Maureen Ogle has been adding to “outtakes” about the history of the American Homebrewers Association that didn’t quite fit into her book, Ambitious Brew, and now Charlie Papazian has chimed in as well.

So, what the heck, I dug out a story I wrote for Zymurgy magazine in 2003 about the birth of Zymurgy. It appeared in the 25th anniversary edition.

By the time Charlie is done it may all be redundant. After all, he was there.

Maureen has been posting her outtakes in digestible chunks, but I’m on the lazy side so you’ll find my story in one piece in the library.

A ‘Beer Wars’ sneak preview: A reporter in Boston got a look at a 10-minute chunk of “Beer Wars.” He writes, “What I saw was Michael Moore 101: Little craft breweries like Dogfish Head and MoonShot = Good. Anheuser-Busch, a.k.a. ‘the soulless machine,’ the ‘monopoly,’ the ‘corporate behemoth with their insatiable appetite for growth’ = Bad. Baron takes a page right from the ‘Roger and Me’ playbook, making much of Anheuser CEO August Busch’s refusal to grant her an interview. (Thanks to Andy Crouch for pointing to this from the Boston Globe.)

Oregon craft beer sales fall: December and January shipments for all Oregon craft brewers fell by 5 percent and 7 percent, respectively. But in January and February, shipments for all beer in Oregon actually rose by 10 and 20 percent, respectively. “It would appear trading down from higher-priced, locally-made beer has already begun in earnest,” said Brian Butenschoen, executive director of the Oregon Brewers Guild.

Befuggled: Don’t you love that word? Say it two or three times. You’re smiling, right? Reminds me of the word “bumfuzzled,” which I first heard a small-town high school football coach use long before Bill Clinton got it more attention.

Back to beer. Martyn Cornell reports on an article by Kim Cook titled “Who produced Fuggle’s Hops.” Another bit of oft-repeated beer history is called to question. A good excuse to read about a classic English hop, and see how Martyn uses the word “rotundity.” Befuggled. Rotundity. Befuggled. Rotundity. When you can’t repeat those words quickly you know you’ve had one bitter too many.

I’ll be buying this book: St. Louis Brews: 200 Years of Brewing in St. Louis 1809-2009 is due out in the fall. This hardbound, full color book will feature over 330 pages detailing the history of beer and its importance to the St. Louis region.

Speaking of books I’ve reviewed several of the books in the BeerBooks.com Classic Reprint Series and own still more of them. I think you should be reading them too, something I remembered when I noticed they are all 30 percent to 36 percent off. A quick disclaimer: I’m affiliate, meaning if you click on the ad on the right or some other links here and buy a book then I get store credit (because I don’t own enough beer books). Just so you know I set up the “speaking of books” link without affiliate coding. I’m telling you about this because it’s a good deal for you, not because I want you to earn me a little store credit.