This book will guide you around Belgium's breweries, large and small. Wherever you travel on Belgian roads, you will come across brewers. Often invisible - lurking behind abbey walls, or tucked away in castles, barns, stables, cafes, garages, kitchens or sheds - brewers are making beer in kettles, basins, tanks, and whatever else they have to hand! In large breweries you will find the brewers in the control room, the 'cockpit' of the enterprise. Entire dynasties are built around the industry; they are proud of their brewing traditions, which go back as many as fifteen generations. Meanwhile, at the other end of the spectrum, starters are cobbling together their own equipment or buying basic brewing kits. They are often acquainted with an experienced colleague, who is only too happy to lend a helping hand and share wisdom and experience. It is up to you whether or not you approve of their beers. Are you voting for weak, strong, pale, fruity, zesty, spicy, mild, sour, bitter or sweet? For accessible or layered, for a warming beer or a thirst-quencher, a degustation beer or a quaffable one? Tasting is the message. This book taps the keg, encouraging you to weigh up all the options and make your choice.

In this new book, the first of its kind, award-winning British-Asian journalist and beer writer David Jesudason travels the length and breadth of the country, visiting over 200 'desi pubs' run by British-Indian landlords who have stamped their unique identity on a beloved institution and helped to challenge our preconceptions of the pub customer: from rowdy cricket fans to vibrant bhangra nights via football supporters enjoying pre-match mixed grills and beers. Desi Pubs will take you on a journey to parts of Britain that are seldom visited. This is a celebration of 2023 Britain and the forgotten people who created our modern multicultural country.

From prompting a transition from hunter-gatherer to an agrarian lifestyle in ancient Mesopotamia to bankrolling Britain's imperialist conquests, strategic taxation and the regulation of beer has played a pivotal role throughout history. Beeronomics: How Beer Explains the World tells these stories, and many others, whilst also exploring the key innovations that propelled the industrialization and consolidation of the beer market. At the same time when mega-mergers in the brewing industry are creating huge transnationals selling their beer across the globe, the craft beer movement in America and Europe has brought the rich history of ancient brewing techniques to the forefront in recent years. But less talked about is the economic influence of this beverage on the world and the myriad ways it has shaped the course of history. Beeronomics covers world history through the lens of beer, exploring the common role that beer taxation has played throughout and providing context for recognizable brands and consumer trends and tastes. Beeronomics examines key developments that have moved the brewing industry forward. Its most ubiquitous ingredient, hops, was used by the Hanseatic League to establish the export dominance of Hamburg and Bremen in the sixteenth century. During the late nineteenth century, bottom-fermentation led to the spread of industrial lager beer. Industrial innovations in bottling, refrigeration, and TV advertising paved the way for the consolidation and market dominance of major macrobreweries like Anheuser Busch in America and Artois Brewery in Belgium during the twentieth century. We're now in the era of global integration- one multinational AB InBev, claims 46% of all beer profits- but there's a counterrevolution afoot of small, independent craft breweries in both America, Belgium and around the world. Beeronomics surveys these trends, giving context to why you see which brands and styles on shelves at your local supermarket or on tap at the nearby pub.