When most Americans think about beer, they tend to think about brands, styles, or perhaps the growing craft brewing movement. During my last study abroad experience in Oxford, England, I discovered that the story of beer can also be a story about culture, community, and belonging.
The article that follows is something I wrote that was published in the Summer 2026 issue of The Oxford Drinker. While it begins with my own journey from drinking Coors Light as a teenager in Oklahoma to exploring England’s cask ale tradition, it ultimately became an examination of something much larger. Through the eyes of my students and the experiences we shared across dozens of pubs, I came to appreciate how the British pub functions as a social institution every bit as important as the beverage it serves.
For sociologists, places matter. The relationships formed within them matter even more. What I found in Oxford was not simply a different way of drinking beer, but a different way of building community.
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