Crafty Bastards: Beer in New England, from the Mayflower to Modern Day

Crafty Bastards: Beer in New England, from the Mayflower to Modern Day
By Lauren Clark
Union Park Press, $18.50, May 2014

For a region literally founded on the need for a refill (that story about the Mayflower landing because the Pilgrims were out of beer holds up), New Englanders are at least consistent in their love of beer. This book is history class, from the brewer’s angle. In Crafty Bastards, you’ll learn about the original recipe for “pompion” (pumpkin) ale, the Puritans’ attempt to ban molasses in brewing, and the first scientific paper on malting. Journalist Lauren Clark’s no-nonsense prose makes each fact pop, with the occasional wink at those “quiet, resilient” New Englanders (comparing British soldiers at a patriots’ tavern to Yankees in a Sox bar? Spot-on). Clark gives the same in-depth treatment to modern history, from Boston Beer in the 1980s to the brewery boom of the ’90s, through today, when Sean Lawson, Shaun Hill, and John and Jen Kimmich are carrying on the New England tradition that started nearly 400 years ago. ■