Dane Huckelbridge Author of United States of Beer

The Total Tutor Neil Haley will interview Dane Huckelbridge Author of The United States of Beer.

It’s no surprise Americans love their beer—consuming about six billion gallons annually—and humans have been brewing beer for thousands of years. In his new book, Huckelbridge charts the surprisingly fascinating history of Americans’ relationship with their most popular alcoholic beverage and shows how beer has evolved along with the country—from a local and regional product (once upon a time every American city has its own brewery and iconic beer brand) to the rise of global mega-brands like Budweiser and Miller that are synonymous with U.S. capitalism.

We learn of George Washington’s attempt to brew beer at Mount Vernon with molasses instead of barley when his barley crop failed, of the 19th century “Beer Barons” like Captain Frederick Pabst, Adolphus Busch, and Joseph Schlitz who revolutionized commercial brewing and built lucrative empires—and the American immigrant experience—and of the advances in brewing and bottling technology that allowed beer to flow in the saloons of the Wild West. Throughout the book, Huckelbridge draws connections between seemingly remote fragments of the American past, and shares his reports from the frontlines of today’s craft-brewing revolution.