Germans have long enjoyed and venerated alcohol. When the Irish missionary Columbanus first encountered Germans in the early seventh century, he happened on a ritual sacrifice of beer.

Even after the Germans became Christians, most religious leaders followed the biblical view of alcohol as part of God's bounty. Martin Luther was fond of beer and wine: he occasionally got drunk, and he used the tunes of popular drinking songs for some of his hymns.

Such was the tradition behind missionary pastor Frederick Schmid, who came to Michigan in 1833 to plant congregations among the state's German immigrants. But Schmid, who founded both Zion Lutheran Church and Bethlehem United Church of Christ, quickly learned that other local ministers had much stricter attitudes toward alcohol. Repulsed by the widespread preference for hard liquor and the habit of going on drunken sprees, many advocated an outright ban on drinking.

In June 1834, Schmid was approached by a local Presbyterian minister. Would Schmid use his authority to persuade Ann Arbor's Germans to follow Presbyterian temperance tenets, which forbade not only alcohol but even coffee and tea?

Schmid replied that it was not necessary for a Christian to submit himself to such a yoke. People with the Holy Spirit within them would not drink too much nor misuse the gifts of God. Jesus, Schmid added, drank wine.

The clash of cultures that began that day would last almost a century. The Germans arrived in Ann Arbor amid a great temperance movement among native-born Americans-one that would culminate in nationwide Prohibition in 1920.

Most German settlers saw matters much like Schmid. Their attitude is enshrined in the constitution of Freedom Township's Bethel Church, in which only heavy drinking is condemned. In the churchyard is a gravestone with the date "February 31st." According to former pastor Roman Reineck, farm families would visit with the stonecutter as he worked. They'd bring some hard cider or wine, and by the end of the day the date didn't matter.

In the townships, where German were the majority, such socializing was of little concern. But the German love of alcohol was a much bigger problem in Ann Arbor. Between 1868 to 1918, city directories record 221 different places dispensing alcohol, more than half of them owned by German Americans.

Edith Staebler Kempf (1898-1993) told stories about the nineteenth century saloon run by Charlie Behr. Professors, lawyers, and well-to-do German farmers went there. Behr also served food, and by Kempf's account, there was never any rowdiness.

The Yankees-Michiganders whose families had come from New England or New York State-might have ignored Germans selling beer to other Germans. But Ann Arbor's student population was a different matter. Most UM students of the era came from Yankee families and grew up in Methodist, Baptist, or Presbyterian homes, where teetotalism was enforced. On their own in Ann Arbor, some reveled in their newfound freedoms-including the freedom to drink.

In the beginning, the University of Michigan kept a close eye on students. They lived on campus, had a 9 pm curfew, and were required to attend compulsory chapel twice a day to hear sermons given by faculty members, who were mostly ordained Protestant clergy.

That changed when Henry Philip Tappan took over as university president in 1852. Tappan had visited research universities in Prussia, and he began recruiting faculty on the basis of scholarship, not church affiliations. Tappan also abolished the university's dormitory because he wanted students to be more independent and live off campus, like students in Europe.

Tappan himself drank wine with his meals, and he didn't care if students drank beer. He did speak out against distilled spirits, but this hardly satisfied the more conservative faculty and regents.

Free from the authority of parents and the university, students turned to alcoholic hell-raising. In 1856, student mobs attacked German drinking places in the "Dutch War." The conflict began when Jacob Hangsterfer ejected two rowdy students from his beer hall. They returned the next night with friends armed with knives and clubs. When Hangsterfer refused to serve them free drinks, the students broke open kegs and barrels and destroyed furniture and glass.

Soon after, six students climbed through a window at Henry Binder's hotel and saloon and helped themselves to drinks set out for a German ball. Binder could grab only one of the students and held him hostage. The others got reinforcements from campus. When Binder demanded $ 10 for the stolen refreshments, the students attacked with battering rams. With the brick walls giving way, Binder set his huge dog on the students. But the students' dogs killed Binder's dog. Then the students went to get the muskets they used in military drills-at which point Binder wisely released his captive.

Called on the carpet by the regents, Tappan emphasized the university's continuing requirements for daily chapel and Sunday church attendance, as well as other evidence of a moral student body. He also called for enforcement of a new city ordinance prohibiting the sale of alcohol to minors and to people who were drunk. But the following year, a former student died after drinking at Binder's saloon and a friend's room.

Tappan joined temperance-minded townspeople in pressuring city council to informally agree that no liquor licenses would be granted east of Division Street, creating a "dry line" to shield the campus area. But Tappan lost points with the regents when he refused to take a personal temperance pledge. Though he elevated the university to national stature-raising enrollment tenfold, laying the foundations of the law and engineering schools, and much more-the regents were more concerned with his perceived moral failings. They fired him in 1863.

In Tappan's place, the regents appointed a Methodist minister and professor of Latin, Erastus Haven. The Presbyterian Church hosted Haven's inauguration. At the ceremony, a regent made a point of detailing Tappan's "sinful" behavior.

President Haven, however, had no better luck curbing the town's rowdy students. In 1867, he informed the Ladies Library Association that Ann Arbor was "disgraced all over the country" as a "place of revelry and intoxication." By 1871, stung by brawls, nighttime ruckuses, and destructive pranks, Ann Arbor voters elected a university faculty member as mayor. Silas Douglas promptly had the town marshal warn the saloons that a long ignored Sunday closing ordinance would be enforced.

Ann Arbor's conflict over alcohol eventually became a statewide concern. The Michigan branch of the Women's Christian Temperance Union issued a flyer in 1881 decrying the city's saloons for making men "brutes." The flyer lists thirty-seven saloon keepers by name, the great majority of them German Americans, and contends that "Ann Arbor would be better off morally, socially, intellectually, and in every other way, if this disgustingly long list of men would every one of them die with the small-pox within the next week. "

In 1887, Michigan voted on a proposed amendment to the state constitution prohibiting the manufacture and sale of alcohol. Ann Arbor's heavily German Second Ward (today's Old West Side) rejected it ten to one. The Yankee- and university-dominated Sixth Ward voted three to one in favor. It lost narrowly statewide.

Ann Arbor's temperance forces finally achieved some success in 1902, when the informal dry area around the university became a part of the city charter. By 1908, eleven Michigan counties had enacted local Prohibition ordinances, and each year more and more counties joined them. In 1916, Michigan voters again considered a Prohibition amendment to the state constitution.The Second Ward still voted no, by almost two to one, but Ann Arbor as a whole voted for Prohibition, as did the state.

The late Ernie Splitt recalled the government inspectors arriving at the Michigan Union Brewery on Fourth Street on the day the state went dry, May 1, 1918. According to Splitt, everyone had a drink, even the inspectors. Then "the rest of the beer was poured down the drain. That was the saddest day of my life."

Hordes of Michiganders headed for Ohio to get booze, leading Michigan's governor to order state troopers to patrol the border. Cars ignoring their roadblocks were fired upon, and the governor was forced to declare limited martial law. A passenger was shot in the neck when a driver failed to stop for troopers on the highway outside Ann Arbor. But a search of the car turned up no liquor.

In 1918 congress approved the Eighteenth Amendment, prohibiting the manufacture, sale, or transportation of intoxicating beverages. It was ratified by the states early in 1919 and took effect in January 1920.

Prohibition did reduce heavy drinking, especially among the working class, in rural areas, and on college campuses. But it had the opposite effect among well-to-do Anglos.

Bootleggers and illegal drinking establishments largely ignored beer and wine, concentrating instead on more profitable hard liquor. Cocktails become chic.
It was estimated that 400 to 600 cases of whiskey were brought from Canada across the Detroit River nightly. Much of it then was driven to Chicago, usually passing through Washtenaw County en route.

One chilly April night in 1927, Ann Arbor police officers William Marz and Erwin Keebler stopped a car downtown. The driver had no registration, so Marz stood on the car's running board to direct it to police headquarters while Keebler followed behind in their patrol car. Near headquarters, one of the passengers pulled out a gun and fired five times through the window, blasting Marz to the pavement. The car sped off. Fortunately, Keebler had insisted Marz put on a bulletproof vest.

When the police escalated their enforcement efforts, gangsters simply used their enormous profits to buy faster cars and more guns. Ordinary citizens feared being caught in the crossfire. They put American flag stickers on their windshields with the inscription, "Don't Shoot, I'm Not a Bootlegger."

With law enforcement officers frustrated by the bootleggers, they struck at the little man-in Ann Arbor, Metzger's German Restaurant. In 1929, owner Bill Metzger was cited for selling hard cider and placed on probation for five years. He was fined $ 100 and couldn't leave the state without the consent of the court. He, his vehicles, his business, and his home could be searched at any time without a warrant. To prevent any future instances of his cider fermenting, he could no longer sell cider at all.

Over the course of the 1920s, even non-Germans began to question Prohibition. They came to realize that they had only replaced the hated saloon with the speakeasy and the blind pig and began to think that the average German approach, drinking beer and wine, might be OK.

In the 1932 presidential election, Franklin Roosevelt ran as a wet candidate. As one of its first acts, the new congress passed the Twenty-First Amendment, repealing Prohibition. That April, Michigan became the first state to ratify it. By May, sale and consumption of alcohol were legal again in Ann Arbor.

The Michigan Union Brewery reopened as the Ann Arbor Brewery. Kurt Neumann, a longtime resident of "Cabbage Town," as the Old West Side was known, recalled how men from the neighborhood would stop in, fill steins straight from a spigot, and sit around talking and drinking. Unfortunately, other locals weren't as loyal to "Ann Arbor Old Tyme," "Creme Top," or "Town Club" -perhaps because it was all the same beer, just with different labels. The brewery closed for good in 1949.

In 1960, local voters finally permitted bars to serve liquor. In 1964 they replaced the century-old dry line with a smaller dry island around the university, and in 1969 even that was eliminated. Ann Arborites had repealed the last remnants of the Yankee crusade against alcohol.

This article originally appeared in the Ann Arbor Observer for September, 2009. More on Ann Arbor's history, including photographs, beery and otherwise, may be found at a website: http://www.celticgerman.com

As a college kid, I notice a lot of people turning down beer because they hate the flavor (probably because it is usually cheap beer). It really kills me when people decide to completely disregard beer completely because of one or a couple of bad experiences. I am a firm believer that there is a beer (or cider) out there for everyone. My biggest advice is to not be afraid to try anything. In one of my other posts, I talked about B. Nektar’s Zombie Killer cider. This would be a great option for those who do not prefer drinking beer. This may open up a whole new world to ciders for you. It is an apple/cherry cider with notes of honey, and it is very crisp like a cider actually should be. It’s not overly sweet like some ciders, and it has the right amount of carbonation.

For those who have not completely give up on beer, I recommend fruit beers. My favorites are: Blue Moon Belgian White, Shock Top Lemon Shandy, Lost Coast Tangerine Wheat, and New Glarus Belgian Red. All are tasty in their own way, Blue Moon has orange flavors, Shock Top has the lemon element, Lost Coast has tangerine, and New Glarus is a cherry flavored beer. For those that do not like fruit beers, I suggest something traditional like ales and lagers. My current favorite is Kona Brewing Company’s Big Wave Golden Ale. It is a little different take on the traditional ales that are drunk here in United States. Another great company is New Belgium Brewing. They have a multitude of different beers ranging from IPA’s and ales to seasonal beers that go great with the all the times of the year.

Continuing, do not just rely on the store to have beer to try. There are breweries popping up all over the United States each year. Some of the smallest breweries may have the beer for you. Do a little Google search and find some that are close to you and give them a visit! Most of them are at least a cool place to visit on a boring Saturday. I recommend buying a growler if you are going to do this tactic. Most breweries will fill up your growler if you already have one. I have been to probably six different breweries in my day, and I have had a good time at every one. If you do not want a whole growler of beer, most breweries will do flights of beer with as many samples as you want. This is a great way to taste everything they have. If you like one in particular, go ahead and get a whole growler.

I have also found how beer is a great ingredient for cooking, too. If you still do not like drinking beer, at least give it a shot in your food. There are some complex (and simple) beers that can take your dishes to the next level. From simple foods like beer cheese dip and beer brats to more complex soups, sauces, batters, and even desserts, beer can be a great ingredient. Once again, do a little Google search or go to foodnetwork.com and simply type in beer. I just went to Food Network and there were 214 pages related to beer. Surely there will be something that seems somewhat appetizing.

Concluding, do not be afraid to get out there and try beer (or cider). It is a very versatile product. It comes in many forms and flavors that can be enjoyed in many ways. If you really do not like to drink beer, at least give ciders a shot or try cooking with beer. I there’s still a little hope for beer in you try going to a local brewery sometime. You may find that they have something you like. I also recommend starting with more refreshing beers like fruit beers. They are not crazy bitter like some pale ales or crazy complex like some other heavy beers.

President Bush Met with the Super Bowl champion Pittsburgh Steelers on Friday, at the White House, while speaking with them he made reference to people drinking some Iron City Beer in the East Room. This was due to the racket that the team was making while waiting on the president to arrive. Chants of ” Here we go Steelers, Here we go!” echoed throughout the White House and drew quite a bit of attention.

Considering President Bush states he is a Dallas Cowboys fan, he had to admit the Steelers franchise, was a really great team with loads of history behind them. President Bush received a Steelers jersey with the number 43 on the back, to represent his place in presidential history. He also received a football with all of the team member’s signatures on it, to which president bush used to throw a short pass to Super Bowl MVP Hines Ward.

Once all of the fun was over, Bush asked for some tips to give to Vice-President Dick Cheney, from Steelers coach Bill Cowher, about the sideline game face scowl. President Bush made a wonderful speech to the team about teamwork, and how this team had a load of character; this is why the Steelers are standing in the White House on the wonderful Friday afternoon. While many people did not feel the Steelers had a chance this season, they showed great perseverance and dedication to find the formula to win.

Low carb beer and lite beer are two different animals. Both feature lower calories and both are ostensibly for weight loss. But a typical light beer contains almost 3 times as many carbs as a low carbohydrate beer. So far so good. If you'd like to enjoy an occasional beer while on a low carbohydrate diet, the low carb beers may be the way to go.

But they're no diet miracles, for either low fat or low carb dieters. On the Atkins induction phase or other initial phase of a low carbohydrate diet, no beer is likely to be helpful. These tasty wonders do contain many fewer grams of carbohydrates than a traditional beer (averaging 2.5 grams a bottle vs. 10-20 grams for a normal beer.) But when you need to limit your intake to less than 20 grams of carbohydrates for the day , you won't have much variety in your meals if you choose to include a beer.

Once you're at the ongoing weight loss phase of your low carb diet, you can enjoy the extra flexibility in your diet that goes with the higher level of acceptable carbs per day. And if you feel like a beer, a low carb beer is the best choice. But bear in mind, that successful weight loss, even on a low carb regimen, still means that your calories must be less than the level it takes to maintain your present weight. Lower carb beers still tip the scales at close to 100 calories a bottle, because alcohol carries a penalty of 7 calories per gram, as compared to protein and carbs at 4.

So when the sun is beating down and nothing would taste better than a beer, remember as you crack that cool one open, to keep the big picture in mind and check the calories as well as the carbs.

I know you don’t want to hear it… but it’s true, beer is really bad for gout. It’s full of purines, which increase the uric acid level in your body, which hardens and deposits uric acid crystals in your joints… you know the story!

OK, You Won’t Give Up Beer. So Now What?

If you’re reading this, I’m guessing you don’t want to give up your beer. You really should though. But, I’m not going to preach (I’m sure there are enough people telling you to stop drinking already!)

So if you are like me, and you don’t want to give up beer, you should at least take other precautions to insure that you don’t have another bout with gout! If you follow a diet low in purines and drink at least six bottles of water a day, there is a chance you will dodge the bullet!

A doctor will prescribe to you medication for the inflammation and pain. But, I personally am not comfortable with all the terrible side effects of these medications (i.e. stomach pain, bleeding, ulcers, abdominal cramps; diarrhea, nausea, vomiting…). I think prevention is a better way to go.

There are wonderful books and natural products available which will help you keep your gout at bay (a fair warning though… they’ll all advise you to give up beer!). These guides tell you which foods to avoid and which to eat in moderation. They talk about supplements and all natural remedies. There are loads and loads of information available.

Is There A Beer Low In Purines?

Wouldn’t it be great if they made a beer low in purines! They actually did in Japan. It’s called Kirin Tanrei Alpha Happoshu Beer. Don’t get too excited though, it is suppose to taste horrible!

Until they do make a good tasting beer low in purines, you should really give it up! I know, I know I’m preaching again! Anyways, if you don’t give up beer at least start eating a gout friendly diet and drink lots and lots of water.

Cheers!

The only bad thing about home brewing: to pour your heart and soul into a batch, only to discover that there are weird flavors in your beer. Let's take a look at some of the culprits that cause these strange flavors, and ways to stop them from wreaking havoc on your beer.

1. Acetaldehyde – The green apple flavor.

Cause: Acetaldehyde is a naturally occurring compound during the fermentation of yeast. It's usually converted to ethanol alcohol during the fermentation process. Some yeast strains will produce more Acetaldehyde than others, but it usually means your beer is under conditioned.

Solution: Luckily, this problem is easy to fix. Acetaldehyde usually will take care of itself after some more conditioning. Aging your beer is an important part of home brewing. If you detect apples in your beer, just let it sit a couple weeks longer.

2. Chlorophenol – The plastic or medicinal taste.

Cause: The most common reason for chlorophenol to be present in beer is using chlorinated water during the cleaning process. It's also possible that ingredients bought for brewing were stored in an area that may have exposed them to chlorine, although this is less common.

Solution: The best way to avoid this is to just make sure that you never use chlorinated water at any point in the brewing process. This might seem obvious, but many people use tap water to clean equipment, and tap water may have chlorine.

3. Diacetyl – The bad butter flavor.

Cause: Diacetyl is another by product of the fermentation process. During healthy fermentation, yeast will break down the diacetyl. However, mutated yeast can cause serious problems. Some yeast will lose the ability to metabolize diacetyl, and leave the buttery flavor in your beer.

Solution: In most cases, just allow your beer enough time to age, so that the yeast can absorb all of the diacetyl. But if your yeast is mutated, this problem will not go away with time. Be sure to always use the healthiest, and highest quality yeast you can find in order to avoid this problem.

4. Dimethyl Sulfide – Like vegetables in your beer.

Cause: All malts have a chemical in them called S-methyl methionine or SMM. During the mashing and heating process, this chemical is converted to dimethyl sulfide or DMS. This is the chemical that causes the vegetable taste.

Solution: Luckily, most of this DMS is evaporated during the boiling process. To ensure that higher concentrations aren't present in your beer, be sure to maintain a rolling boiling during the brewing process. Some brewers will boil for 90 minutes to ensure that most of the DMS is evaporated.

5. Atringency – Tastes tart, vinagery, or metallic.

Cause: Atringency in beer can be caused by many factors, but it's usually a result of tannins being released from your grains. Tannins are found in all grain skins, and they are released when grains are steeped at too high of temperatures, steeped too long, or when they are milled too finely.

Solution: Be sure to never mill or crush grains too much. Always steep your grains for the correct amount of time, at the correct temperatures, and never boil your grains. These preventative measure will ensure your beer tastes great.

I find it perplexing how a person’s thinking can become… well clouded. I quit drinking quite a while ago and it seems to me that things become clearer almost by the day. I was having a discussion with a friend about my drinking, back when I drank. People used to say, “come on over and have a beer” all of the time. And, of course, I would oblige them. The funny thing was it was never, and I mean never A beer. It always ended up being at least three beers and most times many more than that.

Was I an alcoholic? I don’t know, but I do know I drank a lot. In my estimation, it became too much, so I stopped. It took me the better part of fifteen years to come to this conclusion, but I finally came to the realization that I was drinking too much. The bottom line was that I drank quite a lot of beer. I more or less stayed away from the hard stuff, mostly because I liked the way beer ‘tasted’, or at least that’s what I told myself.

Then recently I found myself with an old friend, reminiscing about the days when I used to drink with him, and something came to me. I said to him how I find it funny that for the most part I drank a 12-pack on most nights. Some nights more and some less, but the average had to be about twelve. Then I said to him, “Bob, I bought a twelve pack of Coke the other day and I can’t even imagine sitting down and drinking it all in one sitting! It amazes me that I used to do that exact thing with beer.” After that conversation I realized that at the time in my life when I did slam a 12-pack in one sitting, I wasn’t thinking clearly at all. Not even close.

Just like it being perplexing about how clouded your thinking can become, it’s equally perplexing how clear your thinking can become when you sober up. I’m not at all a religious person, but have to assume there was a higher power involved in this process. All of these thoughts and realizations just fit together too perfectly for any other explanation that I’m aware of. All I know is that there was a time when going out and “having a beer” actually meant going out and having at least three.

Recently Spiegelau, a division of Riedel Crystal, has done exactly that. My friend, Matt Rutkowski, the Vice President of Spiegelau USA contacted Sam Calagione, founder of Dogfish Head brewery and Ken Grossman of Sierra Nevada brewery to design the perfect beer glass for IPA specific beers.

After several months of samples from Spiegelau and several tastings, wish I had been there, these two IPA beer specialists agreed on the world's first beer glass designed perfectly for the Craft IPA beers on the market today.

The results, a thin glass made with the Platinum manufacturing process from Spiegelau, which will keep the beer colder than the thick pint glasses of the past. Why, because the thick iron oxide glass you are so familiar with actually draws temperature from the beer instead of insulating the beer. Also, iron oxide in the typical pint glass is very porous and has fine cavities in it that collect remains of whatever was last in the pint. The iron oxide glass is not clear, look through the pint and you will see a greenish hue, the Spiegeleu glass is perfectly clear. Under an electron microscope, the iron oxide glass shows pits in the surface, while the Platinum glass is smooth as, yes glass. To prove this, in a beer glass taste testing in Miami this spring, Matt poured cold beer in an typical pint and in a Spiegelau Craft IPA beer glass. The results were easy to see, the condensation on the pint extended upwards beyond the level of the beer in the pint glass, proving the glass was absorbing the coldness of the beer, while the Spiegelau IPA glass only had condensation on exactly where the beer was in the glass.

The Speigelau IPA Craft beer glass has a tapered opening at the top which not only pushes the aromatic components of the beer to the nose, but delivers the beer to the palate's sweet middle of the tongue. This has a major effect on the flavor of the beer, as we all know the nose affects the flavor in your mind. You can smell the aromas of the melon, papaya and honey in the IPA beer.

The triple ridged bottom of the glass will re-foam and aerate the beer as you drink it. The ridges at the bottom of the glass release the CO2 that floats to the surface which will give you the effervescence when you take a sip. Incredible the way this keeps the beer fresh longer and lets you enjoy your IPA all the way to the bottom of the glass.

This is just the beginning of what we will see in the future of beer glasses designed specific for different types of beer. The result of major beer suppliers working together with the glass manufacturer to give you an even better taste of their craft.

The Spiegelau IPA Craft beer glass is an outstanding investment if you are a real connoisseur of small craft breweries and want to truly enhance you beer drinking experience.

Grains form the basis of beer but there are quite a few types out there from which you can choose. Which grain is right for your beer? Going it alone here can be a confusing process. The type of grain that you use will contribute an enormous amount to your finished beer, from the final color to the specific gravity. It's important that you make the right decision on grains, so here is some helpful information to get you started.

Understanding Basic Grain Types

Grain types, or malts, form the base of beer. Before you leap right into the immense variety of specialty malts out there, it's actually best to start with the basics. There are several general types of grains available for brewing and each one lends itself to a different range of beer types.

Base Malts

Base malts are exactly what they sound like. These form the base of your beer and provide most of the sugar on which your yeast will thrive. Base malts tend to be pale and they do not add much in the way of flavor or aroma, though you will find a handful of these malts that do have an impact here.

Specialty Grains

In addition to your base malt, you will need to add some specialty grains to your brew. These grains will be responsible for the overall color and flavor of your beer. You will find these labeled as "chocolate malt", "caramel malt" or "crystal malt", as well as "black malt". The more you use of these, the more robust and flavorful your finished beer will be. However, going overboard might cause some unanticipated consequences so it's best if you start out small and work your way up to higher concentrations batch by batch.

Using Malts in Your Brewing

Because there are so many types of grains (malts) out there, it can be a confusing place for new brewers. The best option for newcomers is to find a couple of recipes that sound appealing and brew them exactly as described, using the malt specified. You can begin experimenting and changing things when you have a firm understanding of how those recipes work (and should taste).

By ensuring that you know how a recipe is supposed to turn out, you will be able to gauge your own results with different specialty grains in the brewing process. Just remember that experimentation is half the fun of brewing at home.

Poto Cervesia,
Dustin Canestorp