"Beer, the cause of, and solution to, all of life's problems." - Homer Simpson Reviewed: Fermenting Revolution: How to Drink Beer And Save the WorldBy Christopher O’Brien, New Society Publishers (November 2006), 275 pagesBeer, like so many other products, is largely in the hands of giantcorporations. Therefore, drinking beer can often enrich the samesystems of power we as activists are fighting against. FermentingRevolution: How To Drink Beer and Save the World by Christopher O’Brienis a book about how the people can take back the brew and join togetherin saying, “If I can’t drink good beer, it’s not my revolution.” It is satisfying and rebellious in this increasingly corporate world tomake your own beer. In Vermont, homebrewing and microbrewing is astate-wide past time; a 2005 census shows that there is onemicrobrewery for every 32,792 people in the state, which is the highestnumber of microbreweries per capita in the country. As many Vermontersknow, beer drinkers can be activists in how they choose and make theirown beer. Interested in changing the world through drinking? FermentingRevolution can serve as a kind of bible for the beer activist that’sbubbling inside each and every one of us.In Fermenting Revolution, O’Brien presents a people’s history of beer,allowing the reader to feel connected to beer activists centuries ago.The author explains the scientific process of brewing in an easy tounderstand style, avoiding what he calls “Beer geek-speak.” The bookgoes into the important role women have historically played in beermaking, and how people can take on corporate globalization by makingand drinking their own beer. It’s time to get to the home fires brewing!A People’s History of BeerO’Brien starts his book out by taking us through the long andintoxicating history of beer. It is in Mesopotamia, modern day Iraq,where first emerged the trade of beer and barley. The need to cultivatecrops for this important product may have been the initial reason forthe settlement of the world’s first human civilization. In Babylonia,where beer was safer to drink than the canal water, barley and beerwere used as a form of currency. O’Brien argues that the foundations ofmodern society are built on, well, beer. Beer has also played a central role in the world’s major religions. Theauthor suggests that a down-to-earth Jesus who “made a point ofassociating with ordinary folk like fisherman and prostitutes” wouldprobably have preferred the common beverage of beer, rather thanexpensive and elitist wine. “I rather like the image of Jesus as along-haired, beer-drinking rebel, welcome to crash any party so long ashe was willing to conjure up a bottomless supply of beer. Rock on, Rockof Ages!” O’Brien writes that the typical image of Buddha with a roundbelly suggests the spiritual figure may have been a regular consumer ofbeer. After all, the Buddha “encouraged abstention from intoxicatingdrink and drugs” but didn’t totally discourage consumption. And noneother than Saint Nicholas (Santa Claus) is listed by the CatholicChurch as a Patron Saint of Brewing. With stories like this linkingbeer to religion, O’Brien argues that “sbeerituality” needs to be putback into our drinking culture in the US. One manifestation of beer’s role in modern spirituality is the localbar. The author writes that the bar can act “as a bridge between thesacred and secular domains.” O’Brien says that in bars in Asia, it’soften common to see a nearby altar with alcohol as an offering.Similarly, worshipping ancestors is often common at bars in the US:“It’s the picture of “Old Joe” hanging behind the bar. “Joe” built theplace in nineteen-hundred-and-something-or-other, and now after hisdeath, he offers his blessings or his disapproval to what goes on inhis sacred beer-drinking place.” A recurring theme in Fermenting Revolution is the role women haveplayed in brewing and beer culture throughout history. Some of theearliest signs of beer show that women were primarily the brewers, andlater the tavern owners, that supplied beer. This meant womenhistorically played an important role in society through their controlof the beer industry. For example, O’Brien tells us that Viking womenin Norse society at the end of the first millennium were the only onesallowed to brew beer. According to law, brewing equipment could only beused by women. As time went on, however, women around the world were pushed out ofbrewing by men who felt threatened by the power wielded by womenbrewers. O’Brien calls himself a “femaleist”: he believes that beerbrewing has empowered women in the past, and has the potential to do sonow. “More women brewing and drinking beer would help correct some ofour socially constructed gender imbalances.” He laments the fact thattoday the beer industry is dominated by machismo: “Women of the world,greedy men have stolen your beer and its time to take it back.”However, one hopeful example O’Brien points to is Ethiopia, where thehomebrewing industry is still strong and is largely controlled by women.Another sign of hope is Vermont. According to an article in theVT-based Seven Days newspaper, women are no strangers to micro-brewingin the Green Mountain State. Vermont’s Trout River, Rock Art and theAlchemist Breweries all have women as co-owners or presidents. At OtterCreek Breweries, there is a woman CFO, brewer, packing manager andlabeler.Another widely discussed topic in Fermenting Revolution is theinfluence beer has always had on politics. Some interesting passages inthe book describe early American history when rebels encouragedboycotts against English beer, using the phrase, “Homebrewed is best.”Shortly after the founding of the nation, it was common for politiciansto reward their constituencies with beer at the polling stations. Oftenthere was only one polling place per county, so after traveling such adistance to vote, the citizen wanted to be rewarded with a drink. HereO’Brien argues that “Given the dismal voter turnout levels incontemporary American elections, perhaps this strategy might bereadopted? One ballot, one beer.”Think Globally, Brew LocallyFor centuries, beer was brewed primarily at home in unregulatedsettings with home-made recipes. When corporations began making beerfor profit, a lot of the culture and spirit of the craft was lost. YetO’Brien believes that corporate “globeerization” can be fought through“beeroregionalism.” While corporate control of production centralizesbeer power in the hands of a few, Beeroregionalism, as defined byO’Brien, is a return to local production and community. The authorargues that the craft of making beer should be cherished as aningredient in community-building, not as an assembly-line method ofmaking money. The author walked the talk at the 1999 World TradeOrganization protests in Seattle. Though there’s a picture of book ofO’Brien dressed up as a turtle with some other friends at a march, headmits he spent a lot of his time in the famous brewpubs of Seattlerather than in the streets.Though O’Brien explains that three companies control over 80 percent ofthe beer industry in the US, there are an estimated 250,000 homebrewersin the country, and the numbers are growing. Not only is homebrewing afun activity to do with friends and family, but brewers can chooseorganic products to use as ingredients and not rely on corporations fortheir beer. O’Brien also reminds us that brewing at home cuts down onfossil fuel consumption in that homebrew doesn’t rely on gas fordelivery. In Vermont, we have a variety of organic products to use inour brewing, as well as a whole host of micro-breweries to choose from.(For those who want to learn how to homebrew, pick up a copy of CharliePapazian’s easy to follow book The New Complete Joy of Homebrewing,published by Harper Resource).Every reader of Fermenting Revolution is likely to find something thatstrikes a personal chord with them. For me, it was a history of the tinbeer can. My grandfather was an avid recycler of beer cans in thecollege town he lived in. He was able to save tens of thousands ofdollars from the nickels acquired over decades of digging throughgarbage bins and salvaging cans after college parties. O’Brien tells usthat in 1959, Bill Coors, the owner of the beer company which carriedhis last name, developed the first seamless aluminum beer can. Hiscolleagues in the industry laughed at him even when he asked people toreturn the cans for a penny a piece – but it worked! O’Brien writesthat using a recycled can utilizes only five percent of the energyrequired to produce a new can from scratch: “Recycling one can savesenough energy to power a TV for 3 hours.”Fermenting Revolution is not only informative, with pragmaticsuggestions on social change, but it is fun to read. Thismind-expanding book will make you thirsty for justice, and a goodorganic, homebrewed beer. Residents of the Green Mountain State who areinterested in self sufficiency and homegrown products should pick up acopy of Fermenting Revolution and get things brewing. Benjamin Dangl is a member of the Burlington, VT Homebrewer’s Co-op. Heis the author of The Price of Fire: Resource Wars and Social Movementsin Bolivia (AK Press, 2007) and edits the international news website,TowardFreedom.com.