Category: Beer Books

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A Book & A Beer – The Dutch House

The Dutch House by Ann Patchett was a birthday present that might wife received. And a fancy gift it was, what with an autograph and all.

I would’ve categorize this in the “gentle tale” section. There is an evil stepmother, a divorce, gentrification, death and of course a grand old house but none of it is angsty or melodramatic. So many books would fall into the Holden Caufield trap of making things bitter and annoying. But our guides through this tale, siblings Danny and Maeve are working through life no matter what life throws at them. They are 3D and evolving characters that you would want to spend time with.

By the end of this quick and enjoyable read, you are rooting for them to win. And when a quick resolution arrives at the end, even a secondary player seems fully fledged.

If we in Los Angeles had access to Yuengling, that would be perfect for this book. If you happen to have some Other Half cans I need the fridge, that would work to, since part of the action is in NYC. Closer to SoCal, you could look for a beer from Pomona’s Sanctum which the Dutch House was to the brother and sister.

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Book Review – Uncultivated by Andy Brennan

Been on a bit of a kick of books by food people with pretty uncompromising views and Uncultivated is the tip of that particular spear.

Author Brennan walks his path and when it comes to apples and cider, it is a specific path. He grudgingly accepts that others have their way but as you read his book about his journey from NYC to a Cidery named after Aaron Burr, well you have to just go with it. Part philosophy, part natural agriculture, and all learning, this book really takes you into the mind and that explains why Brennan does what he does and why he does it in his own way.

I can sense that many readers of this book are either of this group or not but I would recommend setting aside what you know and add this information to your brain. I did not like Brennan early in this book, but as I turned the pages, I found a lot of practical information. And by the end, I really wanted to taste his cider.

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Don’t Do It

How to books for brewers have moved from beer styles to brewery build-outs and another is available with a bold title, “How NOT to start a F@ck!ng Brewery: Ten Business Lessons From The Front Lines of The Craft Beer Industry” Kelly Meyer has distilled his experience with The New Braunfels Brewing into this book and I am sure it will have some geographic specific and industry specific golden nuggets to mine.

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A Book & A Beer – Tightrope

When I went to buy this book, I hesitated. Did I want to read about despair? Tightrope – Americans Reaching for Hope has it from page 1.

But the setting, just east of where I went to college in McMinnville proved the final push and I am glad that I read it. Many books would try to prove a thesis and slightly or majorly bend the facts to fit their particular world view. This is especially true when politics is a major player. But the major player here is that the wife-husband write team of WuDunn and Kristof live in the area so the bent is towards the people who live there and how they have fared in this sub-section of America. That means that they love the people but not their actions.

They also find stories from across the US that touch on education, the opioid crisis, domestic violence and how it can be helped. It is not pleasant to read. To me it is a less funny version of John Oliver and Last Week Tonight. Taking apart the issues and laying them bare. It is hard to read and know that the life of your parents was filled with more hope than my generation (X) or future generations. But this book is filled with success too. And ideas. Ideas that mean less focus on the 1% and spending money on treatment, on schools, on medical coverage.

Because the area is filled with farms and vineyards, I have two suggestions for you. Find a farmhouse ale. Something rustic and earthy. Or you could find a beer from our state capital, Sacramento and then write a letter to your congressperson about what you learned from Tightrope and what you, as a voter, would like done.

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A Book & A Beer – The Department of Sensitive Crimes

My mom reads Alexander McCall Smith, so I knew going in that The Department of Sensitive Crimes is not going to be hard-nosed noir or sensitive but boy, this book makes Jessica Fletcher seem like Dirty Harry.

Set in Scandanavia we are set into a police group that has little to do and what little they do is so gentle and caring that even if you have a jaundiced view of police as I do, makes you think these people are way soft on crime. There are two crimes in this book as well as a depressed dog. An inter-office love affair that never happens and a guy who likes fishing. There is more violence and intrigue in a normal cubicle farm.

To pair with this pallid book, I would zip in the opposite direction. Try to find a local gruit. There is almost always one on tap somewhere. Yeah, not easy to find but it would tie you back to Europe and would have the spice needed to make this bland book more palatable. Or you could set up some Kveik yeasted IPA’s which are in larger supply and let the soft hop bitterness match that of this Department.

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Book Review – Best Food Writing of 2018

I try to read at least a couple Best Of books each year and I finally got around to the 2018 Food Writing edition.

And this year’s edition was another fascinating read. The short articles that reached me (in no order) was the Female Chefs piece which was quite the indictment of food media coverage and a roadmap for how to talk about minorities. (Oscars take heed). The science and business behind Driscoll’s strawberries was a peek behind the agricultural curtain to some shady business. White Lies of Craft Culture by Lauren Michelle Jackson was really powerful and though it has beer reference in the first paragraph that is then dropped it also deftly touches on appropriation. How to move forward wasn’t addressed to my liking but it was a thinking piece. And considering my arms length treatment of social medai, the article about a young Alaskan whaler really shows the power of loud voices. Especially in American, wrong loud voices that do not care that they are both.

Search this book out and you will be treated to a collection of well-done stories.

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A Book & A Beer – The Fire is Upon Us by Nicholas Buccola

I picked up The Fire is Upon Us from the library primarily because it was written by a professor at my Alma Mater, Linfield College. Not because I had an empty image of either of the two men at the center of the book.

Because the focus is narrowed to race, it is really hard to muster any sort of feeling for William Buckley. He was a prolific writer and as opposed to many politicians held convictions firm but he was also a man that time has passed by at a rapid pace whilst Baldwin becomes more and more important with each passing year.

Couple that with the fact that the debate isn’t arrived at until literally late in the last quarter of the book and you have the problem of having to leaf through backstory more than you experience the debate. Personally, I would have opted for a smaller book that really dug into everything around the debate as well as extended notes on how re-constructing a debate where only snippets of video exist, would have packed a more powerful punch. Heck, the fact that Buckley had severe time constraints due to an injury to his wife that he admirably did not want to leave alone, would have merited more attention.

Indeed the transcript of the debate makes for fascinating reading and reveals debate and oratorical skills as well as a grasp of socio and political ideas that I found fascinating.

As far as beers to taste while reading this book, I would tongue in cheek pick two breweries and give a representative sampling of their core beers of both to some friends (as well as yourself) and have them write down which beers struck their fancy and which brewery they think “won” this drinking debate. Perhaps get beers from a pair of New York breweries to make it closer to Baldwin’s home turf, since he (spoiler) won this debate.

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Book Review – The Microbrewery Handbook

I received a press copy of the Microbrewery Handbook amidst a flurry of library books so I set it aside for a quieter time since this is not a book that you can gloss over quickly.

Author D.C. Reeves has achieved the rare feat of writing a book that is full of actual, helpful information. And most of the book does not talk about beer at all.

Want to write a business plan? Tips inside. Social media strategy? Tips inside. How to engage with the community? You guessed it. Tips inside. But the section that most impressed me was how to keep employees engaged and how to hire them. I have worked now for a few different companies and managers and I can say that if I had one that followed what Reeves instructs, I would probably never leave that job.

Any brewery that is in the starting gate should read this book. Or if your brewery is at an inflection point, it should be read. I do not normally read or like “business” books but this one was an eye-opener.

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A Book & A Beer – Night Boat to Tangier

Two men sitting around a dock waiting for a relative to arrive (or maybe depart) by boat may make some think of the famous play Waiting for Godot and you would be right to think that the slim Night Boat to Tangier treads that territory. Two aging Irishman with a past of misdeeds and sexual dalliances are looking for the daughter of one (or is it the others) who left three years ago and hasn’t been heard of since.

The book made the New York Times Best of the Year list but it was a little too cold and calculating and left chunks of the two leads lives open to interpretation. There were repetitive lines as well that I understand were part of a poetic musicality, keeping up a pace but it did not work for me. Overall, I was more interested in the daughter character and her arc and with an interlude at a haunted housing development in Ireland than in Tangier.

To drink with this book, I would recommend finding a flight of Witbiers that utilize different spices. Eagle Rock Brewery has their Manifesto as well as variants (one with lemongrass) that would mimic some of the spices used in the food that you might find in Tangier.