Brewers of Maine> There are plenty of beers to make the state famous

THE GREAT STATE OF MAINE BEER BOOK, by Will Anderson, Anderson & Sons’ Publishing Co., Portland, 1996, paperback, 180 pages, $22.95.

There are two groups of people who will enjoy offbeat Portland author Will Anderson’s latest offering — historians and people who enjoy Maine’s microbrewed beers.

Simply put, “The Great State of Maine Beer Book” is a whimsical look at the history of making and enjoying ales, lagers, porters and stouts in the Pine Tree State.

The book travels from the state’s early commercial brewers dating back to the 1840s through Prohibition to today’s immensely popular microbrewers.

As a writer, Anderson could learn to become more fluid in his prose. Stiff chronological writing and overuse of the word “circa” may leave seasoned readers feeling a bit flat. It’s like the published edition is a first or second draft.

However, it’s hard to be too critical of Anderson, whose affinity for finely crafted brews began in 1961 with a beer can collection during his senior year at Cornell University. The information, photographs and look at life from a corner bar stool is easy to drink up.

“The Great State of Maine Beer Book” chronicles the creation of commercially brewed beer in Maine, primarily during the mid- to late 19th century. Using county-by-county listings, Anderson taps the rewards of his research when he unearths the fact that James Hindle (sometimes spelled Hindall) of Portland quite possibly brewed Maine’s first commercial beer in 1842.

The section also delves into the so-called “Maine Law,” which made Maine the first state to outlaw alcohol. Officially known as “An Act for the Suppression of Drinking Houses and Tippling Shops,” the 1851 law prohibited the sale and manufacture of spirituous beverages. It did not prohibit the drinking, except to the point of intoxication, of the alcoholic beverages.

“The Maine Law was noble in intent. But it was doomed to failure,” writes Anderson, whose previous books have explored baseball, Maine and New England.

How ineffective was the law? Saloon and hotel owners in Bangor would appear in court twice a year, plead guilty to the sale of alcohol, pay a fine and return to selling alcohol for the next six months.

In the 1920s, Carrie Nation, the famous ax-wielding Prohibitionist, said the Bangor House and its patronage of the “Bangor Plan” made it “the worst rumseller in the whole country.” Pretty heady stuff.

Passages in the “No Brewers” section covers Mainers’ attempts to circumvent Prohibition. While Prohibition meant Maine went “dry” on Jan. 16, 1920, news accounts of Mainers’ bids for cold brews and hot whiskey, usually written in the flowery style of the period, offer a humorous and mildly slapstick slice of life back then. The visual imagery gained from these paragraphs, some sympathetic to the plight of the thirsty suspects, is well worth the book’s price.

University of Maine alumni should raise a toast to Anderson for the special treatment he gives to the “Stein Song.” Created in 1904 by two UMaine students and sung by alumnus Rudy Vallee, one has to wonder how many pints of beer — from Budweiser to the Orono-based Bear BrewPub’s Midnight Stout — have been consumed during the melodic refrains of the university’s song.

Collectors of breweriana — advertising and packaging of beer items — will delight in the excellent color reproduction of posters and trade advertising cards from the 1890s to point-of-purchase display signs from 1935 to labels from today’s bottled offerings from Maine’s microbreweries.

In the “New Brewers” section, which offers a current listing of Maine’s microbrewers, “The Great State of Maine Beer Book” pours pitchers of praise on David Geary, whom Anderson calls the “Grandfather of Maine Brewers.” Geary, who opened his D.L. Geary Brewing Co. in late 1986, is credited with putting Maine on the nation’s microbrewed beer map.

In what could be billed as an itinerary for a microbrewed-beer drinker’s vacation, Anderson lists, according to his research, the 20 best places to find and drink Maine microbrewed beers. For the record, he picks the Great Lost Bear Pub in Portland as the best place in Maine to find a quality pint of Maine microbrewed beer. The pub, located at 540 Forest Ave., offers 36 brews from 14 Maine breweries.

To his credit, Anderson concludes the book with the all-important message that drinking and driving do not mix. Its omission would have been negligent.

“The Great State of Maine Beer Book,” Anderson’s ninth publication devoted to beer and breweriana, should serve to quench the thirst of the ever-growing legion of Maine’s microbrewed-beer fanciers.