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American Beer: Glimpses of Its History and Description of Its Manufacture

Chapter 2: PREFACE
By G. Thomann
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About This Book

The book combines historical vignettes tracing the arrival and establishment of beer in North America—from explorers and colonial household brewing to the emergence of public breweries and early regulation—with a practical, popular account of beer production. It outlines malting, mashing, fermentation, refrigeration, and bottling, and discusses tavern practices, domestic manufacture, and efforts to favor malt liquors over distilled spirits. Anecdotes and regulatory developments are interwoven with technical explanations and illustrations of contemporary manufacturing methods, offering both a cultural narrative of consumption and a clear description of the craft and industry behind commercial brewing.

PREFACE

This book is composed mainly of selected parts of two separate essays written by the undersigned and published many years ago on two different occasions and for two widely dissimilar purposes.

The reproduction of these sketches in the present form appears to be warranted by a growing demand for information concerning the process of brewing of which one of the two essays here referred to contains a popular description, often quoted not only in magazines and newspapers, but also in encyclopaedias. That booklet, copyrighted by Mr. George Ehret, is now out of print; but with characteristic kindness Mr. Ehret has authorized the United States Brewers’ Association to reprint the whole or any part of it, as present needs may demand. We have, accordingly, reproduced without abridgment everything relating to the processes of brewing, malting, refrigeration, etc., and have only changed or amplified the remainder of the text in such a manner as to bring it up to date.

As to the historical part, the sketches herein contained are not intended to go beyond the narrow limit indicated by the sub-title. They afford only random glimpses of the history of American brewing, but enough, probably, to create in the mind of the reader a desire to read those other books published by the Association, in which the subject is treated fully and comprehensively from various points of view.

G. THOMANN.

New York, November, 1909.