Beer is Serious Stuff

Beer is, at its best, a philosophers’ drink: it stimulates sensitive souls to ask questions without arousing the arrogance that might lead them to easy answers. 

Although we seem to have forgotten it, beer is worth your attention because it can be delightful, but it's also worth a moment's thought because it's been  important in the daily lives of many people and cultures for centuries.

For instance: outside of the wine growing countries of the Mediterranean, most adults in Europe drank beer all day and every day. Both water and milk were potentially dangerous. Beer and wine were both purified as they were made. So up until the seventeenth century, people-men, women and children drank some alcoholic beverage: wine, cider or beer. They woke up with it and they went to bed with it. These drinks didn’t contain as much alcohol as modern wines and beers, but everyone, mom, dad, the kids, the priest and the king were consuming alcohol all the time. Consider that life spans were short and that society was patriarchal. That meant that most of the world’s business was run by relatively young men who had a bit of a buzz on. In that light, does European history start to make a bit more sense? Does it help you understand bizarre events like the Crusades or the Hundred Years War? If the crew of folks who surrounded you at the pub last night had been in charge, would things have been any different?

Press the rewind button, more questions. When the first agriculturalists settled down to tend and harvest cereals, were they interested in baking bread or in brewing beer? Did the shift from home-brewing to industrial production of beer diminish the economic rôle of women in European society? 

It turns out that this beer is pretty serious stuff and for further confirmation, see the video below:






Still thirsty? Check out the Short Course in Beer at http://bit.ly/shortbeer