The Lager Queen of Minnesota is has shout-outs to several SoCal beer people in the acknowledgment section in the back and it is clear from this book by J. Ryan Stradal that he listened and took notes. There are so many books out there where the minutia of other workplaces have been discussed from detectives to doctors and back again. But this is the first book that talks about hops and malts and cleaning and beer culture inside the novel form.
The book takes three strands of women sisters Helen and Edith and Edith’s granddaughter Diana and covers their journeys to the present in a brewhouse through the lens of ambition, pie and the upper MidWest. It is cool to see that all three characters are driven in different ways and strong in different ways and human in different ways and that men are mere side players in this interwoven story.
The tone is refreshingly nice and honest at the same time and doesn’t hammer points across but instead just glides from focusing on Helen to Edith and to Diana. Each chapter name is a dollar amount that plays a part in that chapter and it is money that is a central focus of this book as much as the beer.
The beer and brewing portions might seem a bit caricature but when you think about, beer people do resemble the people in this book and I loved the beer recipes that the Grandma’s make toward the latter stages. It was clear that the author was having fun with it.
The Lager Queen might be too Midwest nice for some people but this book earns and sticks its landing at the end. You will want to have a cold Blotz light when you finish.
