After reading her bio, it was completely unsurprising that
Prof. Weiß began by noting that the lager beer revolution here in the United
States was led by German and German-American brewers in the second half of the
19th century. During this time, many Germans emigrated to the U.S.
and they brought their culture, including a taste for lager beer, with them.
Milwaukee (and Wisconsin generally) took in a large number of German immigrants.
Most of the Beer Barons of the Midwest – Miller, Pabst, Schlitz, Blatz, Busch –
were associated with Milwaukee.
When the temperance movement gaining steam, public health
campaigns started and they labeled beer as unhealthy which completely flummoxed
German immigrants and German-Americans alike. For them bier was food and its
consumption led to Gemütlichkeit, not the broken homes and spousal abuse that
temperance activists like Carrie Nation attributed to demon alcohol.
German and German-American brewers started promoting beer as
being a healthy food and contrasting it with spirits. Beer by German immigrants
in the U.S. initially was Reinheitsgebot compliant. They started using rice and
corn because these adjuncts were cheap. But the presence of these ingredients
was used to promote such bier as more healthy.
Anti-German sentiment was high. Foes such as the Anti-Saloon
League used the war as a pretext to attack brewers charging that loyalty to
country took precedence over drinking lager beer as a personal freedom. The
brewers had capitalized on German heritage in the late 19th century and
now they could no longer do so. Instead they were forced to say that they were American companies run by Americans. To counter the temperance activists, they had
attacked the distillers so the two interests had much difficulty forming
industry alliances.
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