Essays on beer and the places it is drunk
Short essays on the history and everyday culture of beer: breweries, taverns, pubs and the objects and habits around them.
- A pint, a half-litre and a Maß
Every beer country has its own standard measure, and the differences are older than the metric system.
- A short history of the beer mat
Before it was a coaster, the mat was a lid, and before that a felt disc that kept insects out of the glass.
- Where lager yeast came from
The yeast behind most of the world's beer is a hybrid, and one of its parents was found in a forest in Patagonia.
- Why English pubs have signs
A statute of 1393 required alehouses to hang out a sign, so the inspector could find them.
- When ale became beer
For a long time the English words ale and beer described two different drinks, and the difference was a plant.
- The Bavarian purity law of 1516
A short ordinance issued at Ingolstadt fixed the ingredients of beer for centuries, though it was mostly about prices.
- Three breweries on the plan of St Gall
A ninth-century drawing of an ideal monastery gives beer its own buildings, and its own hierarchy of customers.
- The hymn to Ninkasi
A Sumerian poem of about 1800 BCE praises a brewing goddess and, line by line, describes how beer was made.