{"schema_version":"bf_book_companion_v1","release_id":"20261010T034321Z-reviewed-full-unique-works","book":{"amazon_purchase_url":"https://www.amazon.com/dp/1335230831?tag=bookfrontie00-20","asin":"1335230831","authors":["Jonny Garrett"],"book_id":"9781335230836","canonical_url":"https://bookfrontier.com/books/the-meaning-of-beer-9781335230836","cover_image_url":"https://img.bookfrontier.com/9781335230836.jpg?v=d693a9ef9e4f6a1f","description":"Jonny Garrett, cofounder of the YouTube sensation Craft Beer Channel, travels in search of the deeper cultural impact of brewing—how it has become one of the world’s most important inventions and shaped our lives for millennia. What’s the oldest and most consumed alcoholic beverage on earth? Beer, of course. And it might just be one of our more important inventions. Since its creation thirteen thousand years ago, our love of beer has shaped everything from religious ceremonies to advertising, and architecture to bioengineering. The people who built the pyramids were paid in ale; the first fridge was built for beer, not food; bacteria was discovered while investigating sour beer; Germany’s beer halls hosted Hitler’s rise to power; and brewer’s yeast may yet be the answer to climate change. In The Meaning of Beer, award-winning beer writer Jonny Garrett tells the stories of these incredible human moments and inventions, taking readers to some of the best-known beer destinations in the world—Munich and Oktoberfest, Carlsberg Brewery’s historic laboratory, St. Louis and the home of Budweiser—as well as those lesser known, from a five-thousand-year-old brewery in the Egyptian desert to Arctic Svalbard, home to the world’s most northerly pub. Ultimately, this is not a book about how we made beer, but how beer made us.","forthcoming":false,"isbn13":"9781335230836","publication_date":"20241126","publisher":"Hanover Square Press","slug":"the-meaning-of-beer","subtitle":"How Our Pursuit of the Perfect Pint Built the World","title":"The Meaning of Beer"},"discovery":{"categories":{"all":[{"bisac_code":"TEC012040","confidence_band":"high","label":"Food Types & Ingredients","score":0.8846,"source":"bisac_hint_model"},{"bisac_code":"BUS070120","confidence_band":"medium","label":"The Food Business","score":0.7038,"source":"bisac_hint_model"},{"bisac_code":"CKB002020","confidence_band":"medium","label":"Mid-Atlantic Cooking","score":0.6955,"source":"bisac_hint_model"}],"hint":[{"bisac_code":"TEC012040","confidence_band":"high","label":"Food Types & Ingredients","score":0.8846,"source":"bisac_hint_model"},{"bisac_code":"BUS070120","confidence_band":"medium","label":"The Food Business","score":0.7038,"source":"bisac_hint_model"},{"bisac_code":"CKB002020","confidence_band":"medium","label":"Mid-Atlantic Cooking","score":0.6955,"source":"bisac_hint_model"}],"publisher":[{"bisac_code":"CKB007000","confidence_band":"high","label":"Beer","score":1,"source":"onix_publisher_code"},{"bisac_code":"CKB041000","confidence_band":"high","label":"Food Through History","score":1,"source":"onix_publisher_code"},{"bisac_code":"CKB100000","confidence_band":"high","label":"Drinks & Cocktails","score":1,"source":"onix_publisher_code"},{"bisac_code":"HIS039000","confidence_band":"high","label":"Civilizations","score":1,"source":"onix_publisher_code"},{"bisac_code":"HIS054000","confidence_band":"high","label":"Social History","score":1,"source":"onix_publisher_code"},{"bisac_code":"SOC002010","confidence_band":"high","label":"How Cultures Work","score":1,"source":"onix_publisher_code"},{"bisac_code":"SOC005000","confidence_band":"high","label":"Customs & Traditions","score":1,"source":"onix_publisher_code"},{"bisac_code":"TEC012040","confidence_band":"high","label":"Food Types & Ingredients","score":1,"source":"onix_publisher_code"}]},"genres":[{"label":"Food Types & Ingredients","score":0.8846,"slug":"food-types-ingredients"},{"label":"The Food Business","score":0.7038,"slug":"the-food-business"},{"label":"Mid-Atlantic Cooking","score":0.6955,"slug":"mid-atlantic-cooking"}],"reader_fit":["For readers interested in beer’s cultural impact across history","For readers curious about brewing’s links to human inventions"],"related_lists":[],"series":null,"similar_books":[{"authors":["Dane Huckelbridge"],"book_id":"9780062389756","cover_image_url":"https://img.bookfrontier.com/9780062389756.jpg?v=c2d41213def135a2","score":0.7791,"title":"The United States of Beer","url":"https://bookfrontier.com/books/9780062389756"},{"authors":["Anne Kelk Mager"],"book_id":"9780253221803","cover_image_url":"https://img.bookfrontier.com/9780253221803.jpg?v=d8578d8bef1affdf","score":0.6986,"title":"Beer, Sociability, and Masculinity in South Africa","url":"https://bookfrontier.com/books/9780253221803"},{"authors":["Mark Pendergrast"],"book_id":"9781541606012","cover_image_url":"https://img.bookfrontier.com/9781541606012.jpg?v=d1970a884e3b8758","score":0.6228,"title":"For God, Country, and Coca-cola","url":"https://bookfrontier.com/books/9781541606012"}],"topics":[{"evidence_refs":["keyword:beer bible"],"label":"Bible","score":0.1217,"slug":"bible"},{"evidence_refs":["keyword:travel"],"label":"Travel","score":0.0878,"slug":"travel"},{"evidence_refs":["keyword:beer cookbook"],"label":"Cookbook","score":0.0529,"slug":"cookbook"},{"evidence_refs":["keyword:culture"],"label":"Culture","score":0.0449,"slug":"culture"},{"evidence_refs":["keyword:beer lover"],"label":"Lover","score":0.0271,"slug":"lover"}],"what_you_get":["Themes: Beer and cultural history, Brewing and human invention, Beer’s influence on society.","Themes: Bible, Travel, Cookbook.","Reading lane: Food Types & Ingredients and The Food Business."]},"llm_signals":{"confidence":0.91,"pacing":"unknown","reader_fit":["For readers interested in beer’s cultural impact across history","For readers curious about brewing’s links to human inventions"],"themes":["Beer and cultural history","Brewing and human invention","Beer’s influence on society"],"tropes":[]},"source_presence":{"amazon":true,"book_detail":true,"goodreads":true,"llm_signals":true,"similarity_seed":true},"stats":{"amazon_ratings_count":150,"goodreads_ratings_count":263,"goodreads_reviews_count":42,"quality_score":0.9028}}