Pitchers in the early 1920’s did not look forward to seeing Heinie Groh in the batter’s box. Not that the Cincinnati Red’s lead-off hitter was a big man. Standing just 5’8″ and weighing 158 pounds, the little infielder was no threat to go deep. Nor did they dread his eagle eye, peppery disposition or peculiar […]

This article first appeared in the Summer 1987 issue of Zymurgy magazine. * * * Because beer is a living thing, made from living ingredients by changing people in a changing world, it evolves. Often the explanation is “a change in public taste,” but that is always an inadequate answer. The real reasons for evolution […]

This article first appeared in a special issue of Zymurgy, 1990. * * * The hop. Without it, where would we be? Perhaps sipping a beer with “just a kiss of the gruit,” an herbal mix popular before the hop’s ascendancy. Gruit blended herbs and spices like bog myrtle, yarrow, St. John’s wort, coriander, rosemary […]

(From the Syracuse New Times, October 31, 1976) Solvay sits close by Syracuse like a small European city-state. Drawing its tradition from Florence and Monaco, this gem-like principality offers the Syracuse drinker a new world of experience just minutes from our drab, cloud-covered city. The stacks of Allied Chemical rise over Solvay like tall, proud […]

The agricultural revolution and the domestication of cereal grains occurred around 6000 BC. Between 3000 and 2000 BC in Mesopotamia, malting and fermentation were understood and practiced. Barley and wheat were common, and 40% of all cereal grain was used for brewing. Knowledge of brewing spread to Babylon and Egypt, and by a northward route […]

“No one ever went broke underestimating the taste of the American public.” You have undoubtedly heard that phrase before, perhaps in a discussion of politics, television or light beer. It comes to us from Henry Louis Mencken, and alone would have been enough to earn him a place in our collective memory. But he gave […]

A Story without Heroes: The Cautionary Tale of Malt Liquor The family of American-born beers speaks proudly about two of its children. Ask about Steam Beer or the less gifted but very popular Light Beer, and the photos come out, the stories begin. But speak aloud the name of the other sibling, and the room […]