The Lager Queen of Minnesota

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

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.

These book club questions are from the publisher, Penguin Random House.

Book club questions for The Lager Queen of Minnesota by J. Ryan Stradal

Use these discussion questions to guide your next book club meeting.

The decision made by Helen and Edith’s father to leave the family farm entirely to Helen changes each sister’s life forever. Although she’s the beneficiary of that unfair decision, do you believe that Helen is a sympathetic character?

Before Diana was hired full-time at Heartlander Brewery, she was stealing from garages to help make ends meet. Did this criminal behavior affect how you felt about Diana as a character? If not, how was she able to redeem herself, and what contributed to her evolution?

Both of Stradal’s novels, The Lager Queen of Minnesota and Kitchens of the Great Midwest, are full of characters who’ve developed special, intimate relationships with food and drink. How would you describe Helen’s lifelong relationship with beer? How is it different from Diana’s? Or Edith’s?

The topic of loss appears throughout the book in both significant and subtle ways. The characters are often reckoning with their grief. Were there specific situations you found particularly relatable? Explain.

It’s becoming increasingly common in America for people, especially women, to work past retirement age, as Edith and some of her friends are doing. How would you describe Edith’s experience of working into her late seventies, and how does it contrast with that of the people you know who’ve continued to work late in life?

Although beer was invented by women, commercial brewing has been dominated by men. What does this book have to say about women in the industry, and the potential of women in the industry?

Each character’s attitude toward beer evolves during the course of the novel. Did this book change your own opinion of beer?

Edith’s talent for baking pies was a local secret for decades before she was “discovered.” In your opinion, was her wider exposure a positive development in her life? Do you know anyone with a similar skill or talent, and how do you think they’d feel about receiving a similar kind of wider exposure?

The Lager Queen of Minnesota Book Club Questions PDF

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