18 Places That Celebrate Glorious Beer

Humans have been brewing beer for a good 5,000 years, if not longer. Archaeologists have uncovered long-lost breweries from the Inca Empire, where corn-based chicha was once the drink of choice, to Turkey. Even the pantheons of the ancient world are littered with beer-related deities, from the Sumerian brewing goddess Ninkasi to the Egyptian beer goddess Tenenet. During the Middle Ages, savvy alewives sustained much of Europe’s population with their specialty brews. In 1080, St. Arnold of Soissons, a bishop, supposedly saved his monastery’s community from a deadly epidemic by urging them to drink beer instead of contaminated water.

While there may be hundreds of distinct styles, there’s something wonderfully universal about the fact that drinkers on every continent can appreciate a cold one—be it a Tusker in Nairobi, a Tsingtao in Beijing, or a kölsch in Cologne. Here are just a few of the places around the world where beer lovers can raise a glass or dive into the history of hops, malt, and barley.