Back when The Comic Book Story of Beer was still in its research mode, at a certain point I found myself a little muddled over the names and relationships of some of the key figures at the dawn of the Craft Beer Movement here in the USA.

My coauthor Mike Smith, of course, had this history down cold. Now, as a brewer with a solid liberal arts education besides, Mike is a patient man. But everyone has their limit. And as we worked to bring our notes for Chapter 8 into some kind of cohesive whole, I was loath to have to ask him one more time who met who or helped who when.

For me, some kind of schematic or social graph was in order. So, not knowing any other way to make one, I sat down with Photoshop one afternoon and started work on one.

Not all of these mighty Californians made it into the final manuscript. (Apologies to messieurs Lewis and Laybourn). And by no means does this “social graph” include everyone, or every data point, that should be included in such a thing. But as a work in progress I think it has some value. Enjoy!