Drinks

Daft Punk, coopers, and kettles. A quick romp through Medieval brewing technology

Gangsters, alewives, hipsters, and money. Welcome to the economics of Medieval beer production.

In medieval Europe, beer wasn’t a luxury — it was nutrition, hydration, and social currency all at once. Liquid bread, and why that nickname is more accurate than it sounds.

From monastery to marketplace — how medieval Europe’s brewing industry tracked the rise of urbanisation, commerce, and early capitalism. Beer wasn’t just a drink; it was an economic force.

Germany’s reputation for beer didn’t emerge from nowhere. The Germanic peoples were brewing long before the purity laws — and the archaeological evidence is as rich as the beer.

The Celts didn’t just drink beer — they built a culture around it. Iron Age Europe’s most archaeologically rich brewing tradition, and what it tells us about how they lived.

Wine may have claimed the prestige, but beer shaped Greek and Roman society long before the amphora arrived. A story of class, culture, and fermented barley.

Few drinks have shaped human history as profoundly as beer. Its rise to near-universal presence was neither accidental nor inevitable.