Book Review: A History of the World in 6 Glasses

As promised, I'm going to review not only the brews themselves but useful items to help with the enjoyment and enrichment of your brews.  Starting off with another old favorite of mine, A History of the World in 6 Glasses by Tom Standage.  While beer is only one of those six beverages, it is nice to explore the history of beer and how it relates to the rest of history.

Beer is literally the beverage that saved the world and caused us to become civilized people.  Beer is what fueled the building of cities and monuments, and brought us together as a civilization.  While Standage only delves into the very beginning of the rich and lengthy history of beer, he does provide a concise and notable review of the proposed timeline of the discovery of beer and brewing, proposing that beer provided the foundation of modern society and set the stage for us to grow and develop as a human species.

For all that beer has a long and detailed history, Standage spends very little time (just two chapters) discussing it.  That being said, the book itself is an excellent view of history from stone age to modern era based on some of the most important things we produce and consume.

I'd recommend this to the budding beer or wine enthusiast, as well as the curious historian.  You may not learn much about the history of beer any further than the time of early peoples and the very roots of beer's being, but Standage offers an excellent short history and insightful angles on our history as a people that are well worth exploring.