The Audacity of Hops

by Tom Acitelli

  Greg Koch

  Koch remains the CEO of Stone Brewing, now the largest craft operation in the Southwest, and Steve Wagner is still president and brewmaster. In July 2012, the brewery opened its third retail store, including a tasting room for thirty and a patio for one hundred, in Oceanside, California, about forty miles north of San Diego.

  Jim Koch

  Koch stepped down as CEO of Boston Beer in 2001 but remains chairman and controlling shareholder. (Martin Roper, the company’s COO and an executive there since the early 1990s, succeeded him as chief.) Koch’s father, Charles, who had served on the brewery’s board, died in June 2011 at age eighty-eight.

  InBev’s 2008 takeover of Anheuser-Busch left Boston Beer for a time as the largest independently owned American brewery.* Asked during a spring 2012 interview, in a tasting room at the Boston Beer brewery in Jamaica Plain, if he harbored any ill will toward Augie Busch and his company for the attempts to put him out of business, the normally loquacious Koch turned quiet. Noise from a raucous brewery tour seeped through the tasting-room door. No, he didn’t. Why should he? “I’m still here,” Koch answered slowly, a wry smile emerging. “And he’s …”—he dragged out the next words—”all gone.”

  Michael Lewis

  Michael Lewis became professor emeritus at the University of California at Davis in 1995, and retired from heading its brewing curriculum. In 2008, the university, using monies donated by the brewing industry, created an endowed fund in his honor.

  Tony Magee

  Tony Magee continues to fight the good fight against “the tyranny of fast growth,” although the struggle is not quite so existential anymore for his Lagunitas Brewing. In April 2012, he announced that Lagunitas would open its second brewery the following year, in Magee’s hometown, no less—in an old steel factory in Chicago’s Douglas Park neighborhood. He made the announcement over Twitter.

  Vijay Mallya

  The flamboyant billionaire’s United Breweries, a division of the UB Group, is still the majority owner of Mendocino Brewing in the Bay Area and Olde Saratoga Brewing Company in Upstate New York. He has, as of this book’s publication, yet to make the direct assault on Big Beer that he talked about that summer day in 1997 on his yacht off the shores of Manhattan.

  F. X. Matt II

  F. X. Matt II died in January 2001 at age sixty-seven. He had stepped down as brewery president in 1989 and was succeeded by his brother Nick, who is now the chairman and CEO. F.X.’s son Fred is the brewery’s president.

  Fritz Maytag

  Fritz Maytag remains chairman emeritus of Anchor Brewers & Distillers. He also remains active in the California wine business and the blue-cheese concern his father started in Iowa in 1941.

  The brewery Maytag saved in 1965 is now San Francisco’s biggest manufacturing concern by revenue—so big, in fact, that, on September 29, 2011, former House Speaker Nancy Pelosi, whose district covers most of the city, used the brewery as a backdrop to tout the importance of homegrown manufacturing companies. During a press conference, the then-House minority leader sat next to Anchor co-owner Keith Greggor and in front of the gorgeous copper kettles of the Anchor brewhouse that Maytag had had installed in the late 1970s. “People who have the courage and creativity to start a small business,” she said, “are the vitality of this country.”

  Jack McAuliffe

  A couple of days before the Fourth of July 2012, Jack McAuliffe flew from Arkansas, where he was living, to Boston to participate in a ceremonial brewing of New Albion Ale through Jim Koch’s Boston Beer. Koch first broached the idea during that breakfast at the 2011 Great American Beer Festival in Denver, and New Albion Ale debuted at the 2012 GABF. The brand, which used Cascade hops, hit shelves nationwide in January 2013, with all profits going to McAuliffe.

  Garrett Oliver

  Garrett Oliver remains the brewmaster and a partner at the Brooklyn Brewery (Steve Hindy is still the president, though fellow founder Tom Potter retired as CEO in 2004). Oliver was the editor of the encyclopedic Oxford Companion to Beer, published in September 2011.

  Joseph Owades

  Joseph Owades, the inventor of light beer and adviser to several craft breweries, died in December 2005 at age eighty-six. Jim Koch gave the eulogy at his funeral, which Fritz Maytag and Pete Slosberg also attended.

  Charlie Papazian

  Charlie Papazian remains president of the Brewers Association, which had 3,754 professional members by the end of 2011, including around 70 percent of the breweries in operation in the United States.

  Matthew Reich

  After working for a couple of years with F. X. Matt as president of the division that handled the New Amsterdam brand, Matthew Reich left craft beer altogether in the early 1990s. He continues an involvement with food, however, that stretches back to the 1970s as an executive at City Harvest in New York City, the world’s first “food rescue organization,” which helps feed more than one million New Yorkers each year.

  Pete Slosberg

  Pete Slosberg still lectures regularly about beer, including overseas, and judges competitions. Gambrinus discontinued the Pete’s brands in March 2011 due to “rapidly declining sales volumes.”

  *The numbers included only brick-and-mortar operations, not contract ones, meaning the final tally might be even higher.

  *It ceded the title in 2011 to the 183-year-old Pennsylvania regional D. G. Yuengling & Son.

  ACKNOWLEDGMENTS

  I have many people to thank for this book, though only finite space to express my deep gratitude.

  First, I would like to thank everyone involved in the American craft beer movement, past and present, who gave of their time and expertise. I was a novice when it came to the history and business sides of this industry—and, as for brewing, had but a few iffy batches of homemade pale ale and stout under my belt. I approached this book as a journalist uncovering a story, and the following from the movement were the most important in helping me do so: Tony Magee and the entire crew at Lagunitas, especially Ron Lindenbusch; Jeremy Cowan; Pete Slosberg; Mark Bronder; Jim Koch and the team at Boston Beer; Jack McAuliffe; Suzy Stern Denison; Keith Greggor and the wonderful people at Anchor, especially Mark Carpenter and Dave Burkhart; Ken Grossman and the entire crew at Sierra Nevada; Rhonda Kallman; Vinnie Cilurzo; Sam Calagione; Steve Hindy; Garrett Oliver; Tom de Bakker; David Geary; Dan Kenary; Rich Doyle; Alan Pugsley; Greg Koch; Nick Matt; Gary Glass and the entire staff at the American Homebrewers Association; Daniel Bradford; Charlie Papazian, Bob Pease, Paul Gatza, Julia Herz and the wider Brewers Association, keeper of statistics and organizer of the Great American Beer Festival, which I attended twice in writing this book; Kim Jordan; John McDonald; Cameron Healy; Matthew Reich; Geoff and Marcy Larson; Bill Owens; Dave Alexander; Ray Daniels; Michael Lewis; Ted Badgerow; Paola Nano of Slow Food International; John Segal Jr.; and Nico Freccia.

  Many fellow writers paid it forward for this book, and I plan to do the same when the days come: Stan Hieronymus; Byron Burch; Jay Brooks; Maureen Ogle; Randy Mosher; John Holl; Greg Kitsock; Julie Johnson; Greg Barbera; Don Russell; Eric Asimov; Joshua Bernstein; John Foyston; Todd and Jason Alstrom; Joseph Tucker; and the dean of us all, Fred Eckhardt.

  I would also like to thank Paddy Gunningham and Samantha Hopkins, as well as Donald Marshall at Oxford Brookes University, for essential background on the late, great Michael Jackson, who became my favorite character in this book the more I got to “know” him.

  Yuval Taylor, my editor at Chicago Review Press, faced with aplomb the formidable task of confronting 140,000-plus words and whipping them into tighter shape. Kudos, too, to the entire crew at Chicago Review Press—particularly copyeditor Gordon Flagg and project editor Kelly Wilson. My agent, Jason Ashlock, saw the potential for this book well before I did and steered it successfully through rough seas from our first discussion of it over pints of Sierra Nevada Pale Ale at the Old Town in Manhattan. Every writer should be so lucky.

  I would also like to thank my family, pa
rticularly my niece, Catie Acitelli, who helped with key research; my sister, Carrie Stoehr, who provided thoughtful feedback on the manuscript; and my father-in-law, John A. Rudy, for his astute proofreading. This book is dedicated to my parents, with immeasurable gratitude I am not even going to attempt typing into words.

  Finally, I thank my wife, Elizabeth, without whose love and constancy this entire endeavor would never have gotten off the ground.

  —T.J.A.

  CAMBRIDGE, MASS.

  SEPTEMBER 4, 2012

  NOTES

  Prologue

  Nation’s five biggest brewers Walter Adams and James Brock, eds., The Structure of American Industry, ninth edition (Englewood Cliffs, NJ: Prentice Hall, 1995), 145.

  Number would crest Bryan Miller, “American Beer: How Changing Tastes Have Changed It,” New York Times, May 12, 1982, Late City Final Edition, Section C, Page 1, Column 4.

  “Alcoholic soda pop” Jim Koch, interview with the author, March 12, 2012.

  A-B headquarters “Largest Brewery in the World,” Spokane Spokesman-Review, April 4, 1903.

  Twenty-one gallons United States Brewers Association.

  PART I

  The Last Shall Be First

  Early Maytag details Patrick Cain, “Tapping a Fresh Beer Market,” Investor’s Business Daily, February 24, 2010, A03.

  Maytag’s first Anchor, Kuh details National Public Radio interview with Fritz Maytag, accessed June 12, 2012, www.devilscanyonbrewery.com/industry-news/fritz-maytag-keith-greggor-talk-about-anchor-steam-brewery-on-npr/.

  When the deal closed Robert Sullivan, “Head of Steam,” Stanford Magazine, September-October 1996.

  Used those Holsteins Jean Thilmany and Robin Mather Jenkins, “Blue Heaven,” The Chicago Tribune, January 24, 2007, 1.

  “Less than the price of a used car” Cain, “Tapping a Fresh Beer Market.”

  From the end of the Civil War US Brewers Association, 1979 Brewers Almanac, Washington, DC, 12-13.

  The average American adult Ibid.

  Every big city Ibid.

  From 1865 to 1915 Ibid.

  To present Mayor Angelo Rossi Carl Nolte, “S.F. Toasts the Repeal of Prohibition Again,” San Francisco Chronicle, December 5, 2008, A1.

  The number of unemployed Charmaine Go, “Unemployment Relief Distribution in the Bay Area During the Depression,” University of California at Berkeley.

  That market share would grow Martin H. Stack, “A Concise History of America’s Brewing Industry,” Rockhurst University.

  “That so many breweries” Roger Fillion, “Bill Coors: 69 Years and Still Brewing,” Rocky Mountain News (Denver), May 23, 2008.

  Over eight in 10 beers US Brewers Association, 1979 Brewers Almanac, Washington, DC, 20.

  Neither knew much about Maureen Ogle, Ambitious Brew: The Story of American Beer (Orlando, FL: Harcourt, 2006), 260.

  Sullivan, “Head of Steam.”

  Ibid.

  Ogle, Ambitious Brew, 261.

  Definition of a craft brewer The Brewers Association website, “Craft Brewer Defined,” www.brewersassociation.org.

  Sullivan, “Head of Steam.”

  Do It Yourself

  Polaris details “Polaris Goes to Work,” Time, November 28, 1960.

  They knew how to fix them Jack McAuliffe, interview with the author, December 18, 2010.

  Fairfax by the time For land area and 1970 population from Fairfax County website, fairfaxcounty.gov. For 1950 population, the Fairfax Economic Development Corporation website, fairfaxcountyeda.org.

  In part to keep him busy Cathy McAuliffe Dickerson, e-mail message to the author, April 23, 2012.

  Welding and Navy details McAuliffe, December 18.

  The pull-tab for aluminum Heather McPherson, “Canned Food Turns 200 and Shows No Signs of Being Shelved,” The Dish (blog), Orlando Sentinel, August 25, 2010.

  He did it more McAuliffe, December 18.

  “Many times I added” William Lowe, e-mail message to author, June and July 2011.

  The homebrewing and its popularity Jack McAuliffe, interview with the author, September 30, 2011; Gary Flynn (who served with McAuliffe in Holy Loch), interview with the author, November 23, 2011.

  Beer for Its Own Sake

  Fred Eckhardt loved the book Fred Eckhardt, interview with the author, November 27, 2010.

  Archivist of Carlsberg, which now owns the Tuborg brand, confirmed its availability in Japan in the early 1950s (e-mail message to the author, November 9, 2011).

  And while Portland by 1965 “1967 Census of Business, Volume V, Part 3,” US Census Bureau.

  Blitz-Weinhard details John Foyston, “Ale and Farewell,” Oregonian (Portland), October 14, 1999, E01.

  Oregon’s best-selling beer William McCall, “After 140 Years, Blitz Weinhard Finally Closes,” Associated Press, August 28, 1999.

  Weinhard had made his way westward “Henry Weinhard (1830-1904),” The Oregon History Project of the Oregon Historical Society, www.ohs.org/education/oregonhistory/historical_records/dspDocument.cfm?doc_ID=B6C30BC3-1C23-B9D3-686A0541C39727CB.

  Details of Eckhardt’s visit and his correspondence and influence with McCabe confirmed by Fritz Maytag through e-mail coordinated by Maureen Ogle.

  Eckhardt-McCallum conversation Eckhardt.

  Details from A Treatise on Lager Beers Fred Eckhardt, A Treatise on Lager Beers, rev. ed. (Portland, OR: Hobby Winemaker, 1970), introduction, 7, 9.

  Who would be able to decades later Prominent craft brewers, e-mail messages to the author, November 2011.

  Eden, California

  Details on Lewis’s life and trip Michael Lewis, interview with the author, December 1, 2011.

  Added more than 9 million residents US Census Bureau, “Resident Population and Apportionment of the US House of Representatives.”

  Boeing was the only “A Brief History of the California Economy,” California Department of Finance, www.dof.ca.gov/html/fs_data/historycaeconomy/index.htm.

  Lewis and other faculty culled Michael Lewis, interview with the author, fall 2009.

  McAuliffe visit Lewis, December 1, and McAuliffe, December 18.

  TV Dinner Land

  Carpenter biography Mark Carpenter, interview with the author, November 2011.

  Opened what was New Hampshire’s “New Hampshire’s Brewery Map,” State of New Hampshire’s website, www.visitnh.gov.

  “A crude and primitive, old brewery” Ken Grossman, Beyond the Pale: The Sierra Nevada Brewery Story (Hoboken, NJ: Wiley, 2013). This quotation was taken from an advanced, unpaginated copy shared with the author.

  Anchor was still just getting by Ibid.; Sullivan, “Head of Steam.”

  Most of Anchor’s local accounts A. Richard Immel, “Snatched from Extinction,” Wall Street Journal, January 2, 1975.

  That new Anheuser-Busch brewery “Watch It Made in the U.S.A.,” webpage on touring the Merrimack Anheuser-Busch brewery, www.factorytour.com/tours/anheuser-busch-merrimack.cfm.

  Schlitz brewery details “Schlitz Dedicates Carolina Brewery,” Milwaukee Journal, May 8, 1970, 27.

  It worked so efficiently David C. Berliner, “Employees Bitter Over Schlitz Closing in Brooklyn,” New York Times, February 18, 1973, 150, column 1.

  9,600,000 new cars Census Bureau, economic indicators, 1900-2002 www.census.gov/statab/hist/HS-45.pdf; www.census.gov/statab/hist/HS-40.pdf.

  A record 13.3 million TV sets Gene Smith, “Appliance Sales: What Slump?,” New York Times, March 8, 1970, section 3, page 1, column 1.

  More than 60 million households Paul B. Johnson, “Computer Age Causes Shift in TV Industry,” High Point (NC) Enterprise, December 12, 2011.

  Sales of the countertop microwave Southwest Museum of Engineering, Communications and Computation website, www.smecc.org/.

  The first 200 cases of Anchor rolled Dave Burkhart at Anchor, e-mail message to the author, February 1, 2012.

  Maytag-Saccani conversation Sullivan, “Head of Steam.”

  Maytag still r
efused to advertise Immel, “Snatched from Extinction.”

  Maytag likened such brewing advice Ibid.

  There were a few such bottles Carpenter.

  “Consistently marvelous stuff” Sullivan, “Head of Steam.”

  Lite Up Ahead

  Details of the Murphy-Weissman dinner; “Murphy was right” Rob Walker, “Let There Be Lite,” New York Times, December 29, 2002.

  The thorough fermentation Michael Jackson’s Beer Hunter website: www.beerhunter.com. The site is maintained by Stan Hieronymus.

  Miller sued successfully Wall Street Journal, November 3, 1975, 19, column 2.

  Gablinger’s Diet Beer, developed Mary Rourke, “Joseph L. Owades, 86; Created 1st Low-Calorie Beer, Became a Consultant to Microbrewers,” Los Angeles Times, December 22, 2005.

  “Not only did no one want to try” Adam Bernstein, “Joseph Owades Dies at 86; the Father of Light Beer,” Washington Post, December 21, 2005, B11.

  Meister Brau had been Ibid.

  “There was a woman” Walker, “Let There Be Lite.”

  To nearly a quarter of a billion dollars Paul Gibson, “The George Weissman Road Show,” Forbes, November 10, 1980, 179. $250 million adjusted for inflation from 1978 dollars to 2010.

  The exclusive beer spots Robert Flaherty, “We Missed the Boat … We Were Unsmarted,” Forbes, August 7, 1978, 36-38.

  $4.6 billion Economist, “And Then There Were Five,” July 22, 1978, 36. $4.6 billion adjusted for inflation from 1977 dollars to 2010.

  “Brewed Through a Horse”

  Who had for years Fred Eckhardt, Amateur Brewer 6, Summer 1979.

  Newsletter excerpt Maltose Falcons newsletter, February 1978, www.maltosefalcons.com/brews/1978/197802.

  Elhardt history “Maltose Falcons’ History,” Maltose Falcons website, http://www.maltosefalcons.com/content/about-falcons.

  With a borrowed $500 Byron Burch, interview with the author, January 6, 2012.

  Who hosted its meetings Maltose Falcons website; John Daume, interview with the author, December 28, 2011.