Free (nook/Kindle) Locally Brewed: Portraits of Breweries [Beer Industry Artbook]

[ATDrake]

Locally Brewed: Portraits of Craft Breweries from America's Heartland by Anna Blessing is her lavishly-illustrated small artisanal business profile and local industry history coffee table guide to Exactly What It Says In The Title, free courtesy of publisher Agate's Midway imprint.

This is pretty nifty, and includes a lot of pictures of packaging/advertising designs stuff, as well as interviews, etc.

Currently free, probably just until the weekend @ B&N (may also drop in the UK), Amazon (not available to Canadians, but also free in the UK), and may or may not also show up later as a DRM-free PDF download directly at the publisher's webstore, as Agate freebies sometimes do.

Description
Locally Brewed celebrates the Midwest's craft brewing movement with profiles of 20 of the area's brewmasters and their breweries. These are entertaining and inspiring stories of the individuals who have been essential in the exponential growth of this movement, as told through vivid interviews, beautiful photography, and dynamic artwork.

In just the past 20 years, beer has been transformed from a "low-class" drink to a pluralistic, populist drink with the same stylistic diversity and caring craftsmanship as wine. One of the strongest hotbeds of this cultural shift is in the Midwest, where independently owned craft brewers focus on the creative, artisanal elements of the beer-making process. Locally Brewed explores these trends and the fun, fascinating, and unique details of each brewery, including label art, hand-pull designs, and of course the brews themselves.

This is a book that can be enjoyed by the “beer geek” and the casual imbiber alike, as it emphasizes the people behind the beer as well as the beers they brew. Special sidebars and pullouts show what makes each brewery special, weaving together the story of the indie beer movement, relevant to both small-town Midwesterners and big-city beer lovers.