Plenty of regions come to mind when talking about hop-growing regions: the Pacific Northwest, Hallertau, Lubin, etc. But what about regions that have come and gone, the former hop-growing regions? 

Jennifer Jordan is in the process of researching her new book and joins the show to share some of the stories she has uncovered. She is a professor of Sociology at The University of Wisconsin Milwaukee.  She is the author of Edible Memory: The Lure of Heirloom Tomatoes and Other Forgotten Foods (University of Chicago Press, 2015) and Structures of Memory: Understanding Urban Change in Berlin and Beyond (Stanford University Press, 2006). 

Her current manuscript is titled Before Craft Beer: Lost Landscape of Forgotten Hops, which explores the boom and bust of hop growing in Wisconsin during the 1800s. She shares stories of the women who harvested the hops, what was involved in the hop bust, and other accounts from old diaries. 

Sarah Jane Curran
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Sarah Jane (SJ) Curran kicked off her love of beer while studying at The Culinary Institute of America. She continued her education with a Masters from NYU, where she focused her research on beer history and education. She was the beer director at Eleven Madison Park in NYC and General Manager at Churchkey in DC. She taught beer classes for Cornell University and AGMU systems. Currently, she is the Sr. Beverage Manager for Global, US, and Canada for Marriott International. Beer Me! makes her very happy, almost as happy as she is drinking rauchbier.