Looking back, we survey a country where beer was once the agitator of rebellion and omnipresent companion to social discourse. Behind us is the mass industrialization of beer, but also the craft explosion; ahead of us—possibilities.
Somewhere along the way, the intersection of cultural amity and the entrepreneurial spirit of big business morphed traditional celebrations into global bashes devoid of historic meaning.
While almost all the hop varieties grown in the world are used to flavor beer, the little green gems are used in other products—and for other reasons besides their well-known bittering properties.
People in this day and age don’t really know much about the Dark Ages… one of the main reasons this period in European history is referred to as “dark.” For the evolution of beer, however, this era was anything but dark.
A jaunt through the archives of the US Patent and Trade Office reveals thousands of beer-related processes, recipes, devices, widgets, gewgaws and other various and sundry inventions.
Anton Schwarz, the Bohemian immigrant and editor of The American Brewer until his death in 1895, racked up more geek cred in a few years than any of us could in a lifetime.
Ordering a can of beer has always been trouble. Call for one and you run the risk of being identified as an unsophisticated ignoramus and subjected to ridicule at the hands of even the most open-minded beer geeks.
Every time a can of beer is cracked open, it spits out a little bit of history. The can—our handy, standard, aluminum homie—has enjoyed a long and manifold history.