Man Walks Into A Pub: A Sociable History of Beer

A sparkling, premium strength history of beer, served with irreverence and wit by an industry insider.Told in a witty and popular style, this unique take on an amazing and amusing subject is stuffed full of remarkable tales and facts with which to astound your mates down the pub. It's a sozzled tale of fungi, yeast obsessed monks, an Egyptian Goddess, a bear in yellow nylon , and a Canadian bloke who changed the drinking habits of a nation. The history of british beer drinking is a social history of the nation itself, full of catastrophe (the Great Beer Flood of 1814), heroism (beer and the Second World War) and an awful lot of hangovers.

Table of Contents:
Section - i: Preface to the Second Edition Acknowledgements - ii: Acknowledgements Introduction - iii: Introduction `You should have seen us last night!' Chapter - 1: `My liver is full of luck’ The ancient history of beer drinking Chapter - 2: `Pissing under the board as they sit’ Two thousand years of British boozing Chapter - 3: `An oblivion of care’ The evolution of the pub Chapter - 4: `The universal Cordial of the Populace’ Science, fashion, and the birth of modern beer Chapter - 5: `Those who are not singing are sprawling’ Pubs in the nineteenth century Chapter - 6: `The greatest of these deadly foes’ The fight for the right to get tight Chapter - 7: `All the culture that is most truly native’ When people stopped going to the pub Chapter - 8: `Keep the bar open, we’ll be down in twenty minutes’ The home front in World War II Chapter - 9: `You will be crushed whether you like it or not’ How Carling transformed the business of brewing and drinking Chapter - 10: Saccharomyces carlsbergensis: How lager (eventually) conquered Britain Chapter - 11: `A diet of Pot Noodles, Mother’s Pride and Harp lager’ Kegs, casks and the decline of bitter Chapter - 12: `Drinking the advertising’ The age of the mega-brands Chapter - 13: `It was like anywhere and nowhere’ The local goes national Chapter - 14: `Haven’t you got homes to go to?’ A sort of epilogue Chapter - iv: Further reading

About the Author :
Pete Brown used to advertise beer for a living before he realized that writing about it was even more fun, and came with even more free beer. He contributes to various newspapers, magazines and beer trade press titles, writes the annual report on Britain’s cask ale market, sings beer’s praises on TV and radio, and runs an influential blog. In 2009, Pete was awarded the Michael Jackson Gold Tankard Award and named Beer Writer of the Year by the British Guild of Beer Writers. (No, not that Michael Jackson, the other one.)

Review :
"Like a good drinking companion, Pete Brown tells a remarkable story: a stream of fascinating facts, etymologies, and pub-related urban phenomena."