TASKS AND OBJECTIVES OF THE SOCIETY
The Society for the History of Brewing was founded in 1913 in Berlin as a society for the history and bibliography of the brewing industry.
Members of the society are individuals or companies. Since its foundation, the Society has been internationally oriented.
The society is still located in Berlin.
The tasks of the society result from the association status. They include promoting the study of the history of brewing in all its facets, from collecting, archiving and maintaining records to capturing the well-known literature in bibliographies. The research goals are extremely diverse. They include the study of the millennia-old history of beer and its raw materials and development of beer production, from brewing processes and technology to brewing science and research, regional and local brewery history, development of individual companies and businesses, emergence of the brewing industry, current globalization trends, as well as study of the industrialization countermovement with the reappearance of many new small (craft) breweries worldwide. Business, economics, legal, social, cultural, geographic and many other aspects of beer and brewing history are also considered. The research results are published in a yearly publication.
The society maintains an association-owned library, which is open to all interested parties.
The members of the society have in common the interest in the history of brewing. Therefore, members are not only from the brewing industry (breweries, malting plants, suppliers), but also from a broad spectrum of all areas of related disciplines, such as historical research, archeology, biology, ethnology or similar. Collectors of brewery items or brewing history can also be found among the members.
Beer and brewing are part of our culture and our history. Successful brewing, high-performance industry and innovative science are based on this historical knowledge. Over 300 members of our society maintain this history.