ROCKWELL BEER ROCKS ON & SO DOES CIVILIZATION

As Rockwell Beer Company’s construction progresses, we ask: why is beer so beloved?

“Beer is the basis of modern static civilization,” began Bamforth, Anheuser-Busch Endowed Professor of Brewing Science at the University of California, Davis. “Because before beer was discovered, people used to wander around and follow goats from place to place. And then they realized that this grain [barley] could be grown and sprouted and made into a bread and crumbled and converted into a liquid which gave a nice, warm, cozy feeling. So gone were the days that they followed goats around. They stayed put while the grain grew and while the beer was brewed. And they made villages out of their tents. And those villages became towns, and those towns became cities. And so here we are in New York, thanks to beer.”

— Steve Mirsky, Ales Well with the World

We love this snippet from “Ales Well with the World” by Steve Mirsky because it positions beer (along with bread) as the genesis of modern civilization. Beer and bread allowed us to “sit”…to “pause”. With the discovery of grain and its magical potential, we no longer needed to roam. Beer gave us the space and time to gather, organize and build.

Perhaps this is why we love beer so much.

Here are a few photos of Rockwell in progress: