After 18 months of research, writing, travel, and side work, I met my July 1, 2025, deadline to submit the manuscript for Barons, Brewers, and Bootleggers: A Social History of Missouri to the publisher, University of Missouri Press.
The final push from spring through early summer 2025 involved keeping my head down and fingers typing to complete the manuscript and compile the bibliography and notes.
Here’s the latest tally by the submission date: 40 chapters, 368 pages double-spaced, and 82,543 words. The index and additional writing/edits after developmental edits and peer review will alter the final numbers.
For now, I met my milestone after a year and a half of work while navigating professional and personal upheaval (a story for another time). In short, it’s been a long haul to complete interviews and work late hours to refine the writing to my satisfaction for this first draft. By the way, in the photo for this post you’ll see me with retired Boulevard Brewing founder John McDonald. John shared some lively stories that appear in the chapter about him and BLVD. It was a pleasure to connect with him again and ensure his story appeared in the book.
Over months of writing and researching, I made tough decisions about what to include. Even at the end, I wavered over leaving out a few chapters and thousands of words from the initial manuscript. Sometimes you can say more with less. Ultimately, I wanted to produce a body of work that holds together over time without rambling.
Missouri’s 200-plus year history has no shortage of history about beer and brewing. From the book proposal and early concept of Barons, Brewers, and Bootleggers, the editor and I knew the book couldn’t and shouldn’t be comprehensive. Other books exist that catalog numerous breweries past and present in St. Louis and Kansas City, including my title Kansas City Beer: A History of Brewing in the Heartland. No one wants to buy and read an multi-volume encyclopedic tome of every brewery that existed in the state.
More to the point, I didn’t want to write another book in that vein. Further, such entry-driven books become outdated before they are published as breweries open and close. From a writing standpoint, I wanted room to stretch and tell stories as a writer rather than sum up breweries new and old in a few hundred words.
That understanding led me to one of several mantras that helped me to decide on the scope and subject matter. Just because something exists doesn’t mean it is historic. Currently, around 165 breweries operate in Missouri and nearly 10,000 across the U.S. Certainly, each brewery has its own history. History is relative to a person and community. For example, a new brewery might be a city’s first one and mark a new chapter in that city’s growth. However, writing about every brewery that exists (or once did) quickly becomes repetitive. Writing about all of those Missouri breweries alone would produce more of a guidebook than a deeper historical look at beer and brewing in the state.
Instead, I chose to make this book human-centered and focused on people with breweries and the beer industry in the backdrop. Readers will find selected stories about law-breakers, Prohibition agents, social agitators, brewers, entrepreneurs, immigrants, and a few unexpected people. Barons, Brewers, and Bootleggers tells selected stories out of the state’s history that are representative, insight-filled, and thought-provoking. At least, I hope readers find that to be the case.
I’ll write more about the behind-the-scenes work of researching and writing the book in the months to come. There’s ample work for the publisher and I to shape the manuscript into its final form and get it published for an anticipate release by fall of 2026.
Until then, enjoy a relaxing summer. I look forward to taking a break, staying cool, and recharging my creative energy.