Happy Free Book Friday! Today’s giveaway, Asheville Beer: An Intoxicating History of Mountain Brewing, comes from beer scholar and journalist Anne Fitten Glenn, with a foreword by Zane Lamprey. You can enter to win by commenting on this post by Sunday, October 21 (12:oo a.m., EST)! The winner (picked by the robots at Random.org) will be announced Monday morning.
Scroll down for FREE excerpt.
About the book:
Drinking local harks back to the founding of Asheville in 1798. Whether it be moonshine or craft beer, the culture of local “hooch” is deeply ingrained in the mountain dwellers of Western North Carolina.
Sheriff and deputies busting a basement still in the 1940s at 166 Chatham Road in Asheville. The still’s owner is the man in the black jacket. E.M. Ball Photographic Collection (1918–1969), D.H. Ramsey Library, Special Collections, University of North Carolina at Asheville.
A prohibition rally, where men standing on a bridge are holding up bottles as if about to throw them over. Believed to be the bridge over the French Broad River at the old Riverside Park, it is now Pearson Bridge in Asheville. North Carolina Collection, Pack Memorial Public Library, Asheville, North Carolina.
After Civil War debt that lasted into the 1970s and kept the City of Asheville hog-tied as far as economic development, the town has since rebuilt and revitalized itself around her booming beer scene.
“There is nothing that will act like a charm, restoring new life and vigor when weary, as a bottle of our pure and wholesome beer.”
—1900 Asheville saloon ad
Asheville has grown from a town with a taste for home brew to an international destination for beer lovers, known as Beer City, USA, in less than twenty years. Eleven established breweries operate within the city limits, another five call Western North Carolina home and at least four more are in the planning stages.
Steve McKenna and Zane Lamprey compete in a blind taste test of nine beers from nine different Asheville breweries in an episode of the cable television show Drinking Made Easy. The episode aired on January 17, 2012. Oh, and Steve won, identifying all nine beers correctly. Courtesy of Zane Lamprey’s Drinking Made Easy.
Adrian Vassallo, president of Asheville Downtown Association, cheers on a member of the Blue Ridge Roller Girls team during the Oktoberfest games on Wall Street in Asheville. Photo by Anne Fitten Glenn.
A.F. Glenn’s passion for this intoxicating history, from the suds-soaked saloons of “Hell’s Half Acre” to the region’s explosion into a beer mecca, has led to her popular blog and recently published book. Join A.F. Glenn as she uses interviews, stunning vintage images and a few witticisms to pop the cap on Asheville’s brewing history. We hope you’ll enjoy this fantastic excerpt and share your thoughts on Asheville beer!
Read today’s FREE excerpt below, then comment for your chance to win a copy.
About the author:
Beer writer and educator Anne Fitten Glenn started chronicling this intoxicating history, from the suds-soaked saloons of “Hell’s Half Acre” to the region’s explosion into a beer mecca, while freelancing for Asheville newspapers. She moved to Asheville in 1997, soon after the town’s craft brewvival began (yes, it’s a double first name). Her regular Brews News column for Asheville’s Mountain Xpress newsweekly debuted in 2009. Since then, she’s written articles for Craftbeer.com, the national Brewers Association’s online magazine. Her online alter ego, Brewgasm, blogs, tweets and Facebooks obsessively about all things beer.
For an in-depth conversation with Anne Fitten, read this entertaining and informative (in our completely unbiased opinion) Meet-the-Author interview!
Read what critics are saying about Asheville Beer.
Southern beer and alcohol traditions (other than the oft-mentioned moonshine “industry”) get ignored in the conversation about American libations. Part of that has to do with the long period of Prohibition that wiped out nearly all breweries and distilleries; the other part seems to be the WASP majority in the South which, while being very anti-alcohol, also is derisive of the brewing and distilling traditions of Scotch-Irish, Irish, and German Southerners (and derisive of their cultures in general). My great-grandfather, who was of Irish ancestry, was not in the upper echelons of Southern society in 1916, when he listed on an unemployment card that the reason for his unemployment was “Prohibition.” That contrasts with places like Boston, Cincinnati, and St. Louis, where Germans and Irish brewers and distillers became prominent members of society in their time and celebrated individuals in the modern brewing revival.
My grandfather was a bootlegger as was my husband’s uncle. I love the Roaring 20′s era and all the history surrounding it. I would love to win a copy of this book!
This looks like a great book, and timely with the huge expansion of brewing in Asheville. Keep it up, History Press.
looks like another great read from History Press!
Would LOVE to add this book to my craftbeer book collection!!!!
Just went to Asheville last weekend. Loved the craft beer.
Spent many weeks in Greenville for work and ventured to Asheville all to much time at Thirsty Monk and Barley’s!
A free copy would be sweet!…however already plan to buy several more as Christmas gifts!
Beautiful mountains, awesome Craft beers…I’m in heaven! Can’t wait to read this book!
I’m pretty sure my whole family would love to read this book! Mainly my brother who just started brewing his own beer about two years ago.
Can’t wait to read this! Haven’t had a chance to go out and get it yet, so a free copy would be awesome!
Looks like a great book, in a great city, about a great beverage, in a great State, for a great price, just by clicking the great “Post Comment” button below. This is great.
I met the author briefly at the GABF. I love the Asheville beer seen. It was the inspiration for me to join the Brews Cruise Family and start tours in Atlanta. The book’s cover is very colorful, attractive, and well done. It looks like a very interesting read. I am interested in learning more of the beer in Asheville and helping Atlanta transform to its high standard.
Thanks for the informative post and the giveaway I had no idea that Asheville was also known as Beer City, USA. I’m sure that’s a title many other cities and towns would like to claim. Please enter my name in the draw for the chance to win Anne Fitten Glenn’s new book.
Asheville is one of my favorite places in North Carolina that I love to call home, but never knew this about Asheville. Thanks for giving us an opportunity for a chance to win “Asheville Beer”, by Anne Fitten Glenn. I look forward to learning more.
This looks like an interesting book about local history! Everytime I go to a new area, I like to hunt down books like thesr.
Great book idea and she is a good writer, should be a winner SMS a great Christmas gift. The about the book says the dent was from the civil war when it was from the roaring 20s.
Would love to read the book. Big fan of Asheville beer.
Looks awesome! Looking forward to reading.
Very excited to read about the history and evolution of brews in Asheville. With all the innovation and funding from the larger breweries asheville is certainly a great beer town
Hi everybody,
Thanks for your great comments! This week’s winner (picked by the robots at Random.org) is Adam Masters. For everybody else, we’d like to offer a special thanks for your participation. Enter coupon code PALATE2012 at checkout when you purchase “Asheville Beer” at http://www.historypress.net, and you will get 20% off!
Happy Monday, and be sure to subscribe to the blog for future giveaways, articles and deals!
The History Press Team