American Beer Brewing Oral History Collection
name: label: Creator
content: Brewers Association
label: Interviewer
content: Harry, John
label: Interviewer
content: Johnson, Paula, Curator
label: Interviewer
content: McCulla, Theresa
label: Creator
content: National Museum of American History (U.S.)
label: Interviewee
content: Ammendolia, Anthony "Tony", 1970-
label: Interviewee
content: Ansari, Omar, 1970-
label: Interviewee
content: Ashburn, Leah Wong, 1970-
label: Interviewee
content: Avery, Adam, 1966-
label: Interviewee
content: Bailey, Edward, 1986-
label: Interviewee
content: Baskerville, Marcus, 1985-
label: Interviewee
content: Bates, David, 1973-
label: Interviewee
content: Benner, Paul, 1982-
label: Interviewee
content: Benson, Brad, 1968-
label: Interviewee
content: Blodger, John Kevin "Kevin", 1976-
label: Interviewee
content: Botham, Mills, 1997-
label: Interviewee
content: Bouckaert, Peter, 1965-
label: Interviewee
content: Bracey, Day, 1982-
label: Interviewee
content: Bruno, Emily, 1982-
label: Interviewee
content: Bui, An, 1974-
label: Interviewee
content: Burkhart, David Aaron, 1954-
label: Interviewee
content: Cadwell, Brian, 1981-
label: Interviewee
content: Calagione, Mariah
label: Interviewee
content: Calagione, Sam, 1969-
label: Interviewee
content: Callahan, Brian, 1965-
label: Interviewee
content: Carey, Daniel "Dan", 1960-
label: Interviewee
content: Carey, Deborah "Deb", 1960-
label: Interviewee
content: Cilurzo,  Vincenzo
label: Interviewee
content: Cilurzo, Natalie, 1968-
label: Interviewee
content: Clark, Frank, 1964-
label: Interviewee
content: Conway, Patrick, 1948-
label: Interviewee
content: DeLuca, Renée, 1964-
label: Interviewee
content: DeVries, Andrea, 1961-
label: Interviewee
content: Denison, Suzanne "Suzy", 1933-
label: Interviewee
content: Dooley, Jaime, 1989-
label: Interviewee
content: Doore, Richard "Dick", 1962-
label: Interviewee
content: Draeger, Jim
label: Interviewee
content: Dresler, Steven L. "Steve", 1957-
label: Interviewee
content: Duncan, Brady, 1982-
label: Interviewee
content: Dupee, David
label: Interviewee
content: Egelston, Peter, 1958-
label: Interviewee
content: Faivre, Brian, 1976-
label: Interviewee
content: Finkel, Charles
label: Interviewee
content: Finkel, Rose Ann, 1946-2020
label: Interviewee
content: Forhan, Kevin, 1957-
label: Interviewee
content: Francis, Joanne, 1959-
label: Interviewee
content: Garibay, Liz, 1973-
label: Interviewee
content: Gentry, Peter, 1979-
label: Interviewee
content: Gouwens, Matthew, 1979-
label: Interviewee
content: Grossman, Ken, 1954-
label: Interviewee
content: Hall, Linus
label: Interviewee
content: Hampton, Steven "Steve", 1975-
label: Interviewee
content: Hardman, Gregory
label: Interviewee
content: Henion, Mark, 1972-
label: Interviewee
content: Hunter, Teo LaVelle, 1976-
label: Interviewee
content: Jendron, Claudia, 1983-
label: Interviewee
content: Johnson, Annie, 1965-
label: Interviewee
content: Jordan, Kim, 1958-
label: Interviewee
content: Kiser, Michael
label: Interviewee
content: Krueger, Cole, 1985-
label: Interviewee
content: Lawrence, Anthony "Tony", 1967-
label: Interviewee
content: Lewis, Michael, 1936-
label: Interviewee
content: Lightner, Robert "Rob", 1965-
label: Interviewee
content: Mares, Bill
label: Interviewee
content: Marti, Jace, 1983-
label: Interviewee
content: Maytag, Fritz, 1937-
label: Interviewee
content: McAuliffe, John R. "Jack", 1945-2025
label: Interviewee
content: McCrae, L.A., 1986-
label: Interviewee
content: McKay, Eric, 1980-
label: Interviewee
content: McNulty, Samuel "Sam", 1974-
label: Interviewee
content: Murtagh, Patrick, 1979-
label: Interviewee
content: Odell, Corkie, 1950-
label: Interviewee
content: Odell, Doug, 1952-
label: Interviewee
content: Odell, Wynne, 1958-
label: Interviewee
content: Oliver, Garrett, 1962-
label: Interviewee
content: Papazian, Charlie
label: Interviewee
content: Parker, Andy, (Brewer)
label: Interviewee
content: Phillips, Steven "Steve", 1989-
label: Interviewee
content: Piening, John, 1957-
label: Interviewee
content: Ramirez, Jeff
label: Interviewee
content: Rizzo, Frederick "Fred"
label: Interviewee
content: Robbings, Adam, 1974-
label: Interviewee
content: Robinson, Benyvette (Beny Ashburn), 1978-
label: Interviewee
content: Rommel, Chris, 1985-
label: Interviewee
content: Rupp, Travis, 1980-
label: Interviewee
content: Short, David, 1982-
label: Interviewee
content: Smith, Benjamin "Ben", 1981-
label: Interviewee
content: Soles, Twila, 1986-
label: Interviewee
content: Spaulding, Bailey, 1981-
label: Interviewee
content: Steinhardt, Mark
label: Interviewee
content: Stokes, Jr., Sterling M., 1977-
label: Interviewee
content: Stoudt, Carol, 1949-
label: Interviewee
content: Sullivan, Thomas "Tom", 1975-
label: Interviewee
content: Sultan, Nassim, 1981-
label: Interviewee
content: Verratti, Julie, 1979-
label: Interviewee
content: Volek, Dane C., 1986-
label: Interviewee
content: Wallace, John Eric "Eric", 1961-
label: Interviewee
content: West, Kevin, 1961-
label: Interviewee
content: Wiegand, David, 1961-
label: Interviewee
content: Wong, Oscar P., 1940-
label: Interviewee
content: Wright, Steve, 1981-
label: Interviewee
content: Zahaba, Lara, 1969-
label: Interviewee
content: Zirngible, Robert "Bob"
label: Interviewee
content: Zuckerman, David, 1964-
topic: label: Topic
content: Beer
label: Topic
content: Beer festivals
label: Topic
content: Beer History
label: Topic
content: Beverages
label: Topic
content: Brewing
label: Topic
content: Brewing for profit on a small scale
label: Topic
content: COVID-19 Pandemic, 2020-
label: Topic
content: Entrepreneurship
label: Topic
content: Home brewing
label: Topic
content: LGBTQ+
label: Topic
content: Microbreweries
label: Topic
content: Wine and wine making
acqinfo: label: Provenance
content: Made for the National Museum of American History by the American Brewing History Initiative between 2017 and 2023.
creator: label: Creator
content: Brewers Association
label: Interviewer
content: Harry, John
label: Interviewer
content: Johnson, Paula, Curator
label: Interviewer
content: McCulla, Theresa
label: Creator
content: National Museum of American History (U.S.)
culture: label: Culture
content: Asian American
label: Culture
content: Black American
label: Culture
content: Latinos
setName: label: See more items in
content: American Beer Brewing Oral History Collection
abstract: label: Summary
content: Collection documents the history of beer brewing in the United States through born-digital oral histories with brewers, homebrewers, brewing historians, and other figures in the brewing industry.
bioghist: label: Biographical / Historical
content: Beer is the most consumed alcohol beverage in the United States and has been for much of our nation's history. Indigenous Americans were the first to make fermented beverages in North America, using corn, agave, fruits, and plants. Spanish, English, and Dutch colonists who arrived in the continent in the 1500s and 1600s brought European techniques for brewing ale styles of beer, combining malted grains (traditionally, barley), water, yeast, and hops. During the colonial and Early Republic eras of American history, beer was valued as a healthful part of the diet—a nutritious staple rather than an intoxicating drink. Men, women, and children all drank low-alcohol beer. Brewing beer was a domestic chore. Most often, enslaved people, women, and other laborers did this work. 

In the mid-1800s, immigrants to the United States from central and eastern Europe brought the techniques and ingredients to make lager-style beers. With the arrival of expert European brewers, brewing transitioned out of the home and into modern, sophisticated breweries. Beer became big business: a profitable profession done by European- and American-born men in factory-like settings. Then, in 1920, Prohibition outlawed the production, transportation, and sale of intoxicating beverages in the United States for more than a decade. Many breweries closed. Following Prohibition's repeal in 1933, the businesses left standing were mostly big breweries, with regional or national reach. In ensuing years, through the 1970s, the American brewing industry consolidated further. Fewer breweries made increasingly similar beer—a light lager style—in order to compete with each other. 

Adventurous homebrewers brought the first hints of change in the 1960s. Most of these homebrewers were men who had traveled abroad for military service or study. They had encountered a whole world of beer styles in places like Germany, Belgium, England, Scotland, and Japan. These men brought homebrewing manuals and equipment home with them to the U.S., and, relying on rudimentary ingredients stocked by home winemaking shops, they began to tinker in their kitchens and basements, seeking to make these more flavorful beers themselves.
 
In 1965, Frederick Louis "Fritz" Maytag III, a member of the Iowa-based washing machine-making family, as well as the producers of Maytag Blue Cheese, bought a controlling stake in Anchor Brewing Company, a historic brewery in San Francisco, California. Maytag envisioned a brewery very different from the large corporations that supplied American consumers. He remade Anchor into a brewery that produced beer in small batches using artisan ingredients, traditional techniques, and European recipes that had not been brewed in the United States for more than a century, if ever. Admirers, journalists, and consumers lauded Maytag as the nation's first "microbrewer" of modern times.

Microbrewing started slowly in the 1970s, with the first generation of microbreweries and brewpubs sprinkled throughout California, Colorado, the Pacific Northwest, New England, and the Chesapeake region. Many early microbrewers scrounged for used dairy and winemaking equipment and taught themselves how to weld and sheetrock. Cascade hops, an American-bred aroma hop developed by the United States Department of Agriculture and Oregon State University and released in 1971, gave many American microbrewed beers a unique flavor profile, with aromas described as floral and citrusy, with notes of grapefruit and pine. Media and consumer enthusiasm for microbrewed beer grew. In 1985, for the first time, the U.S. counted more microbreweries than large-scale breweries. By the early 2000s, the number of breweries exploded. As this segment of the industry grew, the term "craft" became more relevant than "micro," conveying the artisanal aspirations of brewers who strove to remain independently owned and brew with artisan ingredients and traditional processes. The "craft beer revolution" would reshape the global beer industry and consumers' palates alike, changing what beer tasted like, where people drank it, and who enjoyed it.
 
The histories of beer and brewing offer an engaging and useful lens through which to explore many of the nation's most important stories. Beer sheds light on histories of immigration, gender, urbanization, transportation, advertising, agriculture, labor, social life, popular culture, food and flavor, consumer preferences, and much more.
physdesc: label: Extent
content: 39.4 Gigabytes (70 .wav files, 70 .pdf files)
unitdate: label: Date
content: 2017-2023
dataSource: label: Archival Repository
content: Archives Center, National Museum of American History
identifier: label: Identifier
content: NMAH.AC.1595
objectType: label: Type
content: Collection descriptions
label: Type
content: Archival materials
label: Type
content: Gigabytes
label: Type
content: Born digital
label: Type
content: Oral history
label: Type
content: Transcripts
arrangement: label: Arrangement
content: The collection is arranged into two series, alphabetical by last name of interviewee.

Series 1: Born Digital Interviews, 2017-2023

Series 2: Transcripts, 2017-2023
processinfo: label: Processing Information
content: Collection processed by Leigh Gialanella, digital archivist, 2024.
genre_format: label: Genre/Form
content: Born digital
label: Genre/Form
content: Oral history
label: Genre/Form
content: Transcripts
scopecontent: label: Content Description
content: 70 oral history interview files (WAV), 99 release forms (PDF), 70 transcripts (PDF)
label: History of the Collecting Process
content: The American Brewing History Initiative, sponsored by the Brewers Association, Kim Jordan, and Ken Grossman and Katie Gonser, was a multi-year effort (2017-2023) at the National Museum of American History to document and collect the stories of beer and brewing in the United States. The Initiative enriched the Museum's collections through the acquisition of objects and archival materials relating to the histories of homebrewing and microbrewed, or "craft," beer. The Initiative was the first national-scale, scholarly research and collecting project focused on the history of American craft beer.
 
Theresa McCulla, Curator of the American Brewing History Initiative, led the Initiative in collecting objects, archival materials, and oral histories. Between 2017 and 2023, McCulla interviewed ninety-nine brewers, writers, instructors, historians, and other figures in the industry (including a maltster, a tap handle designer, podcast hosts, etc.) from more than fifty breweries and cultural heritage institutions across the United States. She was joined at times by colleagues Paula Johnson (Curator of the American Food History Project), Steve Velasquez (Curator of the Division of Home and Community Life), and intern John Harry.
 
Prior to its completion in 2023, the American Brewing History Initiative also convened numerous talks and public programs about beer culture and history, including at the annual Smithsonian Food History Weekend, and contributed to the National Museum of American History exhibit Food: Transforming the American Table.
 
The American Brewing History oral history project ended in November 2023.
label: Scope and Contents
content: This collection contains oral history interviews and transcripts documenting the lives and experiences of American brewers, homebrewers, and other figures in the industry. The interviews shed light on processes of homebrewing, recipe development, and marketing, as well as aspects of brewery operations, American and global beer culture, and many other subjects. They also touch on more complex topics such as race, gender, and sexual orientation.

Many of the interviews in this collection were conducted in person at the narrator's brewery or affiliated institution. Others were conducted over Zoom due to the COVID-19 pandemic. In some cases, family members or partners attended the oral history interview and contributed to the conversation, often in very minor ways. These individuals are not considered narrators, nor did the Initiative collect release forms from them. Researchers may not use or quote contributions from interview participants other than the narrators.
relatedmaterial: label: Related Materials
content: Materials at the National Museum of American History

The Division of Work and Industry holds the following objects relating to this collection:

2017.0253; 2017.0258 - Coveralls, microscope, and textbooks (A Textbook of Brewing, Volumes 1 and 2) belonging to Fritz Maytag, owner of Anchor Brewing Company from 1965 to 2010

2017.0289 - Labels for beers brewed by the Sierra Nevada Brewing Company

2017.0316; 2018.0041 - Stepladder, garbage pail, wooden spoon, bottles, and bottle caps used by Charlie Papazian for homebrewing. Also included in these accessions are the Joy of Brewing booklet and "Log Boom Brew" recipe created by Papazian in the 1970s.

2017.0344 - Wooden bottle crate, guestbook, and beer bottle labels from Boulder Brewing Company, whose name changed to Boulder Beer Company in 1990

2018.0008 - Wooden beer tap, coaster, beer offerings card, and logo card from Odell Brewing Company

2018.0083 - Window box art piece, custom bike tire, and repurposed storage container for yeast from New Belgium Brewing Company

2018.0120; 2018.0202; 2020.0063; 2022.0128 - Wooden plaque displaying brewery logo, tap handle, wooden crate, and beer bottles from New Albion Brewing Company

2019.0206 - Tru-Action electric football game and boil kettle from Dogfish Head Craft Brewery

2021.0108 - Beer cans and holders, menu board, beer menu, and signs from Highland Brewing Company, among other objects. Many of the objects in this accession reflect COVID safety precautions taken by the brewery, for example a cloth mask featuring the brewery's logo, a brick for designating sanitized tables, and signs for masking, social distancing, and handwashing stations.

							
2023.0113 - Signs, decorations, brewing equipment and supplies, tap handles, beer cans and bottles, and Great American Beer Festival medals from Anchor Brewing Company

Materials in the Archives Center

Anchor Brewing Company Records (NMAH.AC.1591)

Archives Center Brewing History Collection (NMAH.AC.1419)

Christian Heurich Brewing Company Records (NMAH.AC.1104)

Walter H. Voight Brewing Industry Collection (NMAH.AC.1195)

Warshaw Collection of Business Americana Subject Categories: Beer (NMAH.AC.0060.S01.Beer)