The Socio-Cultural Terroir of Irish Craft ~Brewing

This thesis provides a rich and unique exploration of the world of craft brewing in Ireland. One of the key concepts underpinning the research is that of socio-cultural terroir, which captures the all-important nexus between craft, practice, and place. Cultural geography provides a way of seeing and understanding the craft of brewing in all its richness, diversity and complexity. Foregrounding the brewers’ own experiences reveals how the craft is learned, affirmed and sustained. Applying emerging digital humanities methodologies such as textual analysis, information and knowledge visualisation to more conventional cultural geographic approaches allows for an exploration of how the journeys and values of Irish craft brewers emerge from, shape and (re)create meaning, identity and place in a rapidly growing and evolving community. Consisting of two parts, this thesis first seeks to bring a cultural geographic lens to bear on the craft brewing trade while carefully detailing the historical tradition from which it emerged, and secondly, it demonstrates how digital humanities practice can be employed to expand, augment, amplify, and enhance that exploration. The design, development, and deployment of an exploratory interactive platform to disseminate the findings facilitates an open sharing of the data, inviting further exploration, interpretation, and engagement with the research by a wider network of interested parties, including most importantly, the brewers themselves who have been a central focus of this research.