Books for the Beer Lover in Your Life.

Discover and celebrate the untapped history of Philadelphia beer.

The finely aged history of Philadelphia brewing has been fermenting since before the crack appeared in the Liberty Bell.

By the time thirsty immigrants made the city the birthplace of the American lager in the nineteenth century, Philadelphia was already on the leading edge of the country's brewing technology and production. Today, the City of Brotherly Love continues to foster that enterprising spirit of innovation with an enviable community of bold new brewers, beer aficionados and brewing festivals. Pennsylvania brewery historian Rich Wagner takes readers on a satisfying journey from the earliest ale brewers and the heyday of lager beer through the dismally dry years of Prohibition and into the current craft-brewing renaissance

The Straub Brewery was founded in the 1870s by German immigrant Peter Straub. At the age of 19, during the rise in German nationalism, Straub left his home and family in search of the American dream. Today, the Straub Brewery remains one of the oldest breweries in the country and is still owned and operated by its founding family, now into its sixth generation. The Straub Brewery takes great pride in producing Straub beer and the award-winning Straub Light, which are distributed throughout Pennsylvania and parts of Ohio and enjoyed by fans from around the world. Straub Brewery illustrates the evolution of this Pennsylvania landmark business, which has spanned three centuries. From the days when Straub beer was delivered in wooden kegs by horse and buggy to the newest stainless steel kegs that are delivered via semitruck, Straub Brewery takes readers on an unprecedented and thirst-quenching tour of the operation. This pictorial history unearths the Straub family legacy, the brewing process, and the events that have secured the brewery's "eternal tap" on history.

Buffalo's appreciation for a frosty pint stretches back more than a century before anyone enjoyed a cold one with a basket of wings. By the middle of the 1800s, the industrial hub counted malt and beer among its most vital and satisfying products. Operations like Simon Pure Beer, Iroquois Beverage and the Magnus Beck Brewing Company brought Buffalo's world-class ales to the rest of the country. Prohibition saw a thriving business in black market hooch, though it all but killed the city's historic breweries. A few survivors struggled to recover. Today, a new batch of breweries like Community Beer Works and Big Ditch Brewing Company are crafting a beer revolution in the Queen City. Historian Michael Rizzo and brewer Ethan Cox explore the sudsy story of Buffalo beer.

Although Pittsburgh is best known for the many steel mills that have dotted its landscape, it has also been a major center for the brewing of beer and ale throughout its history.

Since 1765, when common beer was first brewed for British soldiers at Fort Pitt, the city has produced a tremendous amount of beer to quench the thirst of steelworkers who toiled in the city's mills. Brands like Iron City, Duquesne (or ""Duke""), Rolling Rock, and Stoney's are still known in the area today, while old-timers might remember names like Fort Pitt, E&O, Carnegie, and Dutch Club, among others. Many towns surrounding Pittsburgh, such as McKeesport, Latrobe, and Aliquippa, were also home to breweries that thrived for many years. Through more than 220 historic images, Brewing in Greater Pittsburgh looks at the most prominent brewers in the Greater Pittsburgh area, covering Allegheny, Beaver, Westmoreland, and other neighboring counties.

Riding the wave of industries brought by the Erie Canal, Utica experienced a tremendous boom in the nineteenth and early twentieth centuries--and it was all fueled by beer. Thirsty laborers lubricated their days with after-work ales and lagers made by crafters like the Oneida Brewing Company and Gulf Brewing Company. Brewing was a Utica industry in its own right, boasting more than forty breweries operating since 1801. Prohibition nearly sounded the death knell for the trade, but the Matt family's West End Brewing Company endured, becoming the first in the country to commence brewing in 1933. Thanks to their Saranac beer, the craft beer movement is old news for residents of the Handshake City, who have been enjoying these local favorites for more than 125 years. Join beer scholar Daniel Shumway as he explores the hoppy history of Utica beer.

The Upper Hudson Valley has a long and full-bodied brewing tradition. Arriving in the 1600s, the Dutch established the area as a brewing center, a trend that continued well into the eighteenth century despite two devastating wars. The Erie Canal helped develop Albany into a beer capital of North America--Albany Ale" was exported across America and around the world. Upper Hudson Valley breweries continued to thrive until Prohibition, and some, like Beverwyck and Stanton, survived the dark years to revive the area's brewing tradition. Since the 1980s, there has been a renaissance in Upper Hudson Valley craft brewing, including Newman's, C.H. Evans, Shmaltz and Chatham Brewing. Beer scholars Craig Gravina and Alan McLeod explore the sudsy story of Upper Hudson Valley beer."

North Jersey residents have enjoyed frothy pints since the first brewhouse opened in Hoboken in 1641. Brewing was big in the Garden State prior to Prohibition, and by 1900, more than fifty breweries were in operation. Nearly half of them--like Krueger--were located in Newark. The dry reign of Prohibition and the region's proximity to major cities made it a hub for bootleggers and gangsters like Longy Zwillman and Waxey Gordon. Even after the Eighteenth Amendment was repealed, North Jersey brewing sputtered. Some independent breweries like Ballantine restarted operation, but it wasn't until the 1990s that the region saw a craft brewing renaissance. Today, Jerseyans enjoy premium ales and lagers from breweries like Climax, River Horse and New Jersey Beer Company. Beer writer Chris Morris explores the origins and the new revolution of brewing in North Jersey.

When Great Britain levied heavy taxes against the colonies, the Eastern Shore's first beer geek, John Beale Bordley, swore off English ales and set his substantial estate to perfecting his own home brews. It took another two centuries and a revolution of a different kind to bring brewing back to the Maryland shore. In 1989, Wild Goose bore the gospel of drinking local to Cambridge before falling victim to the first craft beer bubble. The next wave of high-gravity harbingers like Eastern Shore Brewing, Burley Oak and Evolution Craft Brewing fought to change collective palates and legislation allowing them to serve up their frosty pints. Beer bard and blogger Tony Russo taps into this full-bodied history while introducing the region's bold new batch of brewers.

Boasting a brewing history older than the United States, Delaware packs an outsized punch in the craft beer scene with its landmark breweries and bold flavors. In 1873, the German lagers of Wilmington's Diamond State brewing rose to dominance. After Prohibition and the bust of the first craft beer bubble, entrepreneurial homebrewers resurrected the industry. Sam Calagione of Dogfish Head led the charge by rewriting the state's beer legislation, and the field opened to other brewpubs like Stewart's and Iron Hill to pair savory bites with their brews. By 2009, production breweries like 16 Mile and Fordham & Dominion were on the rise, changing the arc of Delaware beer. Beer writer Tony Russo tells a story of big risks and innovative brewers and proves that there has never been a better time to drink local.

With so many small towns loyal to local farms, food and drink, it's no surprise that Central New York's thriving brewing community stretches back to the early 1800s. After Rome lost two breweries to fire in 1858, at least a dozen more opened in the city over the next century. A group of Oneonta gentlemen decided the town needed a brewery in 1909, and in 2012, similar thinking launched Roots Brewing Company. Cooperstown is a beer destination, thanks to Brewery Ommegang and Council Rock, and breweries in nearby Canastota, Cazenovia, Garrettsville, Hamilton and Milford are now also drawing the thirsty masses. Local historian of hops Dan Shumway explores the long and sudsy story of beer in Central New York.

Imagine the jubilation of thirsty citizens in 1796 when the Washington Brewery--the city's first brewery--opened. Yet the English-style ales produced by the early breweries in the capital and in nearby Arlington and Alexandria sat heavy on the tongue in the oppressive Potomac summers. By the 1850s, an influx of German immigrants gave a frosty reprieve to their new home in the form of light but flavorful lagers. Brewer barons like Christian Heurich and Albert Carry dominated the taps of city saloons until production ground to a halt with the dry days of Prohibition. Only Heurich survived, and when the venerable institution closed in 1956, Washington, D.C., was without a brewery for fifty-five years. Author and beer scholar Garrett Peck taps this high-gravity history while introducing readers to the bold new brewers leading the capital's recent craft beer revival.

While Delaware maintains one of the oldest beer-brewing traditions in the United States, its history has largely been lost or forgotten over the course of nearly four centuries. Beer was a main source of sustenance to Delaware's early European settlers, and its production eventually became one of the young colony's first industries. From its humble colonial beginnings, beer production grew to become one of the state's largest and most profitable industries. National Prohibition put a temporary end to the golden age of brewing in Delaware; however, the industry made a modest recovery after repeal. The state's two remaining breweries ultimately fell victim to larger, better funded regional and national concerns. There would be no brewing in Delaware for the next four decades. The remarkable popularity of craft beer in the 1990s fueled a brewing revival in the state, punctuated by Delaware's nationally recognized, award-winning breweries.

Throughout its rich history, Baltimore has been known by many names: Mobtown, the Land of Pleasant Living, or Charm City to name a few.

Perhaps ""Beer Town"" would have been more appropriate. Several pivotal events in Maryland's history involved the brewing industry. Baltimore brewers were vital to building the fledgling town into the bustling city it is today. These brewers established some of the earliest churches in Baltimore. Eagle Brewery's Harry Von der Horst helped build the Orioles into a pennant-winning team in the 1890s. Mary Pickersgill sewed the stars upon the Star Spangled Banner on the floor of Brown's Brewery during the War of 1812.

Join Rob Kasper as he uses interviews, stunning vintage images and a few recipes to pop the cap on Charm City's brewing history.

Since Mary Pickersgill sewed Old Glory on the floor of a local brewery, Baltimore has been a beer-drinking town. At the turn of the nineteenth century, German immigrants erected elaborate breweries and leafy beer gardens, and the thirteen awful years of Prohibition only whetted the city's thirst for frosty pints. By the 1950s, Gunther and National Bohemian had joined advertising forces with the Orioles and the Colts in a spirited battle with American, Free State and Arrow for the palates and wallets of the Chesapeake Bay's burgeoning beer-drinking population. Baltimore beer scholar and journalist Rob Kasper traces the sudsy story from the days when alehouses lined the Jones Falls to the tales behind the current crop of local brewers who are fermenting a craft brew revival.