- By Sarah Wise
New book by Britain’s only broadsheet beer columnist explores the surprising scientific impact of sound on our taste buds.
Scientists understand less about how we hear music than they do about the birth of the universe; but a new book by Britain’s only broadsheet beer columnist says listening to music can ultimately change the way we taste our preferred pint.
Tasting Notes: The art and science of pairing beer and music is published on 12 June 2025 by CAMRA (The Campaign for Real Ale) Books and is the latest book by Sunday Times Magazine’s weekly beer columnist, Pete Brown, including a foreword by BBC 6Music broadcaster Mark Radcliffe.
Campaigning since 1971, CAMRA has been the leading light in ensuring quality cask beer, cider and perry can be enjoyed in pubs across the UK. Helping to celebrate pubs, pints and people and the joy socialising in cherished venues brings to all communities.
In a lively, experiential and experimental exploration of popular music and beers, the author delves in to the question of perception and flavour, combining popular science with an entertaining depth of appreciation of sound and taste. His book explains how our senses work, how we appreciate flavour, sound, and the world around us, and shows us that our senses interact in ways we don’t even realise.
How does this summer’s Glastonbury headliner Neil Young’s classic song Harvest Moon impact the taste of a wheat Belgian beer? What about a surprising Sugababes cover paired with equally unusual American light lager? And why is Sierra Nevada’s Torpedo a match for both The Ronettes’ ‘Be My Baby’ and Billie Eilish’s ‘No Time to Die’?
Across 45 beer and song pairings, Pete’s experimental journey continues with genres across rock, grime, jazz, alt pop, country, folk rock, electronic and progressive trance, with songs from Primal Scream, Joy Division and more matched with an eclectic list of beers.
Pete, whose last book ‘Clubland: How the working men’s club shaped Britain’ was a BBC Radio 4 Book of the Week, describes how what began as informal talk above a pub eventually became a much-loved on-stage music festival event, with Pete talking to 1200 people about neuroscience, and now, the subject of his thirteenth book.
When an Oxford University Professor happened to be in attendance at one of Pete’s self-described ‘wind up’ events - where he partly wanted to shine a light on the pretentions of wine tasting by showing how beer, food and music should also be taken seriously - the Professor explained that this particular branch of not-quite-neuroscience (he used the term ‘neuro-gastronomy’) that Pete’s talk explored was very close to experiments already underway by scientists at Oxford University.
The experiments were trying to find out if how different senses affect each other – how colour or shape affect our perception of sweetness, or much of what we ‘hear’ is profoundly influenced by what we can see.
“I’d accidentally stumbled across something serious,” said Pete.
“To be fair, pairing music and beer sounds like a bit of a joke and it started off as one. I’d somehow blagged the gig with the Oxford Professor in attendance because my wife, Liz, runs the Stoke Newington Literary Festival, and she had a spare slot in one of the venues, a room above a pub that seated about forty people”
“But as the events grew and with the backing of an Oxford University professor as my spirit guide, I plunged into the science. I read academic papers and learned about brain scans and cross-modal correspondences.”
Pete continued: “Both beer and music are about enjoying the world around us. Sometimes on our own, but especially with other people. If you want, you can go further than that. Modern neuroscience is in its infancy. Here, in the third decade of the 21st century, we know more about the birth of the universe than we do about how our brains sort and interpret information from the immediate environment around us.”
Speaking about the twin journeys of beer and music behind the book, BBC 6 Music presenter Mark Radcliffe said: “I was a teenager in the seventies and the music was as exciting as the liquid offerings were anaemic. Glam rock, heavy metal, folk, prog, rhythm and blues, reggae and punk all thrilled whilst the Worthington E, Double Diamond and Red Barrel provided a flat, flavourless accompaniment. If the music was the peak of artistic inspiration the beer was a feeble flow of flaccid frustration. Thank heavens then for CAMRA who, like The Beatles and The Stones and the Bowies and the Bolans and the Sabbaths and the Zeppelins and the Dylans and the Floyds and the Feelgoods and the Wailers and the Pistols and the Ramones, taught us that life didn’t have to be that way. Blandness didn’t have to be something we had to accept. We could dream of higher things.”
Pete’s talks at festivals about the art and science of pairing beer and music have already become cult events – and not just because of the free beer. Now, Pete’s entertaining writing and pairing picks, as well as understanding much more about why they work so well makes for a match for readers too, translating as a delicious discovery for anyone who enjoys both music and beer.
- Tasting Notes: The art and science of pairing beer and music is published by CAMRA Books on June 12, 2025.
