Portrays beer as a major player in the retelling of early American history and reconstructs the cultural and political context out of which it rose--Cover. Includes the history of beer in America along with factors influencing beer drinking and brewing in the Colonial Period.;Beer Arrives in North America : The Start of a Journey to Greatness -- Building a home and a brewery, too : the early 1600s -- Beer settles in: the late 1600s -- Beer and the birth of an American Culture : the early 1700s -- Independence : when fermentation aided fomentation -- Beer and the Revolutionary War -- Life, liberty, and the pursuit of porter : postwar beer -- The nation and breweries expand : the early 1800s -- Fame and fortune: the emergence of the big breweries of the 1800s -- Factors Influencing Beer Drinking and Brewing in the Colonial Period -- The government takes a bite out of beer : taxation -- Beer's home : the tavern -- Beer drinks : the colonial cocktail -- Homebrewing : America's beer heritage -- Beer under fire : temperance and prohibition -- Colonial brewing technology -- Colonial beer timeline.