“The perfect pick-me-up on a hot summer day.” –Washington Post “[A] charmer of a tale. . . Warm, witty and–like any good craft beer–complex, the saga delivers a subtly feminist and wholly life-affirming message.” –People Magazine A novel of family, Midwestern values, hard work, fate and the secrets of making a world-class beer, from the bestselling author of Kitchens of the Great Midwest… secrets of making a world-class beer, from the bestselling author of Kitchens of the Great Midwest
Two sisters, one farm. A family is split when their father leaves their shared inheritance entirely to Helen, his younger daughter. Despite baking award-winning pies at the local nursing home, her older sister, Edith, struggles to make what most people would call a living. So she can’t help wondering what her life would have been like with even a portion of the farm money her sister kept for herself.
With the proceeds from the farm, Helen builds one of the most successful light breweries in the country, and makes their company motto ubiquitous: “Drink lots. It’s Blotz.” Where Edith has a heart as big as Minnesota, Helen’s is as rigid as a steel keg. Yet one day, Helen will find she needs some help herself, and she could find a potential savior close to home. . . if it’s not too late.
Meanwhile, Edith’s granddaughter, Diana, grows up knowing that the real world requires a tougher constitution than her grandmother possesses. She earns a shot at learning the IPA business from the ground up–will that change their fortunes forever, and perhaps reunite her splintered family?
Here we meet a cast of lovable, funny, quintessentially American characters eager to make their mark in a world that’s often stacked against them. In this deeply affecting family saga, resolution can take generations, but when it finally comes, we’re surprised, moved, and delighted.
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As a beer lover and a recent transplant to Minnesota, I couldn’t resist picking up this novel about generations of Minnesota women brewing beer. It’s a beautiful story about family and ambition, and a love letter to craft breweries. Thanks to @ellier and @marjie for enthusiastically recommending this one!
Stradal writes a love story for Minnesota, beer, and this cadre of remarkably appealing even though flawed characters. Couldn’t wait to pick it up each evening and sad that it’s over.
I reserve 5 stars for all time best, books I know I’ll likely read again, but this one is probably a 4.5. Rare in that it kept getting better and better the farther I got into it. Just such a charming and heartwarming (truly) and endearing story. Loved it.
I can say this book made me miss my childhood and my family back in Minnesota. I loved the authenticity of the setting. But I found myself more drawn to Edith over Helen. Parts of the story moved a bit slow, but the originality of the book kept me reading.
This is a very midwestern book and, as a Midwesterner, I recognize the strong work ethic and resilience in these characters. They are stoic and possess a special kind of grit that is only granted to those who overcome adversity…. again and again….
These women sometimes make poor choices, but they always endure. These women sometimes run into bad luck, but they still endure. These women suffer tremendous loss and only dig their heels in deeper. They feel like giving up and cry about their fate on the inside, but they push their chin up and are so sturdy that they can never really be blown over, no matter how strong the storm. I feel like I have never known characters from any book better than I know these characters. They are in my blood. I am descended from these women.
That being said, this is one of my new favorite books. There is family, forgiveness, redemption, discovery, and even some underdog action going on in this story. This is a book that made my heart flutter.
J. Ryan Stradal has created such strong and fascinating female characters that you jump to assuming the author is female–and you would be wrong. He appreciates that women are individuals with warts and all. I learned more about brewing beer than I expected–and the audio version with the Minnesota accent perfectly performed by the narrator, Judith Ivey, was a real treat.
What a wonderful read. The families that have populated my home state are known for their hardy, stubborn, stoic living. Hard work and sacrifice are inbred. This tale is a journey of two sisters who take different roads in life. The healing takes two generations. Blotz beer is always at center stage. I highly recommend this to all my Minnesota peeps, anyone with a love of beer history and the new craft beer industry, and anyone who has had a family fractured to have hope that healing can occur.
Full of the easy-to-love quaffability of a perfect ale, Stradal’s The Lager Queen of Minnesota will warm your heart. With empathy, love, wisdom and humor on every page, I wish I could go back for more.
Brilliant. . . a love letter to the Midwest. . . it’s hard to put down not only because the storytelling is so seamless and the characters so relatable, but because the author’s delight in the written word is so contagious.
The Lager Queen of Minnesota is the kind of book you think about all day, while at work, while speaking to someone else, while in line at the market. . . . I loved this book so much. I carried it with me like a talisman, marveling at the unique storytelling of J. Ryan Stradal, who knows his people so well. It’s a portrait of America, of place and land and neighborhood, and, of course, a celebration of beer.
Living in Wisconsin, I just had to read this novel which is set in our neighboring state of Minnesota. I have never lived in a small town but have driven through and spent time in many in northern Wisconsin.
I really liked the way Mr. Stradal conveyed small town life without devaluing it or the people living there. Strong resilient women are featured in this story, three generations, represented by sisters Helen and Edith and Edith’s granddaughter Diana. Edith and Helen have been estranged ever since Helen inherited the dairy farm from their father with nothing left to Edith. Rather than sharing her inheritance, Helen and her husband turned it into a brewery which became a household name in the golden years and she was a wealthy woman for many years.
Edith has always had to work to help pay the bills even while her husband Stanley was alive. She worked at a nursing home where she enjoyed the residents and baked them delicious pies for desserts. Her pies were so good that they were featured in newspapers and local magazines until there were lines of people coming to visit their long lost relatives just to get a piece of the pie. Edith also worked at Arby’s to further support the family, always doing hard work, cleaning other people’s messes, floors, tables, etc. She worked for a short while in a pastry shop but the work was not much fun and required her to make 25+ pies a day!
After a tragedy occurs Edith becomes the sole caregiver for her granddaughter Diana. Now she is working at Arby’s and Kohl’s to try and make ends meet. Diana is a good student and great teenager all around. She works part time jobs after school to help with the money but then turns to stealing expensive garden equipment from wealthy family’s garages. One day she is caught “red handed” but instead of calling the police, Frank offers Diana a job at his brewery to work off her debt. It isn’t long before she learns that this is something she loves to do. Though offered a scholarship to college based on her amazing perfect ASAT scores she decides to stay at the brewery. We will watch as she meets and marries her soulmate and they open a brewery of their own, brewing small batch craft beers which was a new thing at that time.
We follow this trio for several decades through good times and bad. There is much more emphasis on Edith’s life than Helen’s but towards the end we find out more about her.
There is lots of humor to keep things on the lighter side but this book does shine a light on how difficult it is to live working a minimum wage job. It’s even more difficult to find a better paying job in a small town, particularly if you are a woman.
I will leave you with a great quote from Edith “Edith reminded herself that there was no way in hell even six months ago she’d have predicted that one day she’d be at a beer festival, pouring beer that she’d brewed. She was almost eighty and look at all this. Her name was on a giant canvas banner behind her”.
Pick this one up, it is the perfect summer read with characters that you will care about and a great story about the history of brewing in the Midwest.
I received an ARC of this novel from the publisher through Edelweiss.
This was a pleasant and entertaining read. The characters will This was a pleasant and entertaining read. The characters will likeable, and I learned a lot about beer making, which was interesting.
Stradal captures his female characters with care and thoughtfulness, from the resiliency and determination of Helen and Diana to the simple fortitude that Edith uses to keep her going every day. He weaves their pasts and presents together over the course of the novel to a satisfying ending that brings their innate love and strength into clear focus, using their mutual passion for creating beer, lagers and IPAs as a common thread. His take on Minnesota life and personality is perfectly pitched, and learning about how beer is made is a fun benefit of the read. Highly recommend!
A must read for lovers of books and beer. When I finished what is a truly great story, I went out to buy more copies for those who love hops & prose.
I love beer and I love a good story and this had both. You find yourself cheering for the characters as they navigate life and the beer business. I had a hard time putting the book down at 2am because I really wanted to know what happened next. Thank you for such a great story!
Good story. Somewhat predictable but still a good ‘world’ to escape into this winter. I loved how the author explained some of the difficulties of being poor without proselytizing. Pacing was done well.
The first few pages of this book made be think it was going to be a broad stereotype of Minnesota because at the beginning some of the language and expressions were there. This went away and seemed not to appear again in the book, thank heavens. It is just a good story about families, relationships, and beer.
This was a great read! I loved the interaction of the characters! Even if you know nothing or care nothing about beer, you will love this story. If you like beer- you will love it even more!
There are complex layers to the characters in this book. I found myself caring deeply about the choices they made and how life went for them. Lot’s of twists and turns kept me engrossed.
Great read!