Robin Shepard

media release: Wisconsin has long been known as “The Beer State,” and the history of its capital city brims with stories of brewing innovation—from the city’s earliest beer-makers and long-forgotten farmstead breweries to today’s experimental microbrewers and enterprising taprooms. In A Keg of Their Best, journalist and beer expert Robin Shepard offers an authoritative history of Madison’s brewing legacy and its key figures from the 1830s to the present.

A Keg of Their Best documents how the beer industry emerged before Madison became a city, starting with the arrival of its first white residents, Roseline and Eben Peck, who opened a tavern in the back room of their cabin in 1837. Subsequent waves of German and English immigrants brought their lager and ale recipes and brewing traditions—some of which live on today. The book also explores how the region’s environment—its rich soil and abundant water sources—made it ideal for beer-making. And it reveals how beer barons created and funded much of the early infrastructure that established Madison as the territorial capital.

Readers will discover how brewmasters, bootleggers, and homebrewers survived during Prohibition and the ways the post-Prohibition beer-making renaissance gave rise to the modern craft beer movement. Shepard brings Wisconsin’s brewing history up through today by highlighting the craft brewers, microbrewers, and regional breweries that are producing inspiring pilsners, IPAs, stouts, sours, and other tasty brews in Madison and Dane County’s thriving beer scene.

Drawing from newspaper accounts, ancestry and property records, and hundreds of personal interviews, Shepard has compiled a thorough and engrossing tribute to Madison’s beer-making heritage—including every known brewery in Dane County since the 1840s. Richly illustrated with historical and modern photos, maps, and breweriana, A Keg of Their Best is a must-have for beer enthusiasts, history lovers, and anyone who has raised a pint in the Beer State Capital.

ABOUT THE AUTHOR

Robin Shepard is a four-time honoree of the North American Guild of Beer Writers. He has been a regular beer columnist and reviewer for the Isthmus newspaper in Madison for more than two decades and also regularly contributes beer reviews, travel articles, and stories to a variety of beer publications and news outlets. His previous books include Wisconsin’s Best Breweries and Brewpubs, The Best Breweries and Brewpubs of Illinois, and Minnesota’s Best Breweries and Brewpubs. Shepard is an Assistant Dean for the University of Wisconsin–Madison’s Division of Extension and a faculty member of the Department of Life Sciences Communications. He lives in Cottage Grove, Wisconsin, with his wife, Kristi, and their two cats named after historical beer figures Roseline Peck and August Fitger.

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