product of the brewing process. Beer may have been known in Neolithic Europe as far back as 5,000 years ago, and was mainly brewed on a domestic scale.

Beer produced before the Industrial Revolution continued to be made and sold on a domestic scale, although by the 7th century AD beer was also being produced and sold by European monasteries, During the Industrial Revolution, the production of beer moved from artisanal manufacture to industrial manufacture, and domestic manufacture ceased to be significant by the end of the 19th century.

The development of hydrometers and thermometers changed brewing by allowing the brewer more control of the process, and greater knowledge of the results.
Today, the brewing industry is a global business, consisting of several dominant multinational companies and many thousands of smaller producers ranging from brewpubs to regional breweries,

More than 133 billion liters (35 billion gallons) are sold per year—producing total global revenues of $294.5 billion (£147.7 billion) in 2006.

Which country drinks the most beer?

The Countries That Drink the Most Beer Beer is enjoyed by thirsty drinkers worldwide, but it seems some countries love beer a bit more than others. A recent ranking of the top beer-consuming countries breaks down the 25 countries that drink the most — and No.1 one might surprise you.

Irin Holdings Company published its 2021 on Dec.23, which includes data from 170 countries and regions worldwide.
The corporation, which works in the food, beverage, pharmaceutical, and health industries, has monitored worldwide beer consumption since 1975.
It bases the rankings on annual questionnaires sent to several brewers associations worldwide as well as recent beer industry reports.

The numbers suggest a global bounce-back after Covid-19 — as the report states, total beer consumption increased by 4 percent and 7.13 million kiloliters (over 1.88 billion gallons) worldwide between 2020 and 2021. The report ranks consumption volume by country and region.

China tops the list, reporting over 38 million kiloliters (some 10 billion gallons) drank in 2021.
That’s a little over 20 percent of the global market share and more than a 5 percent increase year-over-year.
It’s also the 19th consecutive year that the country has topped the list.
The United States follows with the second-highest total volume consumed; Americans slurped down over 24 million kiloliters (some 6.3 billion gallons) of beer in 2021.

While China led the pack in the overall amount of beer consumed, the Czech Republic recorded the highest per-capita beer consumption for the 29th year in a row. Curious how the rest of the world stacks up? Read on to learn which countries drank the most beer in 2021.


Ranking	Country
1	China
2	United States of America
3	Brazil
4	Russia
5	Mexico
6	Germany
7	United Kingdom
8	Japan
9	Vietnam
10	Spain
11	South Africa
12	Poland
13	Colombia
14	India
15	France
16	Italy
17	Ukraine
18	Argentina
19	Czech Republic
20	Canada
21	South Korea
22	Australia
23	Romania
24	Thailand
25	Ethiopia

The Countries That Drink the Most Beer

How strong was beer in the 1700s?

Because of this, beer for export to the colonies was probably very strong ( 7 to 8% alcohol ) and very highly hopped.

Did cavemen have beer?

Don’t Miss A Drop – Get the latest in beer, wine, and cocktail culture sent straight to your inbox. But whether or not Paleolithic man drank alcohol is actually a scientifically debated topic, with many believing that our early ancestors actually did enjoy alcohol as the occasional drink.

As Patrick McGovern observes in Scientific American, “our ancestral early hominids were probably already making wines, beers, meads and mixed fermented beverages from wild fruits, chewed roots and grains, honey, and all manner of herbs and spices culled from their environments.” But this has wider implications than just your diet.

Making fruit into alcohol “ushered in humankind’s first biotechnology, based on empirical observation,” McGovern writes. He goes on: “It is quite possible that much of what we consider uniquely human — music, dance, theater, religious storytelling and worship, language, and a thought process that would eventually become science — were stimulated by the creation and consumption of alcoholic beverages during the Paleolithic period.” And homo sapiens aren’t alone here.

The earliest primates evolved to down alcohol as well, like the Malaysian pen-tailed tree shrew that drinks the equivalent of nine glasses of wine a night without getting drunk. Talk about tolerance. “Most modern primates have diets consisting of roughly three-quarters fruit,” McGovern writes, “and they are known to consume as much fermented fruit or drink as possible when the opportunity presents itself.

Such considerations have been summed up in the ‘Paleolithic’ or ‘drunken monkey’ hypotheses, which posit that drinking is in our genes, whether for good or evil.” “Living Paleo for Dummies” gets it. “Our hunter-gatherer ancestors occasionally let their hair down when they were exposed to alcohol by eating fermented grapes,” Melissa Joulwan and Kellyann Petrucci write,

Was beer stronger in medieval times?

Do you know what the most popular drink during World Cup season is? It’s probably beer. CEU Visiting Professor Richard W. Unger studies the best brews from 500 years before the age of LED screens. The history of beer has been best preserved through the centuries.

Tax reports, regulations, even marketing materials help Professor of Medieval History at the University of British Columbia Richard W.
Unger learn about beer in the Middle Ages and Renaissance.
The earliest record of a government’s taxation of beer is from 5,500 years ago in Mesopotamia.
Centuries-old government regulations make it possible to know who brewed how much of what in the 14th, 15th and 16th centuries.

Unger’s research focuses on the Low Countries (today’s Holland and Belgium) and spreads out across Europe just as the libation’s popularity spread across Europe, to Bavaria, Bohemia, Poland, the Baltic States, Scandinavia and England. Data from Italy and Spain, traditional wine-producing countries, “are hard to come by.” Unger sees the biggest difference between medieval and modern beer in consumption.

Beer hasn’t always been a drink of pleasure but it was drunk in greater quantities and in great variety. Some medieval beers had lower alcohol content and were drunk for breakfast. Other stronger beers were for lunch and dinner and at the end of the day. People in cities in the 16th century drank about 250 liters of beer per person per year, that is a single person consumed three-quarters of a liter a day.

Beer was a democratic beverage in that most people could afford it. Large noble households brewed their own beer, and the servants would drink it just like the ladies of the house did. In the early Middle Ages, monks and members of some noble families had beer for lunch (and wine for dinner) but by the 14th and 15th centuries, in some parts of northern Europe, beer replaced wine for more and more people.

As beer became better through the 15th century more people in more places drank it.
For a long time beer has been the “preferred drink of skilled laborers and students.” Students and beer go back centuries – students in the Middle Ages were low-level clergymen who could enjoy their beer tax-free.
The quality of beer changed drastically around they year 1200, Unger says.

Brewers in Bremen, Germany, figured out the exact amount and type of hops to add to the beer so that it kept for up to six months. This new knowledge didn’t only mean that customers could now enjoy a pint on hot summer days, but it also enabled brewers to ship their product as far away as England and the Low Countries.

And, as good quality beer started spreading across Europe, more and more people started to drink it and to make it. So how did beer taste in the Middle Ages? “It was fantastic,” Unger says, recalling the taste of a brew that followed a 17th century Dutch recipe. As governments strictly regulated beer production, there is plenty of data on the amount and type of grains and ingredients used in various beers.

In the Middle Ages, however, recreating the same quality of beer from one brew to the next was quite a challenge. A brewery could produce an excellent batch one week, and a terrible one the week later without changing anything. Brewers couldn’t control the yeast, and as the standards of sanitation was quite different, bacteria from the air and the wooden cask could get into the beer and cause contamination.

There was a great variety of brews in the Middle Ages. They were named based on their color, heaviness, price, and other factors. The Belgian Pharaoh beer had nothing to do with Egypt whatsoever and Convent beer wasn’t necessarily made in a monastery. However, the name Einbeck – from a small exporting town in north Germany – might possibly be where “bock beer” originates from.

Consumption has dropped significantly in the past 350 years; about 75-80 liters of beer are consumed per person per year today. In the 21st century though, beer drinking has become more concentrated, Unger says. There is a big market among young men and sports fans, as breweries now sponsor teams and even major sporting events.

The recent rise of craft brewing has also resulted in the expansion of beer drinking, and the variety of beers available now is greater.
More women are drinking beer and people match beers with certain foods as has long happened with wine.
For those who like a little history with their cheering and beer, there are still a few brews around with long traditions.

Try monastery beers such as Koningshoeven, Duvel, Rochefort or Chimay, spontaneously fermented lambic beers, or good old light Hoegaarden.

Did ancient China have beer?

The ancient recipe – Liu, together with doctoral candidate Jiajing Wang and a group of other experts, discovered the 5,000-year-old beer recipe by studying the residue on the inner walls of pottery vessels found in an excavated site in northeast China.

The research, which was published in Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences, provided the earliest evidence of beer production in China so far.
The ancient Chinese made beer mainly with cereal grains, including millet and barley, as well as with Job’s tears, a type of grass in Asia, according to the research.

Traces of yam and lily root parts also appeared in the concoction. Liu said she was particularly surprised to find barley – which is used to make beer today – in the recipe because the earliest evidence to date of barley seeds in China dates to 4,000 years ago.

This suggests why barley, which was first domesticated in western Asia, spread to China. “Our results suggest the purpose of barley’s introduction in China could have been related to making alcohol rather than as a staple food,” Liu said. The ancient Chinese beer looked more like porridge and likely tasted sweeter and fruitier than the clear, bitter beers of today.

The ingredients used for fermentation were not filtered out, and straws were commonly used for drinking, Liu said.

Did the Romans drink beer?

Vinegar and water – Drink (Latin: Posca) Most ancient Romans drank wine (Latin: vinum) mixed with water and spices, but soldiers and slaves drank posca, which was a diluted vinegar beverage. Although beer was invented at the time, the ancient Romans refused to drink it because they considered it to be a barbaric drink.

Why is beer called beer?

Credit: Etsy.com There are many words we use for beer: ale, brew, lager, malt, suds, brewski, brown bottle, draught The list goes on. But why is beer called beer? Where did the word come from? Beer is considered to come from the Latin infinitive bibere meaning “to drink.” But there is other speculation.

Some experts think that the word for beer comes from the Proto-Germanic word beuwoz -, derived from beuwo – meaning “barley.” Latin or Proto-Germanic, variations grew from these dead language roots.
Old English said beor meaning “strong drink, beer, mead.” Old Frisian said boar, Middle Dutch, Dutch and German said bier, and Old High German said bior,

Now the French say bière, the Italians say birra, and the Turkish say bira, The word for beer wasn’t always in use. After the Norman Conquest, the word fell out of Old English. That’s because the Old English word for ale became standard for the drink.

When was beer illegal in US?

Harris & Ewing, photographer. This is the new insignia plate the Bureau of Prohibition has adopted for use by prohibition agents in stopping suspected automobiles. In the photograph, from left to right, are; Prohibition Administrator Ames Woodcock, H.M.

Lucious, secretary of the Automobile Club of Maryland, and Ernest M.Smith, vice- president of the A.A.A.,1930. Harris & Ewing photograph collection. Library of Congress Prints & Photographs Division. The U.S. has always had an uneasy relationship with alcohol and attempts to curb alcohol started long before the 18th Amendment.

In 1826 the first of the temperance societies, American Temperance Society (ATS), formed. While it had some success, it wasn’t until the proliferation of saloons after the Civil War that the temperance movement gained more traction. In 1873 the Woman’s Christian Temperance Union (WCTU) was founded and the temperance movement got its most forceful voice.

The histories of the temperance movement and the women’s movement were often linked, which explains why the WCTU originally proposed the ban of alcohol as a method for preventing abuse from alcoholic husbands.
The WCTU spent many years building the movement though education and local and state laws, and in 1881 had a big success – Kansas included a ban on alcohol in their state constitution.

It is at this time that Carrie Nation came to prominence by attacking saloons with a hatchet. However, saloons still maintained their popularity though that popularity was on the decline during the Progressive Era (1890–1920) when the hostility toward saloons became widespread.

The push for prohibition gained momentum, often with women and Protestant congregations leading the way.
World War I came and with it, a temporary prohibition on alcohol production.
There was also a pronounced anti-German sentiment pushed by the Anti-Saloon League and since many brewers were German and often the loudest opponents of prohibition, this temporary situation dealt a serious blow to the anti-Prohibition forces.

The support for a ban on alcohol grew. On December 18, 1917 a constitutional amendment to prohibit alcohol was proposed in the Senate, and in October 1919 Congress passed the Volstead Act (National Prohibition Act), which was the enabling legislation that set down the rules for enforcing the ban on alcohol and defined the types of alcoholic beverages to be prohibited.

The 18th Amendment was ratified on January 16, 1919 and the country went dry at midnight on January 17, 1920. Prior to Prohibition various types of alcohol were produced all over the country. The chart above, which originally ran in my A Chart is Worth a Thousand Words post, shows how widespread production of alcohol was in the U.S., as well as the variety that was produced.

(You can see vestiges of the way things were – California was and is, the biggest wine area in the U.S. and Kentucky and Tennessee are where to go for bourbon and whiskey.) Of course alcohol didn’t entirely go away with Prohibition. The wealthy, including many politicians, bought out the inventories of the retailers and wholesalers, and of course there were the bootleggers who also helped keep the supply flowing.

Eventually Prohibition – and the violence surrounding it – wore out its welcome.
By 1930 the anti-Prohibition forces had strengthened their hand in Congress and the need for tax revenues at the federal level during the Depression hastened Prohibition’s demise.
President Franklin Roosevelt signed the Cullen–Harrison Act, an amendment to the Volstead Act, on March 22, 1933, allowing for the production of some beer and wine and on December 5, 1933 the 21st Amendment, which repealed the 18th Amendment, was ratified.

Since many places still retained enough knowledge and people that worked in the industry prior to Prohibition, they were able to pick up production relatively easily in 1934, although that was not the case everywhere. New federal rules and regulations were a big barrier to re-entry as were the still simmering anti-alcohol sentiments evidenced in various restrictions that were in place in many communities.

Who drank the first beer?

The Food That Built America – New episodes of The Food That Built America Return Sunday, June 11, at 9/8c and stream the next day. The earliest known alcoholic beverage may have been brewed around 7000 BCE in China in the village of Jiahu, where neolithic pottery shows evidence of a mead-type concoction made from rice, honey and fruit.

The first barley beer was most likely born in the Middle East, where hard evidence of beer production dates back about 5,000 years to the Sumerians of ancient Mesopotamia, Not only have archeologists unearthed ceramic vessels from 3400 B.C. still sticky with beer residue, but the “Hymn to Ninkasi”—an 1800 B.C.

ode to the Sumerian goddess of beer—describes a recipe for a beloved ancient brew made by female priestesses. These nutrient-rich suds were a cornerstone of the Sumerian diet and were likely a safer alternative to drinking water from nearby rivers and canals, which were often contaminated by animal waste.

Beer consumption also flourished under the Babylonian Empire, where its ancient set of laws, the Code of Hammurabi decreed a daily beer ration to citizens. The drink was distributed according to social standing: Laborers received two liters a day, while priests and administrators got five. At the time, the drink was always unfiltered, and cloudy, bitter sediment would gather at the bottom of the drinking vessels.

Special drinking straws were invented to avoid the muck. Few ancient cultures loved their beer as much as the ancient Egyptians, Workers along the Nile were often paid with an allotment of a nutritious, sweet brew, and everyone from pharaohs to peasants and even children drank beer as part of their everyday diet.

Where is the oldest beer from?

Posted by Justin on Feb 27, 2020 I’ve noticed several trends in how chefs pair wine for our classes, but the one that makes me laugh the most is when they choose beer, I find this funny because there’s always a small amount of hesitation, like I might protest.

The truth is, beer is incredibly food friendly, and there are times it just makes more sense.
Take our Street Food class for example, if you’re actually eating street food you’re far more likely to be walking around with a bottle of beer than you would a glass of wine.
We don’t talk about it often, but just like our wine and spirit list, there’s a lot of thought that goes into our beer list.

One of the difficulties I’ve observed since working at The Chopping Block is around our wheat beer selection. We’ve tried widely recognized brands and local favorites, but nothing ever seems to impress our guests. To switch things up a bit, we’ve decided to bring an old, traditional, style into the mix. Records indicate hops have been grown in the area since 768, though the earliest official documentation of a brewery only dates back to 1040. It bears mentioning that this isn’t the only brewery making this claim and some have called into question the authenticity of their documents. Weihenstephaner Hefe Weissbier is a traditional German style wheat beer that showcases flavors of banana and clove. It’s won several awards, most recently it took home the silver in the International Beer Challenge. It’s also the only beer staff seem incapable of pronouncing (Y-EN-stefan), with a couple of bartenders completely giving up and referring to it as “Gwen Stefani” (Guh-win STEF-ahn-ē).

When we talking about pairing with wine, one of the first rules you learn is that sparkling wine pairs with everything. This is largely due to the carbonation, high acidity, and lack of tannin. Beer has similar attributes. The carbonation is a given, you see it every time someone pours beer into a glass.

This is great for food pairing because those tiny bubbles scrub your palate clean with every drink. Acidity isn’t something we generally think of with beer, but next time you have one take a sip and let it sit on your tongue, If you notice you’re starting to salivate, that’s a reaction to the acid.

It doesn’t have to be overwhelming to make it food friendly, but just enough to keep the beverage balanced.
As for the tannin, it’s there, but not in the quantity you find in heavy red wines.
This is also true with white and sparkling wine as well.
We tend to associate tannin with grape skin in wine because that’s usually the most dominant source, but it can also come from things like barrel aging,

It’s not a concern in sparkling wine because we’re not dealing with a significant amount, the same is true with beer. However, bitterness is still a factor, particularly with some IPA’s, that’s why I tend to think of wheat or Pilsner as a more solid choice for food pairing. So, what would I pair with Weihenstephaner Hefe Weissbier? Everything from steak, to seafood, to grilled meat, or even just a crisp salad. Beer is a very forgiving choice for food pairing. If you want to learn more about how to pair food and wine or how flavors interact, check out our calendar for Food and Wine classes (such as Food and Wine of Argentina coming up in March) as well as Flavor Dynamics. Topics: beer, German, wheat, Germany, Wine & Spirits

Did Vikings invent beer?

Beer and mead Field of barley. Photo: Peter Leth. Beer and mead are associated with the Viking period. Beer was made from barley. It was consumed in large quantities, because water could be dangerous to drink in the Viking period. Therefore both weak and strong beer was produced.

The weak beer could be consumed by children, as well as adults. It quenched the thirst after the salty Viking food had been eaten. The Vikings drank strong beer at festive occasions, together with the popular drink of mead. Mead was a sweet, fermented drink made from honey, water and spices. Wine made from grapes was also known of, but had to be imported, from France, for example.

It was thus a luxury product, which only a few wealthy individuals could afford. : Beer and mead

Is beer originally German?

The Germans did not invent beer. Already 13,000 years ago, even before the agricultural revolution, some folks in the Middle East discovered that roasted grain soaked in water made a fine-tasting, nourishing, slightly alcoholic drink.

Did ancient Germans drink beer?

Beer in Northern Europe – The Germans were brewing beer (which they called ol, for `ale’) as early as 800 BCE as is known from great quantities of beer jugs, still containing evidence of the beer, in a tomb in the Village of Kasendorf in northern Bavaria, near Kulmbach.

That the practice continued into the Christian era is evidenced by further archaeological finds and the written record.
Early on, as it had been in Mesopotamia and Egypt, the craft of the brewer was the provenance of women and the Hausfrau brewed her beer in the home to supplement the daily meals.
In time, however, the craft was taken over by Christian monks, primarily, and brewing became an integral part of the Monastic life.

The Kulmbacher Monchshof Kloster, a monastery founded in 1349 CE in Kulmbach, still produces their famous Schwartzbier, among other brews, today. In 1516 CE the German Reinheitsgebot (purity law) was instituted which regulated the ingredients which could legally be used in brewing beer (only water, barley, hops and, later, yeast) and, in so doing, continued the practice of legislation concerning beer which the Babylonians under had done some three thousand years earlier.

The Germans, like those who preceeded them, also instituted a daily beer ration and considered beer a necessary staple of their diet.
From the Celtic lands (Germany through, though which country brewed first is disputed) beer brewing spread, always following the same basic principles first instituted by the Sumerians: female brewers making beer in the home, use of fresh, hot water and fermented grains.

The Finnish of Kalewala (first written down in the 17th century CE from much older, pre-Christian, tales and consolidated in its present form in the 19th century) sings of the creation of beer at length, devoting more lines to the creation of beer than the creation of the world.

What country is the king of beer?

Marketing – One of the Budweiser Clydesdales The Budweiser from Budějovice has been called “The Beer of Kings” since the 16th century. Adolphus Busch adapted this slogan to “The King of Beers.” This history notwithstanding, Anheuser Busch owns the trademark to these slogans in the United States.

In 1969 AB introduced the Superman -esque advertising character of Bud Man.
Bud Man served as the inspiration behind several characters including The Simpsons ‘s Duffman,
From 1987 to 1989, Bud Light ran an advertising campaign centered around canine mascot Spuds MacKenzie,
In 2010, the Bud Light brand paid $1 billion for a six-year licensing agreement with the NFL,

Budweiser pays $20 million annually for MLB licensing rights. Budweiser has produced a number of TV advertisements, such as the Budweiser Frogs, lizards impersonating the Budweiser frogs, a campaign built around the phrase ” Whassup? “, and a team of Clydesdale horses commonly known as the Budweiser Clydesdales, Budweiser also advertises in motorsports, from Bernie Little ‘s Miss Budweiser hydroplane boat to sponsorship of the Budweiser King Top Fuel Dragster driven by Brandon Bernstein. Anheuser-Busch has sponsored the CART championship. It is the “Official Beer of NHRA ” and it was the “Official Beer of NASCAR ” from 1998 to 2007. Budweiser beer in a Bangkok bar Budweiser has sponsored NASCAR teams such as Junior Johnson, Hendrick Motorsports, DEI, and Stewart-Haas Racing, Sponsored drivers include Dale Earnhardt Jr. (1999–2007), Kasey Kahne (2008–2010), and Kevin Harvick (2011–2015).

In IndyCar, Budweiser sponsored Mario Andretti (1983–1984), Bobby Rahal (1985–1988), Scott Pruett (1989–1992), Roberto Guerrero (1993), Scott Goodyear (1994), Paul Tracy (1995), Christian Fittipaldi (1996–1997), and Richie Hearn (1998–1999).
Between 2003 and 2006, Budweiser was a sponsor of the BMW Williams Formula One team.

Anheuser-Busch has placed Budweiser as an official partner and sponsor of Major League Soccer and Los Angeles Galaxy and was the headline sponsor of the British Basketball League in the 1990s. Anheuser-Busch has also placed Budweiser as an official sponsor of the Premier League and the presenting sponsor of the FA Cup,

In the early 20th century, the company commissioned a play-on-words song called ” Under the Anheuser Bush,” which was recorded by several early phonograph companies.
In 2009, Anheuser-Busch partnered with popular Chinese video-sharing site Tudou.com for a user-generated online video contest.
The contest encouraged users to submit ideas that included ants for a Bud TV spot set to run in February 2010 during Chinese New Year,

In 2010, Budweiser produced an online reality TV series centered around the 2010 FIFA World Cup in South Africa called Bud House, following the lives of 32 international football fans (one representing each nation in the World Cup) living together in a house in South Africa.

Anheuser-Busch advertises the Budweiser brand heavily, expending $449 million in 2012 in the United States alone. Presenting Budweiser as the most advertised drink brand in America, and accounted for a third of the company’s US marketing budget. On November 5, 2012, Anheuser-Busch asked Paramount Pictures to obscure or remove the Budweiser logo from the film Flight (2012), directed by Robert Zemeckis and starring Denzel Washington,

In an advertisement titled “Brewed the Hard Way” which aired during Super Bowl XLIX, Budweiser touted itself as “Proudly A Macro Beer”, distinguishing it from smaller production craft beers, In 2016, Beer Park by Budweiser opened on the Las Vegas Strip.

On October 7, 2016, the Budweiser Clydesdales made a special appearance on the Danforth Campus at Washington University in St. Louis ahead of the presidential debate, A special batch beer named Lilly’s Lager was exclusively brewed for the occasion. In December 2020, Budweiser sent personalized bottles of beer to every goalkeeper who Lionel Messi had scored against.

In April 2023 Bud Light cans were made with the face of trans TikToker Dylan Mulvaney as Budweiser attempted to rebrand its image away from its previous “fratty” image.

Is beer originally German?

Where is the oldest beer from?

The truth is, beer is incredibly food friendly, and there are times it just makes more sense. Take our Street Food class for example, if you’re actually eating street food you’re far more likely to be walking around with a bottle of beer than you would a glass of wine. We don’t talk about it often, but just like our wine and spirit list, there’s a lot of thought that goes into our beer list.

When we talking about pairing with wine, one of the first rules you learn is that sparkling wine pairs with everything. This is largely due to the carbonation, high acidity, and lack of tannin. Beer has similar attributes. The carbonation is a given, you see it every time someone pours beer into a glass.

It doesn’t have to be overwhelming to make it food friendly, but just enough to keep the beverage balanced. As for the tannin, it’s there, but not in the quantity you find in heavy red wines. This is also true with white and sparkling wine as well. We tend to associate tannin with grape skin in wine because that’s usually the most dominant source, but it can also come from things like barrel aging,

Who invented the drink beer?

The first barley beer was most likely born in the Middle East, where hard evidence of beer production dates back about 5,000 years to the Sumerians of ancient Mesopotamia,
Not only have archeologists unearthed ceramic vessels from 3400 B.C.
Still sticky with beer residue, but the “Hymn to Ninkasi”—an 1800 B.C.

Beer consumption also flourished under the Babylonian Empire, where its ancient set of laws, the Code of Hammurabi decreed a daily beer ration to citizens. The drink was distributed according to social standing: Laborers received two liters a day, while priests and administrators got five. At the time, the drink was always unfiltered, and cloudy, bitter sediment would gather at the bottom of the drinking vessels.

Gaspar Aparicio