History of the Week

Alcohol History Links April 21 - 28

My apologies for missing the past few weeks! Anyway, lets jump right back into it with some history links:

​Wine and Cheese Pairings

A look into early wine and cheese pairings. 

"With hundreds of attendees, the Wine and Food Society’s wine and cheese tastings had become sophisticated affairs. I’d think tickets were sold to the public. It seems unlikely, although possible, that the Society counted that many members at the time. Perhaps a current analogy is the whiskey festivals which occur regularly in large Western cities."
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Greek Barley

Your BCS translation for the week! This time, one of the earliest references to barley and wheat by the Greeks.
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A Knuckle Sandwich

A study on working-class life in 70's era Britain, featuring the Black Horse pub.

"​Over the course of the book we learn that the downstairs of The Black Horse was converted into a disco but then, with rumours of sex and drug use among the teenagers, tensions arose and the estate elders withdrew their support. The pub was then systematically wrecked and then burned down in what the authors describe as a ‘professional job’."
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Pop Culture Conference

The Pop Culture Conference 2017 was recently held, and they have decided to hold another session on Beer Culture. The folks over at OHBA have done a fantastic job summarizing the different talks that were held, so it's a bit hard to pin down which session to link to, so be sure to check it all out!
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Grenell Berliner Weisse 

A recipe to brew Berliner Weisse according to Grenell.
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Brewing in Mesopotamia

A great summary on brewing in Mesopotamia.

"As in many (perhaps most) other societies, both past and present, beer occupied an ambiguous position in the Mesopotamian social world. It was consumed and enjoyed by many people on a regular basis, but there was also a fine line between enjoyment and overindulgence, between acceptable and unacceptable levels of inebriation. The tavern, in particular, provided a distinct space within which this line (and others) could be crossed. The very existence of this conflicted stance toward beer and its potential effects provides some indication of the power of beer and its unique capacity to transform individual people, groups of people, places, and occasions."

Brewing in Ancient China

Same as above, but replace Mesopotamia with China.