THE PRIZE-WINNING BOOK EVERY BEER-LOVER MUST READ

'Tantalising, enlightening and the best reason to raise another glass of beer' Olly Smith

'This is one of the most important books ever written about beer' Mark Dredge

WINNER, BEST DRINK BOOK AT THE FORTNUM & MASON FOOD AND DRINK AWARDS 2025

What's the oldest and most consumed alcoholic beverage on earth? BEER, of course. And it might just be our most important invention.

Since its creation 13,000 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 5,000 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.

Garrett shares his huge knowledge about beer and its history with joyful enthusiasm and wit. This book will make you laugh, it will make you smarter and it will make you want to drink more beer. * Ned Palmer, bestselling author of A Cheesemonger's History of the British Isles *
Annoyingly good. Jonny Garrett succeeds in doing what all good beer writers should: taking a subject that can seem geeky at times and making it compelling to the general reader. * Pete Brown, bestselling author of Man Walks into a Pub *
As fascinating as it is funny, The Meaning of Beer is full of revelations about beer's vital role in the world. * Robbie Knox, presenter of JaackMaate Podcast & Soccer AM *
Jonny Garrett takes us on a historical, cultural and blissfully hoppy romp through the story of beer. Both sobering and intoxicating, it is far more than a paean to the pie-eyed and is broad enough to travel from Temple Bar to the Thirty Years War. Glass half full. * Rick Broadbent, bestselling author of That Near-Death Thing and Now Then: The Story of Yorkshire and its People *
This is one of the most important books ever written about beer * Mark Dredge, TV presenter and author of A Brief History of Lager *
Tantalising, enlightening and the best reason to raise another glass of beer. * Olly Smith, award winning wine expert, columnist and author *

Jonny Garrett is a multi-award-winning journalist, author and filmmaker. He's best known as the founder of Youtube's Craft Beer Channel, which has over 160,000 subscribers and 13 million views.

He has written four books and his most recent one, A Year in Beer (CAMRA Books, 2021), won the Fortnum & Mason Drinks Book of the Year, British Guild of Food Writers Drinks Book of the Year and British Guild of Beer Writers Book of the Year. He was also voted British Beer Writer of the Year in 2019 and 2022.