The Power of Beer

The entire history of beer, from the beginning to now, showing how beer developed from a primitive Stone Age concoction into modern beer. Along the way we see how beer was used to amass power by, among others, the Inca Empire, prehistoric chieftains, and modern nations like the Netherlands, the UK, and Japan.

209 pages, richly illustrated, and easy to read, yet brimming with new information.

Table of Contents

1. Beer and Us: About our relationship with beer, and what it led to.

2. The Beginning: How our love affair with alcohol began, the invention of beer, and its spread round the world.

3. Beer and Civilization: Ancient Mesopotamia and Egypt: mythology, brewing, and stories.

4. Power From Beer: How warlords in prehistoric Europe used beer to build power, and how our perception of wine as a fancy drink began.

5. The Beer of the Vikings: Beer in Viking religion and law, and Vikings using beer to fool their enemies.

6. Beer Becomes Business: Commercial brewing begins, gruit, the introduction of hops, and how beer created the Netherlands.

7. Brewing Cold Beer: Lager brewing begins, conquers Bavaria, and then stagnates. Why? And did people really drink beer every day?

8. Beer Goes Industrial: How porter turned the UK into a superpower, and made the English brewing industry the biggest in the world. Plus the history of IPA.

9. The Lager Explosion: After standing still for centuries, in just a few decades lager brewing took over the world and wiped out masses of beer styles.

10. The Drinkers Revolt: When lager threatened to turn beer boring drinkers revolted, and craft beer began.

11. The Other World: While breweries were selling beer the farmers continued to brew their own, very different beers.

12. Not the End: The craft revolution eats itself, beer as a fashion statement, and what the future might hold.

A Glimpse of the Inside

Where to Buy