This week, Nature published a paper entitled " A physical, genetic and functional sequence assembly of the barley genome ". Promotional Press releases were quick to link this achievement to potential crop improvements . The London Press wasted no time in connecting the dots to beer . "Improvements" are changes, and the craft beer community greets all changes with levels of skepticism that are, at a minimum, healthy. Alan McLeod's Good Beer Blog saw the discovery as the beginning of sceince's impact on brewing, and was quick to expand the question of the relative benefit of genetically engineered barley crops into a broad challenge to science as a whole: Can Science Really Improve Beer As Known Now? Science has contributed significantly to brewing throughout the history of the art, and provided the tools that allow us to best appreciate our ancestors beer styles and brewing techniques. Firstly, Science must be defined as an actor if it...
Enjoyed simply, or thoughtfully, beer is a complete refreshment.