Miracle Brew: Hops, Barley, Water, Yeast and the Nature of Beer

by Pete Brown

The Guardian’s "Best Books on Drink” Pick Most people know that wine is created by fermenting pressed grape juice and cider by pressing apples. But although it’s the most popular alcoholic drink on the planet, few people know what beer is made of. In lively and witty fashion, Miracle Brew dives into traditional beer’s four natural malted barley, hops, yeast, and water, each of which has an incredible story to tell. From the Lambic breweries of Belgium, where beer is fermented with wild yeasts drawn down from the air around the brewery, to the aquifers below Burton-on-Trent, where the brewing water is rumored to contain life-giving qualities, Miracle Brew tells the full story behind the amazing role each of these fantastic four―a grass, a weed, a fungus, and water―has to play. Celebrated U.K. beer writer Pete Brown travels from the surreal madness of drink-sodden hop-blessings in the Czech Republic to Bamberg in the heart of Bavaria, where malt smoked over an open flame creates beer that tastes like liquid bacon. He explores the origins of fermentation, the lost age of hallucinogenic gruit beers, and the evolution of modern hop varieties that now challenge wine grapes in the extent to which they are discussed and revered. Along the way, readers will meet and drink with a cast of characters who reveal the magic of beer and celebrate the joy of drinking it. And almost without noticing we’ll learn the naked truth about the world’s greatest beverage.

Genres: Nonfiction, Beer, Travel, History, Science, Business, Food

288 pages, Paperback

Published September 28, 2017

About the author

There is more than one author with this name

Pete Brown is an English writer who has written extensively on the subject of beer and drinking cultures around the world. He has written three books; Man Walks Into a Pub, Three Sheets to the Wind, and Hops and Glory. Brown was born in Barnsley, South Yorkshire and now lives in London.

Above bio is from Wikipedia. Photo is from Flickr user epicbeer.

Reviews

[Stephen · Rating 4 out of 5]

enjoyed this detailed book looking at the 4 things needed to make beer

[Rianna · Rating 4 out of 5]

52/45 books read in 2017
Provided by NetGalley in exchange for an honest review.

Great resource for anyone interested in beer, the production of beer or just who are interested in the production and history of produce. This book is divided into 6 parts: the Nature of Beer, the 4 ingredients (barley, water, hops, yeast), and Reinheitsgebot. This makes it easy for the reader to start with the ingredient that interests them the most (or they know least about).

Personally I loved all of the history included in this book. It made the perfect compliment to the stories about the mechanics of making beer and it gave me a whole new appreciation of beer. It really is a piece of history that has traveled and grown with humans to become the product it is today.

I definitely recommend this to any fan of history or beer :)

[Jim Razinha · Rating 5 out of 5]

I was in a used book store two weeks ago and my wife noticed a small stack of this book. No brainer, I added it to the small stack of Tom Swift and Rick Brant books I'd found to add to my collection. I hadn't heard of Pete Brown, but I had heard of (and met) Stephen Beaumont, who was quoted on the back cover "Hugely entertaining and informative...You may think that you 'get' beer, all its ingredients and processes, but by the end of Miracle Brew (Brown) will have you marveling at how little you fully understood." He is right. I have more than a passing knowledge of beers - more on the enjoying them side; I've played at home brewing with modest success, but I'll never progress beyond that - and I learned a lot.

So this book is about hops, barley, water, and yeast (presented in the order of barley, water,, hops and yeast). For those mistakenly thinking "purity law" (he does actually go into Reinheitsgebot in an after chapter), no, this is about the basic ingredients of "the world's greatest beverage". So much more complex than crushing some grapes (cue the oenophile outrage), it's been around in some form for at least 10,000 years. Brown is British, and this has a Anglo-Euro perspective. I don't hold that against him ... he was in Munich in 2016 when a kid shot nine people in a nearby mall and panic had rumors of a second gunman and he, his wife and patrons in a restaurant huddled in the restaurant cellar. When one of the waiters offered some water, joking about wine and beer inferior to what they had before, Brown said he pointed to the water in his glass and said "Englishe bier". Anyway, it is not a book about brewing or brewing processes. He talks about the processes to cultivate and use the ingredients, how the beer comes about, but not brewing.

The Barley chapter covers the history of the grain, the varieties, and the big deal...malting. Water may seem obvious but as I've learned from a documentary that had a - apparently this is a real thing - water sommelier - the epigraph Brown chose is appropriate:

'In most cases, the very purest and finest water is, for brewing, the worst of all.'
- George Watkins,
The Compleat Brewer; Or, The Art and Mystery of Brewing Explained, 1760

Of the four ingredients, I know more of hops than the others, as do probably most beer aficionados, and of course, he taught me more. Yeast would be second on my knowledge list, but... sure, more knowledge! I learned a lot in every chapter, even Water, and you'll just have to find the book and learn yourself because to summarize here wouldn't do any of the book justice.

He concluded observing

When I think now about the science of understanding water chemistry, the incredible and ancient technology of malting, the magic of hops and the fact that we're being controlled by microscopic fungi we still don't understand. I realise the idea of 'raw materials' in beer is a fallacy. There's nothing raw about them. Each is incredibly sophisticated, each refined by centuries of scientific endeavor and discovery. After 10,000 years of brewing, we're still at the beginning of finding out what these four ingredients do. And all the work that's gone into understanding each ingredient so far, if the scientists, the maltsters, farmers and hop growers and, of course, the brewers who bring them all together, were to all get what they truly deserve for their efforts, and if the price of beer was an accurate reflection of its real worth, beer should be costing £10 a pint. As a drinker, I'm very glad it doesn't. But the fact that the most complex, varied, beautiful and difficult to make alcoholic beverage in the world is also usually its cheapest and most taken for granted, is something of a cosmic joke.
[...]
We apply the best thinking science can offer in order to increase our aesthetic pleasure. We pursue rigour and excellence in our pursuit of hedonism. And that's why beer represents, for me, at the end of this journey, the very best of everything we are.

Some flagged parts:

Barley: Brown talked about not being all that jazzed over Schlenkerla, a smoked beer "that made the German town of Bamberg famous."

Like Cantillon, the equally esoteric 'champagne of beers' created in a Brussels suburb, the reverence of its hardcore fans has always put me off a little. For me, these brands have always been beer's answer to progressive rock: complicated and aloof, celebrated more for the idea of them than their actual delivery. [...] Smoked beer is a minority interest, something we're supposed to like if we're really into our beer, but secretly don't, apart from a few fanatics. [...]I appreciate that it is special, but it's someone else's special.

That what I think something like Bourbon County Brand Stout...idea rather than delivery. Oh, and don't even try to debate me on Guinness - nasty, watery, pseudo stout that should go back to calling itself the porter ... spelled 'poorter" ... it is.

Barley: Brown was at the "mother field" where the original crop and successive seedings of the Maris Otter barley were grown and one of the farmers had recently installed a micro-malting operation. Brown mused "Surely a microbrewery, enabling the process from grain to glass to happen without the barley leaving the farm, can't be far behind." Rogue Farms in Oregon does precisely that.Water: Brown went to Dublin's Guinness Brewery at St James's Gate "partly because the facility here is the centre of excellence for a brand that's brewed and sold all around the world, and partly because people often attribute the romance of Guinness, and the endless debate about whether it really does taste better in Ireland, to the notion that it is brewed using the water from the River Liffey." (It isn't - the river is "completely unsuitable for human consumption.") Excellence is a relative term. Someday I'll go to Ireland and someday I will try an authentic locally brewed Guinness. who knows? Maybe I will be surprised, but I doubt it. My palate didn't like it when it wasn't as mature as it is now.

Water: Funny bit...Brown is quite humorous... Talking about the legendary pale ale brewing water from the wells at Burton (one of the few Dogfish Head beers I like more than once is their Burton Baton, named "after the ales of the Burton region in England and the rare Burton Ale brewed by Ballantine, the 'Baton' signifies much, but more aptly denotes the bastard-ness of this beer."), Brown is hip deep into the softness, hardness, and lots of -ness of water and he learned that the Burton brewers bored deeper and deeper (for water) as their production grew, as a well nearby wasn't being used because it may have been contaminated. Okay, long backstory to: "This highlights a further level of complication, which is good because I was starting to worry that water chemistry was starting to get a bit too simple."

Hops: A footnote to a subsection on Bohemian hops history, on Bohemiam King Charles IV, named Wenceslaus

The problem with having (a) much higher standards as a writer than I once did and (b) having searchable access to the world's entire store of historical knowledge, is that where I once let a good yarn go, I now have to go back an check it. In doing so, I often learn the most wonderful stories about the history of beer to be untrue or, at best, unproveable

I get that. I don't like to share quotes unless I can verify the source. And if a story is too pat to be true...I'll go searching. Sometimes I'm surprised.

Hops: I didn't know surplus hops shoots were a delicacy in Italy, and when sauteed with wild garlic (he told of that particular adventure) "taste sweet and fresh and juicy with just a hint of bitterness."

Hops: A visit to the US for research.

Getting through US customs is an interesting experience, always best appreciated when you've been awake and dressed for twenty-four hours. [That acerbic humor!] It seems designed to intimidate, to make you crack and say, "OK you got me. I was going to try to start a Communist revolution but you've foiled my plans.' Instead it makes me want to say, 'Get over yourself, you country's not that special.'

{snort}!

Hops: Something I can relate to. Not this per se: "Some people go on a years-long binge, seeking ever-hoppier and more extreme beers in the search to recreate that first hit.", but his footnote:

Which happens rarely, if ever. In the fifteen years since I tasted my first American IPA, I've had two beers that match up to the experience. And when I go back to that first beer and taste it again, it's a pale shadow of what I remember. The beer hasn't changed, but my palate has. The beer changed me, permanently opening doors of flavour perception which can never be closed again, and changed permanently my demands, expectatins and standards for flavour experience. You can never have a first impression and second time.

The beer hasn't changed, my palate has. Quite true for me. My palate has flipped at least twice since I fell into craft beer - not liking lagers and Belgians and bourbon barrel aged beer, to now not liking golden ales and now not disliking bourbon barrel aged beers (but...lagers are still wrong and I can only tolerate dark traditional Belgians.)

Hops: Subchapter title, on Galaxy hops, grown only in Australia (I like IPAs that use them when I can get them): Guardians of the Galaxy

Hops: Brown was bringing fresh hops from Hobart, Tasmania to Byron Bay, a thousand miles to the north, for a brewer to try in wet hopping, announcing over the Twit-ter "Just about to get on a plane with 25kg of fresh hops. This should be interesting." One reply said he should ask Sam Calagione about his experience getting stopped in Chicago carrying a brick of hops. Calagione, founder of Dogfish Head, said a sniffer dog took a dislike to his stash of whole-leaf of Palisade hops, and "Of the five people in the room I definitely held the minority opinion of whether a full-scale cavity search was necessary. But I was the only one in the room without a gun so I did a lot of listening." !!

Yeast: This was just funny...well, the backstory is fascinating, the reaction is funny. Carlsberg had found three bottles beer brewed in 1883 (they apparently have 13 km of cellars??!!) - the year Emil Hansen "successfully isolated and cultivated single strain yeast cells" - and one of the bottles had yeast cells that were still alive and that they were able to repropagate. Carlsberg set out to rebrew the first modern beer, dubbed Re-Brew. They worked to recultivate a legacy barley, purified water and added salts based on a water analysis from the 1880s, and settled on a hops from the Hallertau region as that was the only thing known. Brown talks about the leadup, the anticipation, the collective neurosis.

This is the most miraculous thing the world has ever seen. Nothing is a valuable as a glass of this stuff.
It pours slowly from the cask into a glass shaped like a brandy balloon. The glass has been specially designed and hand-blown for the occasion. Slowly, the number of glasses multiples. Everyone forces themselves into polite restraint, while suppressing the urge to kill everyone else in the room to get the first glass. About a thousand years later, I finally have a glass in my hand. The beer is a deep, reddish brown. There's a faint but intriguing aroma that bears hints of honey, marzipan and caramel. I take my glass into a corner and contemplate it for a while without drinking it. I want everyone else to disappear, so it can be just the two of us. I photograph it. I stroke it. And, finally, I raise it to my lips.

To find out the rest...read the book!

Reinheitsgebot: Despite legends, the 1516 law primarily focused on pricing. And until the nineteenth century, only applied to Bavaria, only formally adopted throughout Germany in 1919, and... formally withdrawn in 1988. "Five hundred years my arse." Brown called it a sham. Preach it!

[Koen · Rating 3 out of 5]

Entertaining read, basically about the four ingredients of beer.

"All four of beer's basic ingredients are perfectly natural, but each one has been carefully modified, each subjected to a long history of scientific exploration."

Brown, longtime beer writer, starts off this book with his surprise about the collective ignorance about beer. Not among fellow beer geeks but the general public. For one of the most popular beverages in the world people generally know very little about it's ingredients and the way it's made. Hops is the answer most come up with when asked what beer is made of. What else or what hops actually are is often a bridge too far. More surprisingly perhaps, Brown, someone who'd been an advocate for better beer for years, at one point realized there was plenty he didn't yet know about the four ingredients that make up the brews he'd been writing about so much.

In this four part book he sets out to investigate the history and science behind barley, water, hops and yeast. For every ingredient there are plenty of stories to tell and Brown does that in an entertaining way with the, at times, typical humor of an Englishman.

For me, besides the flavors, one of the things i like most about beer are the stories. And there are so many going back hundreds of years. Beer has shaped society and has been an catalyst in scientific breakthrough. Brown puts to paper some of them and i've learned quite a few things along the way. The book is laid out so you can read it in one go but also to dip in for shorter stints.

"And after all the work that's gone into understanding each ingredient so far, if the scientists, the maltsters, farmers and hop growers, and of course the brewers who bring them all together, were to all get what they truly deserve for their efforts, and if the price of beer was an acurate reflection of its real worth, beer should be costing £10 a pint. As a drinker, i'm very glad it doesn't. But the fact that the most complex, varied, beautiful and difficult to make alcoholic beverage in the world is also usually its cheapest and most taken for granted, is something of a cosmic joke."

[Murray Slater · Rating 5 out of 5]

Pete has made me fall in love with beer all over again with this book. Being a professional beer judge and being a bit saturated with beer recently my love had waned. However this incredible well-woven account of beer's four ingredients which explores the microbiological, the history, the politics, the social economics and the absurd of beer. Beer truly is a miracle and if you don't believe me read this book. Read it with a good beer in hand and as you swallow each sip and read your appreciation for this great beverage will grow exponentially. Watch out for fruit flies.

[Måns Sunesson · Rating 3 out of 5]

The book kind of dumbs down the average beer drinker, assuming they don't know what's in their glass. Sure, it takes some jabs at the obsessed beer geeks as well. But I don't understand why it didn't just stay more neutral and don't assume so much about both drinkers and readers.

Apart from that complaint the book is quite good and charming, in a very British kind of way. I particularly like the stories about the author's own experiences.

Maybe it deserves a 4 star rating, but the complaints expressed above bothered me a bit too much.

[Kevin Louth · Rating 5 out of 5]

Another fantastic read from Pete Brown. Informative, accessible and funny throughout.

[Samuel · Rating 5 out of 5]

Over the course of the past 5 years, I have developed a veritable obsession with beer. I started making beer at home, as well as attending brewdays in actual breweries. I became involved in the craft beer scene in my neck of the woods (not the UK btw), actively promoting it through content as well as festivals and events. I have been devouring books and blogs talking about beer, how it's made, the different techniques and ingredients used, international trends and local case studies. My partner is a brewer, and together we have a craft beer bar. I love beer so much that even just reading about it makes me feel a bit emotional. To an extent, I live and breathe beer on a daily basis.

And yet, every single Pete Brown book I've ever read has stopped me dead in my tracks. Every book he's ever written has managed to put beer in a new and exciting light, opening new avenues of thought just when I was becoming a bit blasé with the industry. For all his dislike of sour beers, his books are like a glass of Gueuze, perky, refreshing and intriguing, rinsing a palate that's over-saturated with the same old flavours and beery discourse.

When I started reading Miracle Brew, I thought it was going to be something like Brewing Elements for dummies. And yet, this book is neither simple, nor is it simplistic. In fact, just when I thought I got everything to do with beer sussed, this book highlighted not just the fact that there was lots more I didn't know, but that there were new ways to look at and interpret what I already knew. And the reason for this is because Pete Brown, like myself, is madly passionate about beer. Each and every one of his books is a heartfelt love letter to beer, the people who make it, and the people who drink it. And it's this genuine enthusiasm that rubs off on you and fills you with excitement about this product, whether you're brewing, selling, writing about it, or even just engaging in the simple pleasure of having a pint.

I honestly recommend this book to everyone, whether you're new to beer, but especially if, like me, you already think you know everything there is to know about it.

[Kevin Burke · Rating 3 out of 5]

I don't actually like beer.

This may seem a strange book for someone who doesn't like beer to read. But the three previous Pete Brown books I've read - Man Walks Into a Pub, Three Sheets to the Wind and Shakespeare's Local - have all really been about drinking, particularly in a pub. I very much like drinking, particularly in a pub, and in that regard the three books were all informative, well-written, and very enjoyable.

Miracle Brew, though, is very specifically about beer. Brown considers each of beer's four ingredients in turn - barley, water, hops and yeast - and explores each in some detail, from their history to the effects each has on the taste of various beers to the difficulties of actually managing the ingredient on the farm and in the brewery. This leads to sentences such as "Hefeweizen has more body, and is immediately identifiable on the nose from its rich aromas of banoffee pie or bubblegum, seasoned with cloves", or "It's a friendly, no-nonsense hop, low in bitterness, and it gives beer a light spiciness.", and it creates a bit of a problem for me, who drinks cider precisely because it doesn't taste of banoffee pie or bubblegum, and isn't bitter.

Ultimately, I found my inability to associate with the core subject rather impacted on my rating of the book. For me, it's probably a 2½ - but that's not an option, so I'll round it up to 3 on the basis of "It's not you, it's me". There's no doubt it's well-researched and well-told, and if you happen to like beer - or better yet, are interested in beer - this is likely worth five stars.

In the meantime, I've added Brown's book on apples (with sections on cider) to my to-read list!

[Beth · Rating 4 out of 5]

Thanks to NetGalley for the ARC, provided by the author and/or the publisher in exchange for an honest review.

Miracle Brew is a fantastic, fascinating look at the four seemingly-simple ingredients that go into every beer: barley, yeast, water and hops. Rather than a how-to for brewing or a guidebook for best beers, this book tells you the backstory - WHY humans have made and drank beer for thousands of years, and WHY we love it.

Though Brown could've gone full nerd and gotten too into the weeds to make this book accessible to anyone but the snobbiest or scientist-iest of beer lovers, he thankfully doesn't - his humorous style and interesting anecdotes (traveling to a secret farm to harvest the "Mother Field" of a prized type of barley; sneaking tastes of the most famous IPA brewing water in history) combine with the more complex topics (the scientific process behind malting; the various theories on the historical origins and discovery of brewing) to make for a thoroughly compulsive read. Beer enthusiasts will love this book; beer skeptics just might change their minds after reading it.

The only thing I would've added is photographs - I would've loved to see Warminster's malting floors, Schlenkerla pub, Budvar's "baby water" wells, and the utterly nutty-sounding Chmelfest in Zatec.

[Judith Kimsey · Rating 4 out of 5]

"American hops are widescreen and loud, occasionally brash and overbearing, but always exciting. ... By contrast, European hops are more reserved. Central European Noble Hops are elegant and refined, while English ale hops such as Fuggles and Goldings are earthy and rustic..." (pg. 132-133)

If you find the above quote interesting, you will like this book. Part travel journal (which I love), part history, and part science book, Miracle Brew lifts the lid on beer barrels around the world to show us how much they are alike, and how they differ. Now I want to take the book into the nearest brewery (which is about a mile away) and ask the brewer questions for which I won't quite understand the answers.

That's why I gave it four stars. Sometimes the science stretched over my head despite Brown's best efforts to keep it readable and friendly. Still, if you love beer or you love a good set of stories (or both!), this one's worth your time.

[Cassandra · Rating 4 out of 5]

I really enjoy a good craft beer and enjoy having conversations about the beer when I am at a brewery. I have learned a lot about beers and brewing over the years, but I wanted to learn more. I hate asking too many questions. This book is divided into six sections with numerous chapters in each section. Those sections are The Nature of Beer, Barley, Water, Hops, Yeast, and Reinheitsgebot. Each of these sections is broken into various topic related chapters. While I looked to read this book to help me understand the process and history of beer, I found it a somewhat humorous read and enjoyed it more than I anticipated. There is some adult language in this books, but then it is a book about beer which should only be consumed by adults. Thank you, Mr. Brown, for an informative and humorous read on beer!

[Fhsanders54 · Rating 4 out of 5]

Also known as "Adventures in the Nature of Beer" Pete Brown, the award-winning food and drink writer travels Europe and America exploring each of the main components of beer i.e. malt, hops, yeast and water. He visits farms, laboratories, breweries and festivals speaking to a wide range of experts across the field. This results in a well-researched and fascinating exploration into the nature of the ingredients as well as providing excellent anecdotes, stories and occasional farce or tragedy. Trips to the Kent Hop farms and Belgian wild yeast cultivators are particularly interesting, and everyone will learn something new about what the may have regarded as straight- forward and unvaried ingredients. Nothing could be less true!

[Charles Walker · Rating 4 out of 5]

Very, very entertaining. Not to overdo the comparison, but like a good brew, this tale is one that you can either take in quickly, just enjoying the ride, or you can dip in and out of slowly, savoring its components. Brown has a dry, jokey sense of humor (British Dad jokes is the best descriptor I can muster), and the individual chapters seem almost incidental at times, but as someone who seriously thinks about and reads about beer on an almost daily basis, I was still surprised a few dozen times into rethinking my preconceptions about beer. I believe that was more or less the goal here (and the basic effect he achieved in writing it), so mission mightily accomplished.

[Simon · Rating 5 out of 5]

Sponsored through www.unbound.com as a crowd-funded publication this is a fascinating and wide-ranging tour through the ingredients of beer in its many forms.

I've taken a shine to Pete Brown's writing after reading three of his earlier books but this is in quite a different league, frankly, in its coverage and scope.

Written in Pete's usual friendly, chatty and conversational style, it covers not only the ingredients of beer but also a lot of the history and developments in brewing and brewer's understanding of those ingredients. An excellent and absorbing read for all sensible people for whom beer is important as a drink.

Cheers Pete!!! Good job, mate!!!!

[Smh624 · Rating 5 out of 5]

I've read a lot of books about beer. Miracle Brew is one of the best. A pleasure to read, very informative, and not pretentious (in fact, anti-the pretension of many craft beer aficionados.) The author is very successful at explaining smells, flavors and textures of beer as it is affected by the four main ingredients in a way that truly brings it to life. The ending has a surprise poignant moment. I will read more of Pete Brown's writing.

[Michael Travis · Rating 4 out of 5]

With this book you take a journey with Pete Brown, as in his other books, on a beer filled adventure. All the ingredients are exhaustively discussed with colorful stories tied to each. A nice read for those that are casual beer drinkers or serious craft beer geeks that enjoy the history and makings of this treasured drink!

[Vanessa · Rating 5 out of 5]

Best breakdown and storytelling of all ingredients that collaborate to bring you beer. Hops and grain were the sexiest chapters, but all contribute to one of the best beer books I've ever read. Passing Beer-Sommelier test was a little easier after casually reading this book (plus a ton of study, memorization, and tasting). Definitely would recommend for the casual beer enthusiast as well!

[Peter Hall · Rating 5 out of 5]

Hugely informative and an entertaining read. A must for all beer devotees.

[Jack · Rating 4 out of 5]

A very interesting exploration of beer and beer ingredients with some travelogue thrown in for good measure.

[Lesley Arrowsmith · Rating 4 out of 5]

I always enjoy Pete Brown's writing - and I know a lot more about what goes into beer now!

[Peter Olding · Rating 5 out of 5]

Really good read. Packed with information about the four ingredients that make up one of the worlds most popular drinks, beer.

[Maurice Cartan · Rating 5 out of 5]

Insightful and entertaining book on all the elements of beer . The only problem is that you'll want to visit all the places he visits.

[Cornelia · Rating 5 out of 5]

Outstanding tome on beer. Well written with humour!

[Annie · Rating 4 out of 5]

Have you ever had a conversation with someone (at a party etc) who is passionately fond of and knowledgeable about a subject? Those people I've met who are really really REALLY into something, a hobby, a passionate study of a particular subject, even the most obscure things, generally enjoy talking about them.

One of two things happen, after 20 minutes or so, you're willing to fake a heart attack to get away from them or you're suddenly catching the fever and find yourself signing up for a beginner beekeeping/water gardening/butterfly collecting/14th century Danish textile history class and thinking, 'Ok, this sounds really cool'!

This is the latter. As a member of the Society for Creative Anachronism, I have brewed beer (and mead and wine etc). I'm a beekeeper, I'm a fanatical gardener, but apart from my relatively hit-or-miss forays into beer brewing, I hadn't really thought about the magical process itself or why the things which happen, happen. Even as a hobby historian, I hadn't really thought about the complex and fascinating history of beer and brewing. I (like most) had heard the oft-told apocryphal Egyptian 'accidental brewing' story (i.e., grain got wet, dried out, got wet again and someone hungry said 'I'm gonna eat/drink it anyhow, can't afford to let it go to waste' and got drunk, then sat and thought, 'That was great, I'm gonna do that on purpose from now on'!).

Pete Brown logically dissects and debunks that story and many others about how and when humans settled down into more or less stable groups (malting for brewing could be one reason we did settle into more agrarian settlements). His writing style is wonderfully accessible and humorous (but not in the slightest precious or overly cute). He writes WELL about a subject on which he displays a stunning depth of knowledge. Additionally he backs it up with extensive research and references and does it in a way which isn't dry or boring at all. His descriptive powers concerning such relatively mundane acts as swallowing the first mouthful of beer on a hot day are amazing.

I really enjoyed this book very much.

The book is set up in sections, Barley, Water, Hops, and Yeast comprise the majority of the book. The last section is more narrative and discusses the cultural implications of beer, specifically the Reinheitsgebot, a 500(ish) year old law passed (some say it was the first and oldest food standards legislation in human history) in Bavaria to insure that beer was only made from its 3 principal ingredients (hops, barley, water - and later when we figured out what yeast is, included that as well).
This section of the book is really very funny and discusses amongst other things, the way beer fanatics discuss beer between themselves, beer tourism and beer-bonding.

The best takeaway line in the book:

Keep calm and have another beer.

I think I will, thanks! :)

Four stars

Disclosure: I received an ARC at no cost from the author/publisher.

[Ryan · Rating 4 out of 5]

A super fun look into the science and history of brewing. I enjoyed getting all the background information . I am a home brewer and have read a bunch of books specifically about beer. Yet I still found things in here that were informative.

But more than that, it was simply fun and easy to read.