Profs & Pints Alameda: How Beer Shaped Civilization

Profs and Pints Alameda presents: “How Beer Shaped Civilization,” a look at beer brewing’s evolution and influence on the world from prehistory to the present, with Jonathan Hughes, brewing microbiology expert and former director of food and agricultural programs at UC Davis Continuing and Professional Education.

Take in the long view of those suds in your glass by coming to Faction Brewing for a talk on how beer brewing has changed over human history and impacted the world around you.

Your guide on this amazing scholarly journey will be Jonathan Hughes, who has taught brewing and related microbiology at the University of California Davis and Sacramento State University, served as director of brewing and sensory science for UC Davis’s continuing education arm, and overseen quality control at Heretic Brewing.

We’ll travel back in time more than 10,000 years to look at how malting and brewing may have gotten started and how it almost certainly spurred the development of modern agriculture.

From there we’ll look at how the introduction of hops into beer upended the European economy, at how unique water profiles around the world led to specific beer styles, and at the origins of ale and lager.

Finally, we’ll look at how beer and brewing gave rise to a host of inventions and far-reaching scientific discoveries.

You’ll emerge glad to have had a chance to drink in such knowledge. (Tickets available only online. Advance tickets: $13.50 plus processing fees. Doors: $17, or $15 with a student ID. Listed time is for doors. The talk starts 30 minutes later.)

Image: Part of an ancient Egyptian painting from about 1300 BCE that depicts a Syrian mercenary drinking beer through a straw (Egyptian Museum of Berlin / Wikipedia).