Beer and Brewing in Medieval Culture and Contemporary Medievalism is a cross-cultural analysis of the role that alcohol consumption played in literature, social and cultural history, and gender roles in the Middle Ages. The volume also seeks to correct or offer new insights into historical beer production. By drawing on the expertise of scholars of history, archaeology, Old and Middle English, Old Norse, and Medieval and Early Modern literature, the book shows how historical medieval beer and brewing has influenced nostalgic post-medieval nationalism and romanticized visions of the medieval ale-house seen in beer marketing today. The essays describe alcohol consumption in the Middle Ages across much of Northern Europe, engage with the various myths employed in modern craft beer advertising and beer production, and examine how gender intersects with beer production and consumption. The editors also raise certain critical questions about medievalisms which need to be interrogated, particularly in light of the continued use of the Middle Ages for white supremacist and colonialist ideals. The volume contributes to the study of the popular and historical understandings of the Middle Ages as well the issues of race and gender.

The beer of today—brewed from malted grain and hops, manufactured by large and often multinational corporations, frequently associated with young adults, sports, and drunkenness—is largely the result of scientific and industrial developments of the nineteenth century. Modern beer, however, has little in common with the drink that carried that name through the Middle Ages and Renaissance. Looking at a time when beer was often a nutritional necessity, was sometimes used as medicine, could be flavored with everything from the bark of fir trees to thyme and fresh eggs, and was consumed by men, women, and children alike, Beer in the Middle Ages and the Renaissance presents an extraordinarily detailed history of the business, art, and governance of brewing. During the medieval and early modern periods beer was as much a daily necessity as a source of inebriation and amusement. It was the beverage of choice of urban populations that lacked access to secure sources of potable water; a commodity of economic as well as social importance; a safe drink for daily consumption that was less expensive than wine; and a major source of tax revenue for the state. In Beer in the Middle Ages and the Renaissance, Richard W. Unger has written an encompassing study of beer as both a product and an economic force in Europe. Drawing from archives in the Low Countries and England to assemble an impressively complete history, Unger describes the transformation of the industry from small-scale production that was a basic part of housewifery to a highly regulated commercial enterprise dominated by the wealthy and overseen by government authorities. Looking at the intersecting technological, economic, cultural, and political changes that influenced the transformation of brewing over centuries, he traces how improvements in technology and in the distribution of information combined to standardize quality, showing how the process of urbanization created the concentrated markets essential for commercial production. Weaving together the stories of prosperous businessmen, skilled brewmasters, and small producers, this impressively researched overview of the social and cultural practices that surrounded the beer industry is rich in implication for the history of the period as a whole.

In recent years craft beer marketing has increasingly evoked the medieval past in orderto appeal to our collective sense of a lost community. This book discusses thedesire for the local, the non-corporate, and the pre-modern in the discourse ofcraft brewing, forming a strong counter-cultural narrative. However, suchdiscourses also reinforce colonial histories of purity and conquest whileeffacing indigenous voices. This book reveals that craft beer is therefore muchmore than a delicious adult beverage; its marketing reveals a cultural desirefor a past that has disappeared in a world that privileges the present.

An exploration across thirteen essays by critics, translators and creative writers on the modern-day afterlives of Old English, delving into how it has been transplanted and recreated in the twentieth and twenty-first centuries.

An introduction to medievalism offering a balance of accessibility and sophistication, with comprehensive overviews as well as detailed case studies.

This rigorously researched deep dive into the history of craft beer in Vancouver makes an exciting addition to books on the city’s history, certain to appeal to beer-lovers and history buffs alike. Few would dispute that these days Vancouver is a prime craft beer destination, with over 70 breweries in the greater Vancouver area and 35+ in Vancouver proper. Beer has shaped the city’s culture, and in turn, Vancouver’s idiosyncratic identity has also shaped its craft beer. But how did it all begin? In this rigorously researched deep dive into the history of craft beer in Vancouver, beer historian and enthusiast Noëlle Phillips follows independent brewing from the city’s inception in 1886 to the onset of prohibition in 1917 and, hopping over the “big beer” period of 1920–1980, delves into the explosion of micro, small-batch and craft breweries that dot the city’s neighbourhoods today. She traces the smaller, lesser-known breweries, brewers, and owners through archival materials, newspaper accounts, and personal interviews. Along the way she uncovers stories and details that have been largely unknown even to local beer writers and aficionados. Illustrated with photos, original newspaper clippings, and maps, with stops into basement archives and sunlit tap rooms, Brewmasters and Brewery Creek is an inviting and exciting addition to books on the city’s history that will appeal to beer-lovers and history buffs alike.