Today's Tribune column: "Tears of joy at the Augustiner beer garden."

BAYLOR: Tears of joy at the Augustiner beer garden

Coming of age in the Ohio Valley in the 1960s and '70s meant witnessing on a depressing, first-hand basis the very nadir of beer culture in America.

In Colonial times, our beer making and drinking customs reflected English origins. Later, when Germans began coming to the United States in large numbers, their traditions traveled with them and remained intact. All big American cities and most of the smaller ones had breweries that took procedural, technical and atmospheric cues from the time-tested Central European playbook. It was a lovely thing, while it lasted.