HOPPED UP

A lively history of beer and brewing traditions as globally connected commodities created through borrowing and exchange from precapitalist times to the present Virtually every country has a bestselling or iconic national beer brand from Budweiser in the United States and Corona in Mexico to Tsingtao in China and Heineken in Holland Yet with the sole exception of Ireland s Guinness every label represents the same style light crisp clear Pilsner lager The global spread of lager can be told as a story of Western cultural imperialism a European product travels through merchants migrants and imperialists to upend local patterns and transform faraway consumers tastes But this modern beer is just as much a product of globalization invented and reinvented around the world While distinctive craft beers such as London Porter India Pale Ale and Belgian sour ales have been revived by aficionados over the past half century they too have globalized through the same circuits of trade migration and knowledge that carried lager Here eminent food historian Jeffrey M Pilcher narrates the brewing traditions and contemporary production of beer across Europe North America Africa Asia and Latin America from the fermented beverages of precapitalist societies to t