Jim Draeger

press release: Join 702WI at Working Draft Beer Company for a talk and Q&A with author Jim Draeger about his book Bottoms Up: A Toast to Wisconsin's Historic Bars & Breweries.

Bottoms Up explores the rise of taverns and breweries, the effects of temperance and Prohibition, and attitudes about gender, ethnicity, and morality. Contemporary photographs of unusual and distinctive bars and breweries of all eras, historical photos, postcards, advertisements, and breweriana illustrate the story of how Wisconsin came to dominate brewing and the place that bars -- and beer -- hold in our social and cultural history.

Seventy featured taverns and breweries represent diverse architectural styles, from the open-air Tom's Burned Down Cafe on Madeline Island to the well-known Wolski's Tavern in Milwaukee. There are bars in barns and basements and brewpubs in former ice cream factories and railroad depots. Bottoms Up also includes a heady mix of such beer-related topics as ice harvesting, barrel making, bar games, Old-Fashioneds, bar fixtures, and the queen of the bootleggers.