EP-201 Liz Garibay of History on Tap

It seems like beer enthusiasts, myself included, are always looking forward. When we’re not trying to figure out what the next IPA is going to be, it’s easy to prognosticate about upcoming business plans, releases, and who needs to learn more about whoever the next, hot brewery may be. But as we’ve heard so many times before, you don’t know where you’re going, unless you know where you’ve been. Liz Garibay is the person you may want to call when it's time to bridge these things as both historian and beer lover. For years, she's led a project known as History on Tap, which traces history through alcohol, and for herself and others, created inspiration to better understand how beer and its unique community factor into larger cultural stories. As founder and director of the Chicago Brewseum, she’s also had an analytical view toward the history of drinking in one of America’s most iconic cities. I ran into Liz this summer at the annual Beer Bloggers and Writers Conference, where she told me about a new exhibition she was a part of and as our conversation drifted over all sorts of beer topics, I wanted to take the chance to sit down with Liz for the podcast as a way to better capture some of the ideas of how Drinking Past has an ability to shape our Drinking Future. No need to break out your Encyclopedia Britannica for this one, but I hope you’ll enjoy some extra context all us beer lovers might miss when we’re keeping our heads on a swivel, just trying to keep up with everything that’s certain to be next. This is historian Liz Garibay. Listen in.