Red, White, and Brew: A Beer Odyssey Across the U.S.

Beer-enthusiast Yaeger writes about his travels throughout the country visiting microbreweries, and like most suds aficionados, he has an affinity for so-called craft beers. Throughout his odyssey—starting at the ancient Yuengling Brewery in Pottsville, Pa., and going West before concluding at the upstart Dogfish Head Craft Brewery in Delaware—he spends less time on the many beers he quaffs than he does on portraying the dedicated brewers running these quixotic enterprises. There's good reason for that, as the people he comes across in his journey (crashing on couches, always buying a six-pack sampler of the local brewery's wares on the way out of town) are an uncommonly determined lot. In Yaeger's chatty interviews with the brewers, they talk about the business, the post-1980s renaissance in American beer and the common need to enter into distribution agreements with the likes of Anheuser Busch (if not letting themselves be bought outright). Yaeger's book is a solid and amiable rendering of a tough business. (Oct.)