Oxford University Press takes a dip into global brewing production this month with the publication of Hopped Up, by good historian Jeffrey M Pilcher.
He delivers a lively history of brewing traditions with beers seen as global commodities created through borrowing and exchange, from pre-capitalist times to the present.
Pilcher shows how, over centuries, the exchange of technological advances in brewing contributed to regional divergences and convergences in beer varieties. But always in tandem with other social and cultural developments.
“Industrialisation led to easier production, refrigeration, and distribution,” says the publisher. “It also recast strong flavours as a source of potential contamination, turning fresh-tasting lager into a symbol of hygiene and civilization.
“Beers became so standardised that most consumers could not tell the difference between them, leading to competition that bankrupted countless firms.
“Today, brewing has returned to its local artisanal roots, but as we have seen with the spread of IPAs, even microbrewers are driven by the same quest for profit and expansion.”
Hopped Up will be published by Oxford University Press on 30th September.
