Category Archives: Scholarship

Drunk

Drunk is both an adjective and a noun. The Merriam-Webster online dictionary defines the former as “having the faculties impaired by alcohol”, and the latter as “one who is drunk”. Drunk is also the name of a book written by Edward Slingerland. The full title is “Drunk: How We Sipped, Danced, and Stumbled Our Way to Civilization”. It is a fascinating book and one I have just finished reading. The author, Slingerland, is Distinguished University Scholar and Professor of Philosophy at the University of British Columbia in Canada. While Slingerland is an academic, Drunk is a book that is written for a general audience.

The front cover of “Drunk” by Edward Slingerland

The basic thesis underpinning Slingerland’s treatise is that alcohol has played, and continues to play, an important role in society; a role that is generally beneficial both to the individual and to society as a collective entity. A key characteristic of alcohol is that it triggers the release of endorphins whose effects include enhancing a person’s overall mood, while decreasing anxiety and stress levels. In our transformed, more relaxed state, alcohol helps us “with the communal demands of being human” (p. 106).

Central to Slingerland’s thesis is that part of the human brain called the prefrontal cortex (PFC), which “plays a role in regulating emotions in interpersonal relationships and social situations.” Alcohol, however, temporarily disarms the PFC, the locus of rational thinking and self-control, and make us more playful, creative, emotional, and trusting. As a result, consumption of alcohol facilities social bonding among people who may not otherwise be pre-disposed to bond and work cooperatively. As noted by Slingerland, alcohol “functions to bind together non-related individuals” (p. 257) Indeed it has fulfilled this role for thousands of years.

One of the many examples given by Slingerland is Göbekli Tepe, a Neolithic archaeological site (home to the world’s oldest known megaliths) in eastern Turkey where disparate and otherwise unconnected groups of hunter-gatherers periodically met for the purposes of ritualistic feasting. Brewing vats and images of festivals dating to around 10,000 BC have been discovered at Göbekli Tepe.
The ancient beer that was brewed played a central role in the feasting that took place there. According to the Archaeologist Oliver Dietrich and his colleagues “at the dawn of the Neolithic, hunter-gatherers congregating at Göbekli Tepe created social and ideological cohesion through the carving of decorated pillars, dancing, feasting—and, almost certainly, the drinking of beer made from fermented wild crops.” This pattern of feasting and consuming alcohol was replicated in many ancient pre-agricultural societies throughout the world.

Göbekli Tepe in eastern Turkey, an ancient site of feasting and drinking of beer made from fermented wild crops

Slingerland provides numerous more contemporary examples of the benefits of moderate alcohol consumption. He talks about visiting the Whiskey Room on a Google campus where coders retire with colleagues to have a wee dram and engage in creative back-and-forth of ideas. He also tells of getting together with his graduate students and faculty members, post-seminar, in a pub on the UBC campus. Much of the conversation revolved around research ideas, with the end result being the establishment of a new research center, a multi-million dollar grant, and a slew of high impact research projects.

It should be noted that in addition to the real-world examples of the benefits of moderate alcohol consumption, Slingerland does cite and discuss many laboratory-based scientific studies which provide support for his central thesis. With respect to maximizing creativity, how much alcohol is beneficial? That particular sweet spot is a blood alcohol content of 0.08, or the equivalent of two beers with an an ABV of around 5%.

Slingerland is an advocate of social drinking. Indeed, in his final chapter he warns against the dangers of drinking alone. He cites the work of Robin Dunbar, an evolutionary psychologist. In 2017, Dunbar co-authored a paper in which he explored the functional benefits of moderate alcohol consumption. In particular, he found that people who have a pub they they frequent on a regular basis “tend to be more socially engaged, feel more contented and are more likely to trust other members of their community than those who do not drink at all”. Visiting the same pub on a regular basis often results in engaging in social drinking with other regular customers, thus providing patrons with a strong social network. Summing up Dunbar’s findings, “moderate, social drinking brings people together, keeps them connected to their communities, and lubricates the exchange of information and building of networks (p. 192).

Slingerland also touches on a topic that is close to my heart as a professional academic – the value of attending an academic conference, as opposed to participating via Zoom or a similar communication platform. As he so eloquently states, “a unique intellectual benefit provided by in-person academic or professional conferences is the networking, brainstorming, and idea-honing that goes on over meals, over coffee breaks, and most of all informal venues, as the day draws to an end and the intoxicants come out” (p. 180). Indeed it was at an academic conference in New York City in 2012 that a conversation, over a beer, with a colleague from Kennesaw State University was the catalyst for my first paper on the craft beer industry; thus The Beer Professor was born. Since the COVID-19 pandemic, many scientific organizations offer hybrid conferences, whereby participants can choose to participate in-person or virtually. Sadly, those who choose the latter option miss out on the added value that in-person attendance bestows. As Slingerland observes, “even the best videoconference is a poor substitute for the visceral buzz of interpersonal chemistry, catalyzed by chemical intoxicants, that comes from in-person socializing in pubs and cafes” (p. 181).

While Slingerland’s book outlines the benefits of drinking alcohol, it is important to note that he warns against its excessive consumption. Indeed, his final chapter is devoted to the dark side of consuming alcohol, with a discussion of topics such as the negative health consequences, drunk driving, and the role of alcohol in contributing to violence against women. He also discusses the discovery of distillation, by which humans were able to produce spirits whose Alcohol By Volume levels are significantly higher than that of either beer or wine. According to Slingerland, “the many functional benefits of alcohol notwithstanding, distillation radically increases its danger to both individuals and society” (p. 237). During the Industrial Revolution in Europe, beers such as Guinness were considered a temperance drink, while high potency distilled spirits were not. As noted by Mark Schrad , writing in Foreign Policy, the growing availability of distilled spirits in early 19th century Europe meant that “once jovial communal celebrations devolved into drunken riots“, while “murder, other crimes, and arson all increased”. This became a concern for European Socialists who saw the devastating effects of spirits on the working class, while lining the pockets of profit-minded and predatory capitalists. In Germany, the Social Democratic Party called for a nationwide boycott of schnapps but not beer. Emile Vandervelde, leader of the Belgian Labour Party and President of the Second International (a collaborative network of European socialist parties) held the position that there’s “no real difference between the moderate use of fermented beer or wine and the complete abstinence from alcohol.” Spirits, not beer and wine, were the real problem.

Slingerland’s book is a lively read. It is well written and follows a logical flow. Anyone interested in the history of alcohol and its role in societies, ranging from ancient to modern, will find it a worthwhile purchase.

Further Reading:

Dietrich, Oliver Dietrich, Manfred Heun, Jens Notroff, Klaus Schmidt, and Martin Zarnkow. 2012. The role of cult and feasting in the emergence of Neolithic communities. New evidence from Göbekli Tepe, south-eastern Turkey. Antiquity, Volume 86, Issue Number 333, Pages 674–695.

Dunbar, Robin I. M., Jacques Launay, Rafael Wlodarski, Cole Robertson, Eiluned Pearce, James Carney, and Pádraig MacCarron. 2016. Functional Benefits of (Modest) Alcohol Consumption. Adaptive Human Behavior and Physiology, Volume 3, Pages 118–133.

Schrad, Mark Lawrence. 2021. How Europe’s Temperance Movement Saved Beer. Foreign Policy, September 26.

Slingerland, Edward. 2021. Drunk: How We Sipped, Danced, and Stumbled Our Way to Civilization. Little, Brown Spark Publishers.

Italy 3.0

I just returned from a few days in L’Aquila, Italy. It was my third visit to this earthquake-ravaged Italian town in the last ten months. I’d been there in September 2017 and, more recently, in May 2018. On both my previous visits I’d given talks about beer to students in the Regional Science and Urban Studies Program at the Gran Sasso Science Institute (GSSI). On this occasion, I was in L’Aquila as co-organizer of a two-day workshop on “The Geography of Craft Beer and Consumption: Local Entrepreneurialism and Tourism Development”. My co-organizers were Alessandra Faggian, Professor of Applied Economics, Director of Social Sciences, and Vice Provost for Research at the Gran Sasso Science Institute, and Giulia Pezzi, Post Doctoral Research Fellow at GSSI. The workshop was designed to provide an opportunity for doctoral students and early career Professors to present their research. Alessandra, Giulia, and myself had also lined up two excellent keynote speakers – Martin Stack of Rockhurst University in the United States and Christian Garavaglia of The University of Milano-Bicocca. Both gave fascinating keynote lectures – Martin on the history of craft beer in the United States and how to assess its impact, while Christian gave an overview of the growth of craft beer at the international level.

Beautiful L’Aquila

Christian Garavaglia talking about historical trends in the global brewing industry

Martin Stack talking about the history of craft beer in the United States

Following Martin and Christian’s lectures, Giulia Pezzi and myself presented plenary lectures on craft beer and tourism. I focused my lecture on trying to understand the motivations of the craft beer tourist and their desire to drink unique beer in unique spaces. Giulia’s lectures examined the contribution that craft beer can make to tourism in rural and remote regions.

The opening day of the workshop concluded with a presentation by Luca Marcotullio, owner of L’Aquila’s only craft brewery, Anbra. I had visited Anbra’s taproom on my last visit to L’Aquila and had been impressed with both the ambience and the beer. The brewery is a post-earthquake phenomenon. Following the earthquake, Luca decided to open the brewery, realizing that a taproom in the center of the city would provide a space where people could come, relax, and socialize with each other. In many respects, the taproom was Luca’s contribution to the rebuilding of post-earthquake L’Aquila. Following, Luca’s talk, he took questions from those us in the audience, which proved to be particularly fascinating.

The entrance to Anbra’s taproom

That evening, Luca retold Anbra’s story to interested citizens of L’Aquila, in one of GSSI’s auditoriums. Following that talk everyone retired to the beautiful outdoor terrace of the GSSI, where Luca and one of his staff members, served a selection of four Anbra beers. Following that event, myself and a couple of other conference attendees decided to head into the center of L’Aquila and enjoy a few beers at the Anbra taproom. A few beers into our visit, Luca appeared. He recognized us from earlier in the evening, and provided us each with a complimentary beer. The same hospitality was offered to us the following evening when we visited Anbra.

 

Luca Marcotullio (left) serving up some Anbra beer on the outdoor terrace of GSSI

The second day of the workshop, there were presentations from eleven young researchers. The came from five countries – Argentina, Bulgaria, Canada, Italy, and the United States. The topics were varied and included:

  • The role of tourism in creating Greater Central Florida’s Craft beer scene
  • The emerging relationship between the craft beer and recreational cannabis industries
  • Product innovation hotspots in craft brewing as indicated by trademarks
  • Local entrepreneurs and the transformation of the beer industry towards sustainability
  • Craft breweries at the US/Canadian cross border region
  • Neolocalism and Quebec craft breweries
  • Fostering craft brewing tourism in the Piedmont region of Italy
  • Tourism, authenticity, and craft beer in West Virginia
  • The growing craft beer culture in Plovdiv, Bulgaria
  • Craft beer and consumer preferences in Mar del Plata, Argentina
  • Beer labels and religious symbols in Quebec

Andrea Belmartino talks about craft beer in Mar del Plata, Argentina

As someone who would be considered a “senior” scholar, it was wonderful to hear these presentations by younger scholars. Craft beer research, like craft beer itself, is experiencing something of a boom. And those conducting the research come from a variety of academic backgrounds – Geography, Economics, Anthropology, Sociology, etc. This diversity of perspectives adds to the richness of the research and leads to insights that might not otherwise be possible. It was a great few days in L’Aquila. The next conference dedicated exclusively to beer will be the biennial Beeronomics Conference which will be held in Pilsen in the Czech Republic in June 2019. I am already looking forward to that.

Beeronomics 2017

One of the benefits of attending Beeronomics 2017 was I got to interact with people like Martin Stack.

Last week I was in Copenhagen, Denmark. I was there to attend the fifth biennial conference of the Beeronomics Society. Yes, you read that correctly, Beeronomics – a conference that brings together scholars from around the world who are doing research on some aspect of the beer industry. The first conference of the Society was held in Leuven, Belgium in 2009. This was followed by conferences in Freising, Germany (2011), York, England (2013), and Seattle, USA (2015). I attended the conferences that were held in York and Seattle. As a beer researcher I have found the conferences to be Continue reading Beeronomics 2017

Beeronomics 2015

Earlier this month I was in Seattle, Washington. I was there for the 2015 Beeronomics Conference. This is an event organized by The Beeronomics Society, an international non-profit association of scholars and professionals who conduct research on the economics of the beer industry. The conference is a biennial event. The first was held in Leuven, Belgium in 2009, the headquarters of the Beeronomics Continue reading Beeronomics 2015