"Creating Something Entirely New"

       The article I found was pulled from the Tenement Museum's website which we checked out briefly in class. It grabbed my attention as it is about Germans and their contribution to the beer culture and industry in early America. Brewing beer was an iconic trade that they brought with  them when the moved to the United States. The article mentions a few different types of beer and in particular lagers and pilsners which the Germans are famous for making. When they brought these styles of beers to the United States no one was drinking them;they revolutionized beer drinking and brewing in America. Budweiser, Coors, and  Miller are all examples of lagers and are some of the most prolific beers on grocery store shelves all of which were brewed originally by German Americans. I moved to Santa Clara about three years ago from Portland Oregon, which some would consider the craft beer capitol of the world and I must admit that I am a lover of craft beer so that is really what drew my attention to this piece.  I  also found it very interesting how Nick Capodice and Kira Garcia, writing for the Tenement Museum, reminded me of the chapter from this week. They state, "However, they’d (the two people who owned the bar in the tenements) both lived in New York City since their early teens, so they weren’t trying to recreate ‘home’. I think they were trying to create something entirely new. Sure, they were all speaking German, but the clientele was a hodgepodge of folks from all over the place. They’d be talking about home, sure, but they’d be talking about American politics, rent, love, and all the things we talk about when we talk at bars." This perfectly sums up the way in which the German Americans must have felt; glad to be in America but stoically hanging on to the culture that made them so. You can access the article here: Tenement Museum