Beer Chronicles, an independent online project exploring the history of beer, has brought together more than 550 historical events and 40 curated storylines in a free, interactive timeline.
It is designed to make beer history easier to explore, not simply as a sequence of isolated dates, but as a network of connected developments involving beer styles, breweries, ingredients, science, technology, law, and drinking culture.
Visitors can search and filter the timeline by date, category, and subject, while individual event pages provide historical context and supporting sources.
The curated Beer Storylines connect individual entries into broader narratives, covering subjects including IPA, porter and stout, lambic and gueuze, Trappist brewing, hops, malt, yeast, brewing science, women in beer history, beer and war, and modern craft beer.
A further way to explore the material is the Beer Map, which places historically relevant events geographically and allows users to discover beer history through cities, regions, and brewing locations around the world. It currently connects more than 500 mapped entries, with over 200 reviewed places.
“Beer history becomes particularly interesting when you start seeing the connections,” said Beer Chronicles creator Martin Schmidt, a German beer sommelier and homebrewer.
“A beer style cannot really be separated from developments in technology, ingredients, taxation, trade, science, or the breweries and people behind it. Beer Chronicles is my attempt to make those connections visible while keeping the individual entries grounded in sources.”
The project has been developed continuously during 2026 and is intended as an evolving resource rather than a finished encyclopaedia. New events, sources, and connections are added regularly, and readers can suggest corrections, additional sources, and new entries.
