You’re Invited: My Free Talk on America’s Beer Culture

Free Talk: “The American journey, from German lagers to citra-hopped IPAs”
Date: Thursday, Feb 26
Time: 10a Pacific | 1p Eastern | 6p GMT | 7p CET
Click here to register (free)

For years now, many people who read this blog have heard me argue that beer is an expression of culture, like cuisine, and the way people in a region make it and drink it reflects their unique preferences and circumstances. In countries with robust beer culture, this means local ingredients, native beer types, and brewing process unique to place. You’ve also heard me argue that we are very, very lucky to live in this era, because we’ve had the fortune to witness the first native beer culture emerge since the 1840s.

This Thursday, I will tell that story, for free!, and you are cordially invited to attend.

In this talk, I’ll actually be reaching back well before the craft beer era to the 19th century, when German immigrants turned a whiskey country into a beer country—or at least gave the whiskey industry something to think about. This early history is important because our lager-brewing background, the crisis of Prohibition, and the consolidation that followed all created the preconditions for the craft era that dawned in the late 1970s.

Mass market lagers are ubiquitous worldwide, but they are in many ways a North American invention. And, like most places, those lagers still form a very important part of American drinking culture. But the newer tradition of craft beer, expressed especially in the hoppy ales American brewers invented, has become firmly rooted in the near half-century since its launch.

In this series, which also includes lectures about Belgium, Czechia, Germany, and the UK, we were asked to discuss three styles as we told this story. You have no doubt sussed out my first two, but what will be my third? It’s another American original, something only possible in the craft era, but I’m not going to show my hand. You have to tune in to find out!

These things have been well-attended and I’m told we have hundreds signed up already. I expect a fun time, and I’ll definitely save time for questions, if you’d like to put me through my paces as usual. Join us!