Historically speaking, Sacramento benefited from a gold rush, an agricultural boom and, more recently, a brewing renaissance. The region's craft beer scene exploded from six to more than sixty breweries in about a decade, and the roots of that culture stretch back more than a century. Before Prohibition, thousands of acres of local hops supplied brewers across the country. Local farms are once again taking advantage of the temperate climate. In 1958, the University of California-Davis started America's foremost brewing science program, producing some of California's top brewers. Rubicon's 1989 award-winning IPA was just the beginning for the current, innovative resurgence. Author Justin Chechourka explores the complexities and nuance of this fermenting heritage.

Historically speaking, Sacramento benefited from a gold rush, an agricultural boom and, more recently, a brewing renaissance. The region's craft beer scene exploded from six to more than sixty breweries in about a decade, and the roots of that culture stretch back more than a century. Before Prohibition, thousands of acres of local hops supplied brewers across the country. Local farms are once again taking advantage of the temperate climate. In 1958, the University of California-Davis started America's foremost brewing science program, producing some of California's top brewers. Rubicon's 1989 award-winning IPA was just the beginning for the current, innovative resurgence. Author Justin Chechourka explores the complexities and nuance of this fermenting heritage.

Winner of a 2020 Gourmand World Cookbook Award The story behind Alberta's craft beer boom. An insider’s look that brings together tasting notes, social history, politics, and science. When Alberta eliminated its laws around mandatory minimum brewing capacity in 2013, the industry suddenly opened to the possibility of small-batch craft breweries. From roughly a dozen in operation before deregulation, there are now more than a hundred today, with new ones bubbling up each month. It’s an inspiring story, one that writer Scott Messenger tells in impressive scope. At a time when Alberta was still recovering from the plunge in oil prices in 2008, deregulation represented a path to economic diversification. Messenger takes readers on the road with him to investigate artifacts left behind by Alberta brewers dating to the late-1800s, to farms responsible for the province’s unrivalled malt, and into the brewhouses and backstories of some of Canada’s best new beer makers. It’s an insider’s look at history in the making. With humour, straight-talking tasting notes, and a willingness to challenge stereotypes, Messenger introduces us to key players in the industry. We meet Graham Sherman of Tool Shed Brewing, who helped spearhead the change in legislation; Greg Zeschuk, whose Belgian-inspired brewery is poised to put Alberta beer on the global map; the sisters behind Northern Girls Hopyard, Alberta’s first hop farm; and many more. Messenger winds up his narrative with a good, old-fashioned pub crawl, a fitting finale for the story of an industry that is, at its heart, about having fun with friends. Bringing together social history, politics, and science, Tapping the West is engaging and balanced—not unlike the perfect you-know-what.

"Sample a beer in Hong Kong that tastes like bacon. Discover an out-of-the-way brewery in Vermont that devotees will drive hours to visit. Travel to a 500-year-old Belgian brewery with a beer pipeline under the city streets. This ... atlas meets travel guide explores beer history, geography, and trends on six continents - plus, you'll learn what to drink and where to go for the greatest beer experiences across the globe"--Publisher's description.

NATIONAL BESTSELLER • "James and Deborah Fallows have always moved to where history is being made.... They have an excellent sense of where world-shaping events are taking place at any moment" —The New York Times • The basis for the HBO documentary streaming on HBO Max For five years, James and Deborah Fallows have travelled across America in a single-engine prop airplane. Visiting dozens of towns, the America they saw is acutely conscious of its problems—from economic dislocation to the opioid scourge—but it is also crafting solutions, with a practical-minded determination at dramatic odds with the bitter paralysis of national politics. At times of dysfunction on a national level, reform possibilities have often arisen from the local level. The Fallowses describe America in the middle of one of these creative waves. Their view of the country is as complex and contradictory as America itself, but it also reflects the energy, the generosity and compassion, the dreams, and the determination of many who are in the midst of making things better. Our Towns is the story of their journey—and an account of a country busy remaking itself.

A “fascinating and well-documented social history” of American beer, from the immigrants who invented it to the upstart microbrewers who revived it (Chicago Tribune). Grab a pint and settle in with AmbitiousBrew, the fascinating, first-ever history of American beer. Included here are the stories of ingenious German immigrant entrepreneurs like Frederick Pabst and Adolphus Busch, titans of nineteenth-century industrial brewing who introduced the pleasures of beer gardens to a nation that mostly drank rum and whiskey; the temperance movement (one activist declared that “the worst of all our German enemies are Pabst, Schlitz, Blatz, and Miller”); Prohibition; and the twentieth-century passion for microbrews. Historian Maureen Ogle tells a wonderful tale of the American dream—and the great American brew. “As much a painstakingly researched microcosm of American entrepreneurialism as it is a love letter to the country’s favorite buzz-producing beverage . . . ‘Ambitious Brew’ goes down as brisk and refreshingly as, well, you know.” —New York Post

A celebration of the brave, drunken pioneers who built our civilization one seemingly bad decision at a time, A Brief History of Vice explores a side of the past that mainstream history books prefer to hide. History has never been more fun—or more intoxicating. Guns, germs, and steel might have transformed us from hunter-gatherers into modern man, but booze, sex, trash talk, and tripping built our civilization. Cracked editor Robert Evans brings his signature dogged research and lively insight to uncover the many and magnificent ways vice has influenced history, from the prostitute-turned-empress who scored a major victory for women’s rights to the beer that helped create—and destroy—South America's first empire. And Evans goes deeper than simply writing about ancient debauchery; he recreates some of history's most enjoyable (and most painful) vices and includes guides so you can follow along at home. You’ll learn how to: • Trip like a Greek philosopher. • Rave like your Stone Age ancestors. • Get drunk like a Sumerian. • Smoke a nose pipe like a pre–Columbian Native American. “Mixing science, humor, and grossly irresponsible self-experimentation, Evans paints a vivid picture of how bad habits built the world we know and love.”—David Wong, author of John Dies at the End

Swap your favorite cocktails with these plant-based mocktail alternatives! Developed by two registered dietitians, the non-alcoholic drink recipes in Mocktail Party feature nutritious, all-natural ingredients with minimal sugar that you can easily find at any grocery store. The book also features valuable information about the benefits of an alcohol-free lifestyle, tips for sustainable mixology, and advice for ordering mocktails at a restaurant or bar. If you’re tired of hangovers and don’t want to drink sugar-loaded, processed sodas instead, then these healthy and delicious recipes are for you. Mocktail Party includes recipes for every occasion: Classics like a Pal-no-ma and Aperol-less Spritz Drinks with a twist like Watermelon Mock-jito & Summer Jam Fresca Brunch favorites like No-Bull Bloody & Kiwi No-secco Dessert treats like Salted Carmel & Tiramisu Mock-tinis Frozen coolers like No Way Frose & Blueberry Acai Daiquiri Holiday beverages like Pumpkin Spice Latte & Warm Cider and Sage Join the growing movement of health-conscious people who are cutting down on alcohol and opting to "make it a mocktail" instead.

• North American Guild of Beer Writers Best Book 2022 Dismiss the stereotype of the bearded brewer. It's women, not men, who've brewed beer throughout most of human history. Their role as family and village brewer lasted for hundreds of thousands of years—through the earliest days of Mesopotamian civilization, the reign of Cleopatra, the witch trials of early modern Europe, and the settling of colonial America. A Woman's Place Is in the Brewhouse celebrates the contributions and influence of female brewers and explores the forces that have erased them from the brewing world. It's a history that's simultaneously inspiring and demeaning. Wherever and whenever the cottage brewing industry has grown profitable, politics, religion, and capitalism have grown greedy. On a macro scale, men have repeatedly seized control and forced women out of the business. Other times, women have simply lost the minimal independence, respect, and economic power brewing brought them. But there are more breweries now than at any time in American history and today women serve as founder, CEO, or head brewer at more than one thousand of them. As women continue to work hard for equal treatment and recognition in the industry, author Tara Nurin shows readers that women have been—and are once again becoming—relevant in the brewing world.