To celebrate the end of Dry January, I am going to post an old essay about the technology of beer. I wrote this for an assignment in my Philosophy of Technology class from the Fall of 2016. My biggest takeaway from this class is that all ideas and objects are a part of a larger technological system and that it is impossible to separate any single human artifact from another; everything, especially beer, is a part of greater cultural, technological, and environmental systems. I'm posting this unedited, but I definitely have more to say about the sociology of beer. This was one of my favorite courses in my undergrad career.
Beer is one of the most popular drinks in the entire world. Unsurprisingly, it has been involved in human history from some of the first civilizations. In fact, it is almost overwhelming to me how important and interwoven beer is with human culture that I feel like I can take an entire class based on it. Various technological advancements have been linked with the development and production of beers. The development of beer has been driven by mechanical developments and technological knowledge but has also been severely affected by policy and geographical conditions as well as serendipitous discoveries. The beers that we know today are tightly interwoven with human history and development.
Kline defines the sociotechnical system of use as “A system using combinations of hardware, people, (and usually other elements) to accomplish tasks that humans cannot perform unaided by such systems” (Kline 1985:217). The sociotechnical system of use is very evident in the production of beer, because there are so many various facets that contribute to the production of beer. The particular technological artifact is the beer itself, however, there are so many other artifacts and forms of knowledge that are linked with beer that it is hard to generalize beer as just being an artifact; it is a whole system of production.
There are various spheres of beer production (How It’s Made 2001: S1E3). The first and foremost are the ingredients that are involved in beer, namely hops the grain (typically wheat or Barely). These are natural ingredients, however, their growing and harvesting are each have their own technological networks of production (i.e. irrigation, agricultural knowledge, harvesting vehicles, etc.). Water is also an essential part of the brewing process, so thus water cleaning and water transportation technologies are linked to the STS (sociotechnical system of use) of beer. The next sphere of Beer production is the actual brewing process (How It’s Made 2001: S1E3). This process involves various complex machines, including water filtration/stirring tanks which include heat treatments and aggregators, boiling and fermenting tanks (which include computer software to regulate heat), and bottling machines. One also must consider the pumps and conveyer belts used in order to transport the beer from tank to tank. Then there is the marketing and bottling sphere of production. There are machines that clean bottles for recycling (the recycling system being a major part of this), then machines that put the beer into the bottles, machines that put the caps onto the bottles, machines that label the bottles, and machines that crate the bottles. One must also consider the design of the label and the technological development of the bottle itself when visualizing the STS. The next sphere is the social sphere of use, this includes marketing and distribution. Consuming all of this is technological knowledge: the recipes of beer, the biochemical properties of beer, the agricultural knowledge of beer’s ingredients, the knowledge of beer distribution, etc. Essentially, the STS of beer is very complex, as there is an almost endless chain of interconnecting technological spheres that makes the production of beer possible.
This is just the modern production of beer. Beer has been with humankind since the start of civilizations, with documentation of beer as early as Babylonian and Egyptian societies (Mercadel 2013). It played an important economic beer as wages were paid in beer as well as important nutritional role as water was untreated and thus unsafe, thus beer was the beverage of choice. Of course, that beer was not similar to what we would recognize as beer, but it is still the same general artifact, that through time, was influenced by various technologies and technological advancements to represent what it was today. For example, the Norse civilization added hops to the beer recipe (How It’s Made 2001: S1E3), which is one of the defining characteristics of modern beer. Thus, as the idea and knowledge of beer advanced through space and time, technological developments from different cultures and developments (in every sphere of beer production), are what created the artifact of beer as we see it today. The essence of the technology grew alongside the development of civilizations and from culture to culture. Beer has been an important social factor in almost all cultures and societies, the descriptions of which could take up an entire essay.
There are a couple of particular case studies that I thought were super interesting that affected the technological development of beer. The first of these is the German Law “Reinheitsgebot”, a law passed in 1516 by Duke Wilhem IV of Bavaria (Klawitter 2016). This law is commonly referred in English as the German Purity Law, and it decrees that beer can only consist of three ingredients (hops, water, and barely), and nothing else. This law is sited as being an essential part of German heritage, however Klawitter sites that this law is becoming a bit of an issue as it disadvantages German beer producers from coming up with innovative production strategies and appealing to larger global markets. This shows how political factors can influence a technological development in ensuring that it stays constant. The second case study is the law of prohibition. In 1919 the prohibition act made it so that breweries were heavily affected and needed to shut down, thus when the act was repealed, only the biggest breweries remained active (Mercadel 2013). This resulted in these beers needing to “Seek a wide market appeal…[thus] breweries created beers with a light and homogenous flavor that sold well everywhere in the nation” (Marcadel 2013). In my research I found (not a credible source) that during prohibition those who did sell beer severely watered the beers down so that they could sell more, and this resulted in Americans acquiring a taste for watered down light beers. This case study is evident of how political laws affect the economical drives that influence technological developments.
As a technological artifact beer is simply a brewed liquid, however as a technological system of use beer is a complex entity, affecting and contributing to human culture since the dawn of human development. Beer only continues to have new innovations and new cultural and societal influences with mass production, globalization, and the rise of craft breweries. Furthermore, the development of the purpose of beer is almost as interesting as the development of the artifact itself. When first developed Beer was used as a means of survival, and now it is used not only as a central device for socialization, but it is also used as a symbol of cultural identification (i.e. Reinheitsgebot), a means of employment, and as a outlet for creative development and innovation.
Sources Used:
How It’s Made. January 6th 2001. “How It’s made: German Beer” Season 1, Episode 3. Discovery Channel.
Klawitter, Nils. April 21, 2016. “The Twilight of Germany’s Reinheitsgebot”. Der Spiegel.
Kline, Stephen J. 1985 “What is Technology” Bulletin of Science and Technology 5:215-218
Mercadal, Trudy. September 2013. “Beer”. Salem Press Encyclopedia
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