Drinking in History of 'Milwaukee Brews & Booze'

Though alcohol first arrived in Milwaukee in the baggage of the early French explorers, the history of drinking in this town is inseparable from the Germans. The beer barons who settled here in the 19th century made Milwaukee America's brewing capital, but immigrants of all backgrounds were happy to tap their product.

Local historian Martin Hintz gives the subject a lively account in A Spirited History of Milwaukee Brews & Booze (published by The History Press). Many of the city's first families were associated with brewing wealth, which they not only used to build mansions, but also to infuse the city with a Central European cultural heritage that survives today in landmarks like the Pabst Mansion and City Hall. Brewery buyouts and consolidations occurred from the get-go. In 1879 Milwaukee was home to 16 breweries; by 1950 the number had been reduced to six. Many of Hintz's stories about the Schlitz, Uihlein, Pabst and Miller clans have been told before, but the author brings the chronicle into the 21st century with recent developments in the former Pabst brewery complex and the MillerCoors merger.

On an encouraging note, Hintz reminds us that what goes around comes around, "especially when it pertains to Milwaukee's brewing scene." In the city's earliest days, many taverns produced their own beer, and since the 1980s, microbreweries and brew-pubs have made a comeback in the city that once meant beer.

Martin Hintz will read from A Spirited History at 7 p.m. Sept. 30 at Boswell Book Co., 2559 N. Downer Ave.