-By James Mellgren

In wine there is wisdom, in beer there is freedom, in water there is bacteria.
– Benjamin Franklin

Beer has been an indelible part of American culture since the Mayflower dropped anchor off the coast of Massachusetts. In fact, those pious Pilgrims carried more beer as part of their precious supplies than water. Indeed, the only reason they landed at Plymouth Rock instead of their original destination in northern Virginia was because they were running desperately low on beer and needed to land in order to brew more. In those days, as wise Ben Franklin so aptly put it in the quote above, beverages like milk and water were not always safe to drink. The alcohol content of beer, although very low compared with spirits, was enough to kill off any potentially harmful microorganisms in the water; and, as a bonus, it tasted great (although it probably wasn't less filling). Thus, our national alcoholic beverage of choice came to America, and here it has stayed in spite of the temperance movement and the subsequent years of Prohibition (the Volstead Act of 1920), which all but sounded the death knell for the American brewing industry. Today, beer is the nation's most popular alcoholic beverage and, despite the near annihilation of our country's brewing tradition at the end of the 1920s, the average American today lives within 10 miles of a brewery. That in itself is cause for celebration.

Liquid Bread
The invention of beer is famously attributed to the ancient Egyptians, and although they were the first to commercially brew beer and likely made many improvements in the quality as a result, it was probably invented much earlier by the Sumerians. It maybe more accurate to say they discovered beer, because like cheese, the whole thing was possibly an accident wherein someone left a bucket of barley out in the rain only to discover several days later that the mix had undergone a mysterious transformation. The gods and goddesses got all the credit in those days for miraculously turning the soup to beer, but in time it came to be understood that yeast was the goddess of beer and not Isis. The ancient Sumerians, by the way, are reputed to be the world's first civilization, and it was very likely beer, or rather the cultivation of barley and other grains to make beer, that caused them to settle down and form the earliest city-states. In other words, a sheaf of barley could symbolize peace as much as the olive branch for it is the prudent farmer who makes friends with his neighbors.

Although it would be a long time before anyone understood the role of or even the existence of yeast in the brewing of beer, the ancients knew that beer made them healthy and happy when they drank it in moderation (those chariot DUIs were a nuisance). They knew instinctively what we understand scientifically today, that fermentation (the process in which the yeast converts the sugars into alcohol and carbon dioxide) greatly increases the vitamins and minerals in the barley. It's not surprising then that beer was thought of by the ancients as "liquid bread." After all, the ingredients are the same and they both depended on the wild yeast to get the party started. And they were both nourishing and life sustaining. Most people who think of beer and beer making as a manly pursuit would be surprised to learn that the earliest brewers were all women, many of whom were priestesses, with the knowledge thought to be handed to them from the goddesses. Even in our own early pioneering history in America, brewing beer was women's work, the same as baking bread, churning butter or finding the remote.


America's Brew
The first beers to be made in America, both at home and commercially, were English-style ales, although without sufficient amounts of barley, those early brewers improvised with a variety of ingredients such as pumpkin, corn and sassafras. The benefits and virtues of beer and brewing were vigorously espoused by many of our founding fathers, including Samuel Adams, John Hancock, George Washington and Thomas Jefferson. In fact, the melody to our national anthem is based on an old English pub song, a fact that was probably not lost on early Americans. Ale was the beer of choice in America up until the mid-19th century when waves of German immigrants began to arrive with recipes for the type of beer they had made back home, a lighter, cleaner-tasting lager beer. Since lager beer had to be brewed at lower temperatures, huge ice houses were constructed to hold the giant blocks of ice that would be harvested from lakes and rivers throughout the winter months, packed in straw in the ice houses and used to keep the beer cool through the warmer months. Beer at this point was still a fresh, highly perishable, living, breathing product that was basically only consumed in saloons or carried home in a pail for daily consumption. That all changed when mechanical refrigeration was developed. Brewers were the first to experiment commercially with refrigeration. In fact, brewers Adolphus Busch and Frederick Pabst were the ones who introduced mechanical refrigeration into the brewing process. Next to refrigeration, the most significant development in the brewing industry was Louis Pasteur's discovery of the process we now call pasteurization, that of heating the liquid to a specific temperature for a certain amount of time, thereby destroying the bacteria that would cause the beer to go bad. It was this discovery that made possible the selling of beer in bottles, and there was no looking back.

With the advent of bottled beer and refrigeration, the new German-style lager beers and Czech-style pilsner beers became the favorite brews around the country. They were clean, crisp and refreshing, and when served ice cold, they were the perfect brew for the workingman or woman after a hard day's labor. In time, the great German breweries dominated the brewing industry in America, making the cities of Milwaukee, St. Louis and Philadelphia synonymous with beer. Because these breweries were so big and successful, they were able to weather the storm of Prohibition, switching from beer to make other products like soft drinks, ice cream, malt extract, syrups and candy until the 14 long years of Prohibition ended. The famous Anheuser-Busch (A-B) beer wagon, pulled by the even more famous Clydesdales, delivered the first cases of post-Prohibition Budweiser to the nation's capital and to President Roosevelt in the White House (even though FDR reportedly made a martini his first legal cocktail). However, beer consumption suffered as a result of Prohibition. Between 1860 and 1900, beer consumption went up 400 percent in the United States (by the end of the 19th century, there were 3,200 breweries in the United States, mostly owned by Germans). But during the dry years, spirits were much easier to handle, transport and make, and consequently, people weren't as used to drinking beer as they had been. Thus began beer's long climb back into the hearts and throats of thirsty Americans, but it wouldn't be until the 1970s that beer consumption would reach pre-Prohibition levels.

In the early 1960s, one of the last small regional breweries, Anchor Brewing Company, was going under. There was no real market for the style of beer they made and they were selling only to saloons in kegs. Entrepreneur and washing machine scion Fritz Maytag bought the floundering brewery and proceeded to make brewing history. Maytag and his refurbished Anchor Steam beer are credited with jump-starting the microbrewing industry. It would take a while to catch on and for other brewers to move from their home kitchens to commercial breweries, but when it did, the industry was radically changed. In 1980, there were 48 breweries in the United States. By 2005, there were over 1,500 around the country, the growth due mainly to the emergence of microbreweries. Today, Americans drink over six billion gallons of beer per year, and despite convoluted and outdated laws governing the sale and distribution of alcohol, beer is sold and enjoyed in every region of the country, with many locales drinking their own regional brews.

The diversity of beers available in the average liquor store or restaurant today would be unrecognizable to the beer drinker in the early days after Prohibition when only the largest breweries were still in business, and they were essentially making only light lager beers. There is nothing wrong with that style of beer, of course, but Americans have always liked choice and there is plenty of it today. Even the big brewers have added microbrew-style beers to their portfolios, either developing new beers themselves or buying smaller, regional breweries outright. While some purists decry the big beer companies' entry into the microbrew market, these companies have in fact helped to support the market by getting these beers into distribution, saved otherwise failing microbreweries from going out of existence and, in most cases, they make pretty darn good beer. This trend has culminated in Anheuser-Busch (whose Bud Light is the biggest-selling beer in the world) actually unveiling their new Budweiser American Ale. This is not such a radical departure for A-B since they are already one of the biggest microbrewers in the world, owning and brewing several of the most acclaimed brands, as well as producing regional brews in their facilities around the country each year. These beers are developed by the individual brewmasters at each regional brewery and the beers are only sold in that region.

Beer and Food
Fine dining, it could be said, is the final frontier for beer in America. Beer has long been associated with informal eating situations -- barbecues, baseball games, etc. -- and many a beer drinker has felt intimidated by the thought of ordering a beer in a fine dining establishment. What I have discovered over the past couple of years is that not only does beer pair deliciously with all kinds of food, it can actually enhance and transform many foods even more so than wine. Gasp! Sacre bleu! Is this culinary blasphemy? I think not and I can prove it. Try this most illuminating exercise as I did, presented to me by A-B brewmaster George Reisch. It was a cheese and beer epiphany of sorts, and it perfectly illustrates how beer can enhance the foods with which it is paired. This pairing involves brie cheese and a crisp light lager beer (I drank Budweiser). Think brie and champagne, if you will, a near-perfect combination of flavors and textures, a pairing that also exemplifies the concept of what grows together goes together, except, of course, that most brie, even from France, is made nowhere near the Champagne region anymore. However, with such excellent examples of brie coming from places like Wisconsin and Germany, why not try pairing it with beer?



In any case, take a sip of the beer and take in the flavors there. When the beer is completely gone, take a bite of the cheese and then another sip of beer. For me, the brie opened up in my mouth and the flavor expanded in a way that I'd not experienced with wine except with champagne. The light, crisp lager cut through the creaminess of the cheese and the bubbles transformed it into über brie. It was a sensational, eye-and-palate-opening experience, and I hope you'll try it. This type of beer also marries well with light dishes like salads, appetizers, seafood and spicy foods.

If lighter, spicier dishes go best with light beers, then it naturally follows that fuller-flavored foods will match best with fuller-flavored beers like full-bodied lagers and ales. These beers are great with aged cheeses, grilled meats and smoked foods, roasts and casseroles. Big blue cheeses and washed-rind cheeses need big, bold, dark ales to wash them down, and these same dark beers can actually be great with dessert, too, especially with rich, chocolate desserts and ice creams. In fact, try this adult dessert at your next soiree. Pour short glasses of rich stout ale like Bare Knuckle Stout or Guinness. Place a small scoop of premium vanilla ice cream in each glass and savor what is one of the most extraordinary and luscious desserts ever.

Beer works extremely well in the kitchen, too. If you don't believe me, remember that the Belgians cook with beer in much the same way the French cook with wine -- to glorious results, I might add. Beer is great for steaming seafood and sausages, used as an ingredient in marinades, sauces, soups, and even desserts. Beer and meat go particularly well together. Try using beer for braising ribs, chops and roasts, stewing chickens, and even for cooking pasta. And, of course, use the same beers to accompany the finished dishes. There is enough variety in beer today to be able to match beer with any type of dish or cooking style; and for spicy ethnic dishes like Thai, Vietnamese, Indian, Mexican and others, there is simply no better accompaniment than beer. For more great ideas for cooking and serving beer, I recommend the following resources: Great Food Great Beer: The Anheuser-Busch Cookbook (Sunset, $24.95) is a terrific primer on using beer in the kitchen. With 185 recipes developed by the cooks at A-B that incorporate beer styles from American-style lager to full-flavored stouts, it's not just for tailgate parties anymore. The recipes here range from simple salads and appetizers to elegant and sophisticated fare. Also check out www.herestobeer.com, a comprehensive Web site that discusses every facet of enjoying beer, from organized tastings to cooking with beer. The Web site was created by the folks at A-B but their intention was to have it be a generic beer Web site with the idea that whatever is good for the industry as a whole will naturally be good for them as well. If all that isn't enough, I highly recommend a documentary that was made by Roger Sherman and originally shown on PBS, called "The American Brew." It's the beautifully told story of the role beer has played in the history of our country, from the first settlers through Prohibition and on to present day. It is an illuminating DVD with commentary by some of the most renowned beer experts in the world. The only caveat is that watching the film will almost certainly make you thirsty for a beer. It's OK, give in. Cheers!

The Beer Facts
Here are the four principal ingredients in just about every beer made today.

Water: Brewers take great pains to ensure that the water they use is pure and fresh. Quite simply, the better the water source, the better the beer is likely to be.

Barley or other grain: The grain is cooked in hot water in a process known as mashing, in which the starch is converted to fermentable sugars.

Hops: These are little flowers that look like green pine cones, the oily resin of which serves to flavor and preserve the beer. Hops add the distinctive bitterness in the back of the throat that balances the flavors in the beer.

Yeast: This living, single-celled fungus converts the sugars in the mash into alcohol during fermentation. Early brewers relied on wild yeasts naturally present in the air. Today, brewers can simply add yeast to the wort (water in which the grain was cooked).

Beer Styles:
All beer falls into one of two categories -- lager and ale.

Lager comes from the German word that means "to store." These beers are brewed at colder temperatures over four weeks or more. They are known as bottom-fermenting beers, meaning that the yeast settles to the bottom during fermentation because of the cold temperature. Pilsner is a type of lager. These beers are typically light in body and are crisp, clear, clean and refreshing. They should be served cold (40-50 degrees Fahrenheit).

Ales are top-fermented beers. Because they are brewed at warmer temperatures, the yeast rises to the top during fermentation. The process is much shorter than lagers and the beers tend to be more complex. Ales include IPA, porters and stout. They are generally fruity and heavier than lagers, and are best served chilled (50-60 degrees Fahrenheit).