Liam McKenna - October 22, 2018

Beer: A Journey From Then to Us

Beer has played a very important role in the technological basis of civilization. Beer is liquid bread. Beer is one of those ever-present accessible cross-cultural artifacts the basis of which has existed relatively unchanged since prehistory. Things like the cup, a cutting edge, clothing, and the sewing needle. It runs a seamless thread down through our history, right to the beginning of our civilization.

The need for the ever greater production of beer has stimulated various revolutionary thought in human history, the Neolithic revolution, the industrial revolution, medical bacteriology, the advent of mechanical refrigeration, architecture, mathematics, language, religion and politics. Its history is one of human culture and human technology.

In this talk, we will examine the components of beer and discuss beer as food. We will look at the evolution of technologies associated with brewing, how and why they came to be and the follow on implications for the development of our civilization.

* Seminar to be held in room ED2018B, 1:00-1:50p.m.