My beer snobbery has reached new frothy mountaintops- I'm now reading books about the shit. The latest confirms I knew absolutely nothing about the evolution of the American brewing industry, and reading Maureen Ogle's Ambitious Brew in just two days this past weekend attests to its quality. I kept shaking my heading and saying, "Ya don't say." I ain't got the time and you probably don't have the interest for a summary/analysis, so let's just throw out some questions that she answers to mostly humble nodding.

Was American beer always shitty before the craft beer mini-revolution?

What drove Americans away from heavy German beers toward lighter Pils?

How come Anheuser-Busch finally got the Budweiser name, and why does that beer now taste nothing like its far superior older brother in Ceske Budevicie (sp?-you think I'd know- I went there on my honeymoon for hell's sake)?

What the hell happened to Schlitz?

What the hell happened to Pabst?

How did Coors became the hippie beer when that family is far right of Reagan?

How come a liquor license costs so damn much?

How did Americans go from consuming 90% of their suds in saloons to 80% of the righteous in their homes?

Why did the turn-of-the-century temperance movement focus on saloons and not outright Prohibition?

How did WWI turn Americans against the big brewers?

How did Bud and Pabst win the taste test at the World's Fair?

Did Americans really drink more during Prohibition?

Did Americans really drink way more in all our days past?

How did A-B, Miller, Schlitz and Pabst come to dominate in the post-WWII era?

How did the auto revolution hurt local brewers?

How did television help lead to crappy beer that came to be most closely associated with American beer of the 50's-70's?

How did the microbrew thang get started?

Are craft brewers any real threat to A-B and Miller?

Are two beers a night really that good for you?

I could go on. If these questions intrigue, I've got a heavily marked copy with three swilling fat men on the cover. It's yours for two Moylan's Hopsickles and a Stone IPA.