The Brewer's Tale Quotes

“Brewing these beers, meeting these brewers, didn't just transport me to a former time; it bonded me to it. At first, when I looked at that long list of taps, I saw divisions: the hop head, the sour snob, the Coors-swigging frat boy. All those flavors felt like lines in the sand. How bitter can you handle? How strong is too strong? But tracing beer back to its sources simplified it for me. Beer transforms--grain to sugar, sugar to alcohol, raw to cooked, sober to enlightened, man to maker--and, as it transforms, it connects. It connects us to where we live and what grows there, it connects our present to our past, and it connects us to one another. Brewing made us human--we drink therefore we are. This isn't just my story, or beer's story, it's the story of us. This is the world according to beer, a brewer's history of civilization.”
― William Bostwick, The Brewer's Tale: A History of the World According to Beer

“A guy walks into a bar. It's the oldest setup there is. But what happens next?
I was at my local pub contemplating a water-ringed beer list, a wall of tap handles, and a packed fridge. I saw a pale ale brewed 20 million gallons at a time and a triple IPA made in a jerry-rigged turkey frier in a garage down the street. I saw a traditional, light-bodied British porter and an extra-strong, cacao-infused imperial stout stored in bourbon barrels. One beer was brewed with hours-old hops, freshly plucked in an Oregon field; another had been aged for eighteen months with acidic bacteria--critters more common in vinegar and pickle brines. There were pilsners and ambers, red ales and browns, wheat beers and rye beers and spelt beers; there were three-dollar happy hour specials and thirty-dollar vintage bottles, corked and foil-wrapped like fine Champagne. Bitter or sweet, smooth or strong, fruity or dry, dark or light, it was all there, in dizzying glory. So--the bartender tapped his fingers--what'll it be?”
― william bostwick, The Brewer's Tale: A History of the World According to Beer

“The story starts with the merging of two heritages, Christian and pagan, as monks reclaimed beer from the shaman, codifying his belief system and marrying it to their own. Early”
― William Bostwick, The Brewer's Tale: A History of the World According to Beer