Category: Beer Books

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Book Review – Lager by Mark Dredge

I have already posted about my excitement for this new book about Lager from Mark Dredge and I finally got my package from Powell’s in the mail and dug into it quickly.

And there is a lot to like about the book. Dredge starts with a bang, in Germany with the Reinheitsgebot. But that tone of beer fan then cuts to lager history and that playfulness goes with it to an extent. It is clear there are some aspects of lager that really excite him, like the dive bars of Vietnam where gas tanks hold the beer and other areas where it seems he had to include to complete the story but leaves quickly like China.

This split personality structure stopped me from enjoying the book especially in the latter half which becomes a chapter by chapter tour of various countries and their part in the lager legacy.

I would have liked to have seen a more novella approach. Part 1 being German lagers and the foursome of brewers who started it. Part 2 being the American side of the story. Part 3 Asian influence and then Part 4 could slide into talk of the future. Then Dredge could have really dove in and the anecdotes would have packed more punch.

Overall, there are a lot of golden nuggets of lager knowledge to be found within the pages but the book’s momentum stalls out too many times.

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Twins

Take with a grain of salt, considering this was on the Mikkeller Facebook page, but a Danish journalist has written a twin-ography of the identical twins who started two breweries and have been feuding for practically all of those days. Will this be a fair account of both or will the arrow tilt one way over the other? Either way, I hope there is an English version in the works.

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A Book & A Beer – Full Throttle by Joe Hill

I am a fan of short stories and horror short stories are even better. Then add in that two of the stories in the Full Throttle collection from Joe Hill are co-written with his dad, Stephen King and you know you are in for some frights and dread.

Strangely though, I was most affected by the author’s foreword where he talks about his dad and other mentors in his life and especially by the less than a page story in the notes, A Little Sorrow. I re-read that piece many times before returning the book to the library.

In the meat of the book, All I Want is You is one of my picks, very Gaiman-esque but with a nasty little twist that is pure King brutalism. Late Returns, though a bit maudlin was also a nice ghost story turned to a different angle. The social media Twitter/Zombie story moved at a breakneck pace that I liked even though the ending was a bit predictable.

With short stories, you will find the “not my taste” pieces too. Read 10 reviews and I bet the favorite and least favorite will be drastically different. Faun, was a little too on point for me and the Dark Carousel was kind of overly predictable in the plot.

You can have fun with choices for horror stories and the beers to drink with them. Find a nice sour Allagash beer and sip while you read. Or if you want to create your own jump scares, get a coffee beer and let the caffeine do the work. Another good choice would be to find a Rose beer, Crooked Stave Sour Rose and pretend it is a different liquid.

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How To in 2019

I know that the Brewers Association has helpful tools and advice for those pondering the idea of opening their own breweries but sometimes you may want to hear from someone who has done it.  DC Reeves offers up The Microbrewery Handbook based on his real life experience in opening up Perfect Plain Brewing Company in Florida (never heard of it myself but then again, I cannot keep up with California)  The goal of the book is to offer “real-world advice and proven strategies to help brewers thrive in the competitive micro and craft brewing industry.”

What caught my eye is the fact that Reeves has sections where the following offer up advice: Sam Calagione of Dogfish Head, Jeffrey Stuffings of Jester King and Doug Resier of Burial Brewing.   And if you are thinking, “Why would a customer only want to read this book?”, well maybe you will see something that your local brewery might be doing already or should do to make visiting a taproom and experience rather than a trial.  Or maybe you will gain some empathy for those making this leap.

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Bitter TV

Of all the books to be optioned for a TV show, I did not expect Bitter Brew to be one. But according to this ARTICLE, it is in planning. Maybe it is a success of Succession thing.

If you haven’t read the book, do so. Maybe grab a new Non-Alcoholic Budweiser Zero to drink.

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A Book & A Beer – Hillbilly Elegy by J.D. Vance

I am not a big memoir reader (except for this year it seems) but as the author of Hillbilly Elegy states at the beginning of his book, this isn’t really a memoir.

It is a hybrid memoir with scattered bits of social policy thrown in. To me, the history of the J.D. Vance’s growing up is fascinating with one of the key take-aways being that the skills that he needed to survive childhood are not the same ones that he needed as an adult. I found the political and how to help the poor (aka hillbillies) to be a bit simplistic at times though Vance does go out of his way to say that the problem doesn’t have a one size fits all solution. Those thinking that he is some staunch Republican would find little in common with the current powermongers in DC or with most Republicans. He is basically right-center on the spectrum.

I will be highlighting breweries in Ohio and Kentucky where the book was primarily set this month, so for my recommendation, I would suggest (if still made) have a beer that was around when you were growing up. For me, I would find some Widmer or McMenamin’s to take me back to my past and the places that made me who I am.

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Like A Geek

Jeff Cioletti tries to pair up the geek subculture withe the alcohol industry in his latest book, Drink Like a Geek. This is his 5th book about adult beverages and one that may be the hardest to pull off. Especially if he leads with the fact that he “directed two documentaries about Star Wars Episode I” The book contains cocktail recipes but promises to add more than just being a genre recipe book. I will add it to my library list to preview.

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A Book & A Beer – The Nickel Boys

Colson Whitehead seems to be able to move from genre to genre seamlessly so I felt in good hands when it came to his latest, The Nickel Boys.

It is a slim book but it does pack a punch in telling the stories of Elwood and his fellow Nickel inmate Turner. Whitehead could have gone overboard with the violence but he has modulated it so that it stays horrifying instead of numbing the reader. The fact that a place like this existed creates enough sadness on its own as well. The two main characters come through vividly and the twist at the end leaves a pit in the stomach. There is no universe or karma coming to punish the violent men in this book while the scars show both physically and emotionally on the boys and men from Nickel.

There is no cool or fun beer link for a book like this but since it does leave a bad taste in the mouth, I would suggest finding a beer brewed for charity and putting some good into the world to offset the crap the kids in the book had to put up with. Or, even better, instead of buying an overpriced 4-pack, donate that money to a charity to help the Bahamas recover from Hurricane Dorian like the World Central Kitchen.

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If This Was Real…

…it just might be my next A Book & A Beer post for September…

…but alas it is not and it is a Racoon instead of my preferred woodland creature, the mighty badger. But maybe even in just image form, it could be a series of book covers.

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Book Review -The Lager Queen of Minnesota

The Lager Queen of Minnesota is has shout-outs to several SoCal beer people in the acknowledgment section in the back  and it is clear from this book by J. Ryan Stradal that he listened and took notes.  There are so many books out there where the minutia of other workplaces have been discussed from detectives to doctors and back again.  But this is the first book that talks about hops and malts and cleaning and beer culture inside the novel form.

The book takes three strands of women sisters Helen and Edith and Edith’s granddaughter Diana and covers their journeys to the present in a brewhouse through the lens of ambition, pie and the upper MidWest.  It is cool to see that all three characters are driven in different ways and strong in different ways and human in different ways and that men are mere side players in this interwoven story.

The tone is refreshingly nice and honest at the same time and doesn’t hammer points across but instead just glides from focusing on Helen to Edith and to Diana.  Each chapter name is a dollar amount that plays a part in that chapter and it is money that is a central focus of this book as much as the beer. 

The beer and brewing portions might seem a bit caricature but when you think about, beer people do resemble the people in this book and I loved the beer recipes that the Grandma’s make toward the latter stages.  It was clear that the author was having fun with it.

The Lager Queen might be too Midwest nice for some people but this book earns and sticks its landing at the end.  You will want to have a cold Blotz light when you finish.