Beer Terroir

BEER TERROIR explores how applying the concept of terroir ( a term typically used in reference to wine) to beer can help further our understanding not only of the beverage but also of the social and economic factors affecting those who first began to brew, drink, brand and market it in a region now famous for its beer culture and its spectacular and challenging terrain.

It covers the main aspects of terroir—ingredients, soils, landscapes, history, culture—and shows that approaching beer history conceptually rather than strictly stylistically, by brand, or by region, opens up new avenues of research and illumination.

The book focuses on the Rocky Mountains, takes a deep dive into the settlement of the region, and explores a number of questions. How did the human, organic, geographical, and economic landscape of the Rocky Mountains impact beer production and the notion of terroir? Was there always a shared sense of the importance of terroir between disparate parts of the Rockies? Did different regions believe their beer to vary from other mountainous regions? What evidence is there that the beer brewed in this region is indeed palpably different from other places in the US?

Each chapter looks at a particular aspect of beer terroir in the Rocky Mountain region while charting the emergence of its application to beer up to and during the Pre-Prohibition period. This was a time when many brewers were restricted to using local ingredients with the exception of hops which had to be imported. It was also the beginning of a local beer culture which now attracts a global following.

Beer Terroir is aimed at those interested in the history of American beer and brewing as well as in the culture and history of foodways.