When I started reading The Watchmaker of Filigree Street by Natasha Pulley, I had no idea it was book one of what is a three book series so far.
And I do not think that I will be taking in books two and three. This book is set in Victorian England approximately and we follow a government worker, Nathaniel (annoyingly called Thaniel) along with Grace Carrow a physics student at Oxford and Keita Mori, the titled watchmaker formerly of Japan.
The story has a bomb plot and a supernatural plot and an HG Welles mechanical invention side plot and none really coalesce into a hole. Oh and Gilbert and Sullivan make an appearance too. All that would make for a fine ramble but the characters are just sketches expect for Nathaniel who is just a dithering lump who makes book plot choices and not strong character choices.
For beer, be on the lookout for a brewery doing a series of beers. Be it in a variety pack or a quarterly series and crack one open and do your best to forget the book and that you have other beers and see if based on the one beer, you would order up the rest.