Beer

Bottoms Up  
by Jim Draeger and Mark Speitz • $30

Bottoms Up celebrates Wisconsin’s taverns and the breweries that fueled them. Beginning with inns and saloons, the book explores the rise of taverns and breweries, the effects of temperance and Prohibition, and attitudes about gender, ethnicity, and morality. Contemporary photographs of unusual and distinctive bars and breweries of all eras, historical photos, postcards, advertisements, and breweriana illustrate the story of how Wisconsin came to dominate brewing and the place that bars and beer hold in our social and cultural history.

Beer: What to Drink Next
by Michael Larson • $15

Find new brews to enjoy with the easy-to-use Beer: What to Drink Next. Simply look up whatever you like drinking on the Beer Select-O-Pedia, a periodic table of beer styles. Ninety different kinds of beer are organized by country of origin, leading you to a color-coded chapter full of suggestions of what to drink next.

Cheese

Cheese, The Making of a Wisconsin Tradition  
by Jerry Apps • $19

This is a story of farmers, milk cows, dairy barns, and green pastures. It is the story of cheesemakers who work their magic and turn milk into cheese. Jerry Apps narrates the history of the cheese-making industry in Wisconsin from its inception in the 1940s to the present. Apps also includes his insights into the wedge-shaped foam headgear and other cheese phenomena.

The Master Cheesemakers of Wisconsin
by James Norton & Becca Dilley • $25

This book – beautifully photographed and engagingly written – introduces hardworking, resourceful men and women who represent an artisanal craft that has roots in Europe but has been a Wisconsin tradition since the 1850s. Wisconsin produces more than 600 varieties of cheese, from massive wheels of cheddar to such specialties as crescenza-stracchino and juustoleipa. These masters combine tradition, technology, artistry, and years of dedicated learning  to create the rich tastes and beautiful presentation of their skillfully crafted products.