'A Carlton please!' a name that's still shouted across every bar and hotel in Australia.

It was one of six breweries that united to form the company we know today as CUB (Foster's), yet we still call it Carlton. But this is not a book of that great company - it's a book of the people that made Carlton the greatest.

The main heroes that include among others, a Lieutenant Colonel in the Victorian Horse and Field Artillery, an energetic Liverpuddlian tallow-factory apprentice, an eloquent Licenced Victuallers Association Secretary and a resourceful and dedicated fireman. There are others, unsung heroes, most of whose names are lost in demolished cellars and bottling rooms, or echo from the drains down which they poured the unsuccessful brews.

Others are stuck forever in family albums of those whose great grandparents never thought to pencil a name on the back of their portrait. They were all part of the long forgotten struggle to brew an Australian beer. This is a book about them and a snapshot of Australian culture.