Crafty Bastards: Beer in New England from the Mayflower to Modern Day - Softcover

Clark, Lauren

Softcover

ISBN 10: 1934598119 ISBN 13: 9781934598115

Publisher: Union Park Press, 2014

Synopsis

The region that defined Yankee ingenuity has a beer heritage in keeping with its character. Brewing in New England goes back four centuries, beginning with the Pilgrims who dropped anchor in Plymouth because their supply of beer was running low. (After barely surviving the winter, they planted a crop of barley and soon brewed their first ale.) Making beer in New England hasn't always been easy. Puritan housewives, industrial era beer moguls, and contemporary craft brewers alike have concocted humankind's oldest beverage in the face of scarce ingredients, legal hurdles, and public indifference. But despite these challenges, beer continues to be a staple of New England life.
With Crafty Bastards: Beer in New England from the Mayflower to Modern Day, Lauren Clark deepens our appreciation for the perfect pint. Giving voice to the inimitable Yankee spirit that allows New Englanders to faithfully produce some of the best beers in the nation, Clark invites readers to take a giant swig of brewing past and present.

About this title

About the Author

Lauren Clarke is a journalist and a former bartender and brewer. Her articles have appeared in the New York Times, The Boston Globe, Jane, and Yankee Magazine. Clark is the founder of drinkboston.com, which was featured in several Boston newspapers and magazines, the Massachusetts Beverage Business Journal, and Vintage Spirits & Forgotten Cocktails by Ted Haigh.

Review

"Lauren Clark's Crafty Bastards does the rarest of things, sharing the history of the world we see before our very eyes in a riveting, entertaining story that keeps your attention from cover to cover.  Only the best books accomplish this and this work is firmly among them." - Alex Green, Back Pages Books

"...Clark captures vividly the fascination and enthusiasm for craft beer which pushed her subjects to scrape, claw and rebel against anyone who dared to take it away. Throughout the 199 pages of 'Crafty Bastards,' the nation's constant legislative and moral complex for and against intoxication is comedically portrayed." - Shaun Kirby, RICentral.com


"Lauren Clark has written a charming history of New England 'suds' ... I love Clark's playful pokes at the tug-of-war between beer as the moderate alternative to 'demon rum', and the colonial illustrations of excessive drinkers sobering up in the stocks. The book starts early and runs till this very moment with fun profiles of some of the crafty bastards currently re-inventing the perfect pint in today's not-so-sober New England." -Louisa Kasdon, Edible Boston


Lauren Clark puts four hundred years of beer making in New England into focus with splashes of success and uncanny failures, religious zealots and craft beer pioneers. Almost every American brewing trend travelled through New England first and it s all here. This is the rocky story of our brewing culture.
-Dann Paquette, Pretty Things Beer and Ale Project

Lauren Clark takes readers on a supremely sudsy tour of New England ales, lagers, pilsners, and porters. This is the New England the Puritans warned everybody about, but few have chronicled.
-Wayne Curtis, And a Bottle of Rum: A History of the New World in 10 Cocktails

Edition details

• Publisher: Union Park Press
• Publication date: 2014
• ISBN 10: 1934598119
• ISBN 13: 9781934598115
• Binding: Paperback
• Language: English
• Number of pages: 200