Someone who heard the interview on Basic Brewing Radio's podcast wrote and asked me a very good question (see the comments section under the blog piece titled "Here's to Homebrewing").

Here's the gist of the comment/question from Gabe:

"First, James Spencer talks about the "great American myth" that brewing companies (like Anheuser-Busch and Pabst) pushed smaller competitors out of the market, used cheaper additives in their beer like corn and rice, and helped facilitate the demise of more flavorful beers leading the U.S. into a dark age of bland beer from the middle of the 20th century until recently. I was one who generally believed that assumption to be true as well. Your book, however, disputes that myth and explains the history of American beer in a completely different way. My question then is why do you think this myth exists? How did it start? Were there marketing change during WWII causing the general public to believe that major breweries had changed their product in a detrimental way? What are your thoughts?"

Great questions -- and if only I knew all the answers.

But let me give this a shot. First, for WHY I think this myth exists (or at least part of why I think), see the piece I wrote for Powells.com. It's here. Scroll down to the entry titled "Beer As Myth. Myths R Us."

So that's my take on why the myth has such power.

As to Gabe's other questions: I think the brewers may have inadvertently fueled this myth AFTER the fact.

Here's what I mean: back in the 1950s and 1960s, it's just a fact that MOST beer drinkers wanted a light-bodied, pale yellow beer. So a brewery's advertising often played up the lightness, the paleness, the smoothness of the beer. Americans wanted a smooth, light beer (and smooth, light cigarettes and smooth, light liquor!)

When craft brewing came along, some of the fans of "new" beer remembered all those old ads. Remembered the "smooth" and "light" beers of their youth.

That plus the younger fans who grew up with craft beer and heard horror stories about "old" beer -- well, a myth was born!

So there you have it: my version of "the beer myth."

Posted by Maureen Ogle at 09:18 PM | Permalink | Comments (3)

I've been doing interviews for about two months, and I just realized today that I've made the icky mistake of taking for granted one of the best parts of this whole gig:

Namely, feedback from listeners and readers. A case in point are the two comments about the previous blog post (about homebrewers): smart, savvy, cogent comments from people who've read the book or heard an interview.

You have no idea how much I appreciate the fact that someone, anyone!, would take the time to let me know they've been listening ore reading, and that they were interested enough to ask questions or add some feedback. (This includes, of course, all the amazing emails I've had from people around the country.)

One of the great things about the internet is that it makes this kind of interaction so much easier for all of us. I only wish we could all sit down and have a beer together.

Again, my sincere thanks to all of you.

(And shame on me for not saying it sooner!)

Posted by Maureen Ogle at 01:59 AM | Permalink