Grape vs. Grain
Tuesday, May 6th, 2008Got this in my email sometime last week. I’ve just copied and pasted it verbatim and add in my two cents afterwards.
Charles Bamforth is a brewing scientist. One of the best.
He’s been bothered for a while with a nagging question: why do many people consider wine to be more sophisticated than beer? Is it really better? Healthier? Why do most fancy restaurants have massive wine lists and a few token beer selections?
Bamforth picks apart the complex social, cultural, and scientific histories of both beverages. He has quite a few suprising insights about the (often highly scientific) production of both beer and wine. He’s not seeking to take wine down a notch, but to elevate beer to its proper place, right next to wine, demonstrating just how healthy and complex a beverage it really is.
Want to pick his brain a little? Please join him on Thursday, May 8 at Anchor Brewery Bamforth will discuss his new book: GRAPE VS. GRAIN
The event is free and open to the public.
Charles Bamforth, Chair of Brewing Sciences, UC Davis
Anchor Brewery, San Francisco
May 8, 5:30pm
Before I really got into blogging about beer, I was fortunate enough to have seen Charles Bamforth speak at Xerox PARC over in Palo Alto. I found Charles to be an engaging, charismatic man with a dry, English wit (which makes sense since he is from England). His presentation on Grape vs. Grain was extremely informative and makes a strong case, in my opinion, on how beer is responsible for civilization as we know it.
Now that I am able to reflect on things, I can safely say that Charles Bamforth is one of the inspirations for this blog. I can say his lecture lent a strong hand in forming my own philosophies on beer and it’s place in the culinary world.
Whether your a beer aficionado or wine connoisseur, I fully encourage you to attend this lecture. Bamforth is a wealth of information regarding the brewing sciences and I suspect you’ll have a good time as well. Hopefully I’ll be able to make it as I’ve never been to Anchor Steam brewery either.
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