It all started when I listened to the November 30th and December 7th 2006 episodes of Basic Brewing Radio (http://www.basicbrewing.com/radio/)

James interviews Maureen Ogle, author of Ambitious Brew. There I learn than there is much more to the history of American beer that I thought there is. I even ended up taking the I-pod into work to finish listening.

So I got the book for Christmas and just finished reading it. I have been rather busy with other things, so it took me a while to get through the book. I have to say it is a great book for what it is: a book about the beer history in America. It surely seems centered around AB, but only because this brewery had the most signigicant impact on American beer history.

Maureen has gotten a lot of critique for the book since she debunkts some common myths. She even has a blog where she explains her position: http://maureenogle.com/blog/
It should also be noted that she didn't know much about beer before she wrote the book. This left her unexposed to the existing myths about the significance of colonial breweing and the use of adjuncts by big brewing and she had to get all the facts through research.

If you want to know how American beer evolved (starting with the German immigrants in the mid 1800s all to way to the present day micro brewing heaven that we are in) then this is your book. If you want to know about the history of micro brewing and their various breweries in more detail, this is not your book

http://www.amazon.com/Ambitious-Brew-Story-American-Beer/dp/0151010129/sr=8-1/qid=1170782871/ref=pd_bbs_sr_1/104-9036513-0715152?ie=UTF8&s=books

Kai