The meaning of beer

Since its invention 13,000 years ago, our love of beer has shaped everything from religious ceremonies to advertising, and architecture to bioengineering. The people who built the pyramids were paid in ale, the first fridge was built for beer not food, bacteria was discovered while investigating sour beer, Germany's beer halls hosted Hitler's rise to power, and brewer's yeast may yet be the answer to climate change. In this book, Jonny Garrett tells the stories of these incredible human moments and inventions, taking readers to some of the best-known beer destinations in the world - Munich and Oktoberfest, Carlsberg Brewery's historic laboratory, St Louis and the home of Budweiser - as well as those lesser-known, from a 5,000 year old brewery in the Egyptian desert to Arctic Svalbard, home to the world's most northerly pub.