Since I've been doing jack shit on this thread save Polchats, I think it's time for me to write some shit. Bookmark, you've inspired me. (I wrote all this on a tablet too, so it was fucking hard.)
Alcoholics of the World, Unite! A history of American Microbrewing (Part One)
No matter where you travel throughout the world, you will find people who enjoy beer. The world's oldest fermented drink, beer has refreshed people's palates and invigorated their taste buds for over 5000 years. But even though beer is almost universally enjoyed as a drink, there is one nation that takes it's worship of beer to a whole new level: America. Yes, the Red juggernaut of the Western Hemisphere is, in the words of an anonymous French journalist, "anamored with the alcoholic drink in a way not seen since Napoleon and Josephine themselves." With a record Eight Thousand breweries stretching across the Union, the Americans have managed to turn beer into an art form, from crisp, refreshing lagers, to chocolatey, fruity porters, to heavy and dark stouts, to hoppy, bitter ales, all considered world class in quality and taste. From larger collectives in the vast metropolitan cities to "family managed" microbreweries found in the beautiful agricultural communities in the rural south, the Americans have truly maintained such a high level of quality on a quantity not seen anywhere else in the world.
Through this outstanding level of expectations, several breweries manage to rise above all else, such as Rocky Mountain Brewing Co. in Colorado, Stryker Brewing Collective in Manhattan, Scarlet Hammer Brewery in Chicago, Blue River Ale Cooperative in Savannah, and the up and coming Waimea Bay Brewery in Oahu, Hawaii. Yet, despite the high praise these top breweries are given, none of them are as deeply ingrained within American culture as The Spirit of Liberation Brewing Cooperative in Milwaukee, Wisconsin. Born the love child of two Wisconsin natives, The Spirit of Liberation is considered "the original" craft brewery, serving delicious Lagers, Stouts, and Porters since 1947. Truly, the history of "America's Drink" is incredible, going back to the days of the old republic.
Though it seems that this explosion of creative brewing began with the American transition to socialism, in truth, America had been full of delicious oddities since the Gilded Age. In 1873, America had some Four Thousand breweries, working in dozens of regional and ethnic styles. Brooklyn alone had nearly fifty. Beer was not only refreshing but nutritious, it was said—a “valuable substitute for vegetables,” as a member of the United States Sanitary Commission put it during the Civil War. The lagers brewed by Adolphus Busch and Frederick Pabst were among the best. In 1878, Busch’s St. Louis Lager took on more than a hundred European beers at a competition in Paris. The lager came home with the gold, causing an “immense sensation,” in the words of a reporter from the Times.
Yet despite the success of American beer and the microbrewing culture, bad times were to fall on American beer. With the growth of big business in America, monopolies started to form amongst the beer industry, with smaller microbreweries being swallowed up by the Titans of big business. Of these so called "Beer Barons" none was more egregious and malevolent than August Busch Sr. Nicknamed "Gus the Junker" by his workers, Busch was known for his excessive brutality, both in business ventures and in dealing with his striking employees. The son of Adolphus Busch, creator of Anheuser-Busch brewing, Gus Busch had shown an affinity for doing business at an early age, becoming company chairman by age 25. Following his fathers death in 1913, Busch lead his fathers brewery, Anheuser-Busch brewing, to become the largest brewing trust in America, the Pan-National Brewing Company, swallowing up large amounts of microbreweries through promises of "self management" and "improved living conditions". Neither of these promises came to fruition, as the artisans of various microbreweries were turned into mere wage-laborers, working 17-18 hours a day in terrible conditions, their delicious recipes stretching back generations turned to dust, replaced by mass produced swill with poor ingredients. Many would not stand to see their livelihoods destroyed by Busch, and numerous strikes occurred between 1916-1932, the most brutal being the Großman Brewery strike of 1921, where Pinkerton Union busters hired by Gus Busch opened fire on striking workers of the Großman Microbrewery, leaving eight dead. The workers were forced to work longer hours and take massive pay cuts at the cost of keeping their jobs.
Following the election of 1932 and the subsequent Putsch, August Busch Sr. Immediately supported the junta, calling MacArthur "the conquering hero of moral conservatism that will squash the foreign labor agitators". In his fortified brewery in St. Louis, Busch created a reactionary militia to comb the streets surrounding his brewery for Red Paramiltary Forces. This militia was extraordinarily effective, and killed around 100 ANTIFA militiamen by the end of the first month of the Revolution. However, luck would not remain in Busch's favor. After the Battlle of Chicago and the subsequent crippling of the Army of the Mississippi, Busch found himself on the run as his brewery turned fortress was besieged by Missouri Spartacists and Army mutineers. fleeing to the American South for Cuba, Busch and his family were intercepted by Marine mutineers led by soon to be Chief Commissar of the Marine Corps Smedley Butler, rampaging throughout the Southern U.S after their victory over the traitor Marines in Long Island. Busch, well known by the Revolutionaries to be an exceptionally cruel capitalist, was shot dead by the Marines, while his family was imprisoned. Though his family was eventually pardoned and sent to France, they never truly got over the shooting of Busch Sr, and became outspoken enemies of the UASR government.
Though the Totalitarian hold over the Artisan culture of American brewing was broken for good, the damage had been done. Hundreds of breweries around the nation were destroyed in the heated combat of the civil war, and many more were transformed into workshops and factories for the new goal of rebuilding a young socialist nation. It seemed, for a while, that the once vibrant American brewing scene was gone for good. However, the choices made by a young man from Milwaukee and a young woman from West Bend would change American beer culture for the better.
More to Come.....
