Here is the tale of one man’s love for his favorite beverage: Beer. From it’s humble beginnings as everyone’s everyday drink, to it’s latest mutations into 32 per cent proof hard core booze, Charles Bamforth explains why beer is the best of all the alcohols.
I’m not a drinking man, not even beer. But I am a reader and Beer Is Proof That God Loves Us is a good read. Charles tells a loving story of beer, often mentioning beers of the world that I have never heard of. He tells how all beers are now owned by one or two super beer companies-including that great American brand Budweiser. He talks at length about the death of smaller breweries and the greed of uber brewers to buy all known brands and put them under one roof. Kind of reminds of a certain Assembly Line Portrait Company I could name.
There’s a lot of science here, a lot of this is how beer is made and this is why this brewery was here and that brewery was there, but now-Charles can use his gee-whiz technology to duplicate any beer in the world. One of the things that really impresses Charles is how well the giant beer brewers manage consistency over millions of bottles of beer.
Beer Is Proof That God Loves Us is a personal book, Charles Bamforth has worked for a lot of breweries and he is British, so he tends to talk a lot about Pubs and Bass beer and his general hatred of Margaret Thatcher, who he holds personally responsible for the end of the Public House as we knew it. As with so many other things over the past hundred years or so, globalization has destroyed the world of beer-at least as far as Charles is concerned.
I loved Beer Is Proof That God Loves Us, even though I am not much of a fan of beer. Charles has the courage to admit that he is not purely unbiased, that he loves some beers and is not so fond of others, and that he hates talking rubber frogs and other silly ads that hock beer. He’s also not much of a fan of beer mixed with soda pop or coffee. He likes good, old fashioned beer that is just beer.
Richard Ferrone does a great job as the reader of Beer is Proof That God Loves Us.
