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I just Kindle’d this book from British beer éminence grise Roger Protz charts the rise-fall and big rise of IPA from a non-hazy perspective with the basic title of IPA and the much more instructive “A Legend in Our Time” sub-title.
A review to come later this month.
I haven’t had a real page turner in a while. That rare book that is exciting and literary at the same time. The type of book that you can picture as a good movie if done right.
The Twelve Lives of Samuel Hawley is one such book. The book is located in an East Coast small fishing town. Where a father and a daughter have returned to where the mother grew up.
There have been many moves in the past and lots of guns around the house they move into. In time, we learn of the twelve bullets that landed in Samuel Hawley both before and after the birth of Loo (I do hate girls/women with faux boy names). Poor Hawley as he is called, seems like a magnet for bullets which is bad considering his chosen profession is mostly of the illegal kind where guns seem to be plentiful.
The interaction between Hawley and Loo as well as flashbacks to friends, enemies and more enemies as well as his love, Lily lend an easy poignancy that has you rooting for them and against their foes.
What makes this book is that it sticks the landing. Loo gets a end of movie style moment that closes the adventure but also leaves some strands open. Both Hawley and Loo have grown and learned a bit but they haven’t fake changed, their character arcs remain in motion.
To drink with this book, you could pick from many states since the characters roam from one crime adventure to another but I will pick one from each side of the US. Something bitter for the teenager Loo and something rough and dark for Hawley.
Alaskan Brewing Icy Bay IPA or their Smoked Porter would be perfect for the wayward job in Alaska.
For the East, Harpoon Brewery has Hoppy Adventure IPA or Nana’s Nightcap Porter. (yes, there is a cranky yet worldy grandma in the story)
I went on a little Kindle reading spree and this is the first book (on sale!) that I read, Beeronomics: How Beer Explains the World by Devin Briski and Johan Swinnen.
I went through this book on Kindle fairly quickly which is a good sign for a history focused book. History can easily become deathly dull.
But overall, despite some nuggets of new facts, this book is a bit too scattershot for me. I think I would have rather read a deep dive on the history of Gruit taxes or more content on the Eastern European breweries before and after communist rule.
As it were, when the topic of SABInBev came up, I wanted to read Dethroning the King again rather than the shortened chapter given to it in the book.
As a beer book completist, it was good to fill in the gaps but I wanted more.
Barrel-Aged Stout and Selling Out by Josh Noel may be the first of a wave of books to analyze the selling and its long term ramifications. And I for one cannot wait to hear the juicy details of how it happened and the fallout. Let’s hope that Noel can pace this story well.
Review to follow.
There are some books that just make you thirsty and travel the next day to Belgium. Trappist Beer Travels is just such a book.
The conceit is simple. Visit each of the Official Trappist breweries, take a bunch of photographs and get the historical record of each. Oh, and try some beer.
The three authors do a great job of concisely telling the long histories behind each of the monasteries as well as giving you the info needed about visiting. The photographs really transport your there though, finishing the seduction. There are the requisite beer glass shots but also great views of the grounds and the brewing equipment.
You could say the book is a bit pedestrian. There are some personal notes included but this book isn’t about that or long-winded beer tasting notes. It isn’t a fancy windmill dunk of a book but more of a graceful layup. Half coffee table book and half reference book.
I was recently asked what my favorite beer style currently is. It was a welcome, though tough, question. Usually, you get the more prosaic, what is your favorite beer which leads to the even worse answer of Whatever I am drinking now!
When it comes to books though, I have a very clear favorite. The River Whyby David James Duncan. One might look at the blurb for the book and come to the conclusion that I like fishing and the Oregon outdoors. That would be wrong. I am not someone who hunts or rafts or camps. I like hotels with wi-fi and free breakfast.
So why is a book that talks about fishing and a bygone book The Compleat Angler something that I have read multiple times. It is because of the lead character Augustine aka Gus, aka Gloomy Gus and his family H2O, Ma and Bill Bob Orviston. It is a book of discovery. That sounds lame as I type it, but it is the truth. It is about finding your place in your family and in the world and then creating your own family. And I find hope and solace in that discovery. Because it is not easy and I don’t know still if it should be or not.
There is philosophy everywhere in this book and I tolerate that too to get to the parts where Gus is tongue tied when he first meets Eddy or when Gus tells a whopper of a fish tale to an unknowing “fishing writer” or literally any of the action between H2O and Ma. In each reading, I have been taken by a different character. My first read, I pictured myself as Gus but lately I gravitate more to Ma and Bill Bob.
Recently, I have given this book as gifts to two people. One my age and one to my oldest nephew and it is a book I wholeheartedly recommend to anyone because I think that, they too will feel a kinship with one of the characters in the book.
Now for beers there are plenty of beers with a fish related name but a new beer from Sierra Nevada strikes me as a good first choice, 3 Weight is a new canned Session IPA that portrays a fisherman with rod in hand and hip deep in water and makes reference to the type of line being used to catch fish. Plus you could easily chill the can in the river.
And since the book is set in western Oregon, near the coast, I have selected a de Garde beer Purple Kriek. Get it, Kriek, or creek or crick. Might be a skosh too obvious. But it is also a wild ale and this is a wild and outdoorsy family.
I am a big proponent of beer travel but sometimes you have to settle for viewing where other people have been.
I haven’t visited Colorado too much just enough to whet the appetite so the coffee table book “Discovering Colorado Breweries” by photographer Dustin Hall will have to fill in the gaps of my travel.
The photography book documenting Colorado breweries will be released on January 20, 2018.
Hall spent nearly four years of photographing Colorado craft breweries and in 2016 launched a Kickstarter campaign to help fund the book’s printing.
Look for photos of Avery Brewing Company, Baere Brewing Co., Black Project Spontaneous & Wild Ales, Call to Arms Brewing Company, Crooked Stave Artisan Beer Project, Great Divide Brewing Company, Mockery Brewing, Renegade Brewing Company, Ska Brewing Company, Left Hand Brewing Company and Odell Brewing Company.
The book retails for $49.99.
You may see the chapters on brewing and think to yourself that this is another how-to book. And it is, but there is more than just grain bills and sterilizing tanks in this book…
Brew Your Business is written by a team of beer people and will give you the information on state and federal laws, sales, managing employees, raising capital, and how to set-up your brewery to succeed. And the kicker is that the Beer Goddess, Erin Peters added her two cents so look for that inside the pages.
I went into this book with high hopes. I have been on a bit of a King kick so I figured this would be another thriller/horror ride. Plus I love the novella format too.
But only the fourth of the set from Strange Weather was what I was looking for. And worse, the longest piece, Loaded, seemed an easy mark about our gun culture. Plus it was quite grim. Neither side of the debate would feel good after reading it and maybe that was the point. Aloft, the third tale, was weird with a lead character that I found annoying at times and didn’t end well. The book started with Snapshot which had a good thing going but the mechanics of the mysterious camera were never really explained so some of the scares were lost to me. I would have liked to have seen the gun polemic shortened to give more room for the other stories to fully firm.
The last story, Rain, was the clear winner. Great idea playing into our fear of the changing climate with a great and new type of lead character. She had spunk and was smart. The plot was scary and horrible at the same time and could possibly be real.
Here are some beer choices to “pair” with the book
Bottle Logic Stronger than Fiction Strong Ale
Maine Beer Co. Peeper
Burial Beer Weathered Scythe
I will readily admit that I am a Peter Pan freak. It speaks to my duality though that sometimes I am the Boy Who Never Grew U and other times I am much more Hook-ish in nature.
So half of me was ready to believe again in Hook’s Tale by John Pielmeier.
Though not a children’s book by any stretch, it is a quick read. It posits the other side of the story of how one James Cook got to Neverland, what was up with the massive crocodile and how the Hook came about. Replete with daddy issues and time at sea.
The set-up requires Cook before Hook to be able to fly at least until his supply of fairy dust is used up and he is the one that gets Peter to visit the Darling family so plenty of good call backs to the original book/play/panto. I didn’t quite get fully drawn into the explanation of the Neverland chain of islands but it does keep the universe contained.
The beer choices are a bit on the rum side. So let’s get on board the Jolly Roger and drink….
The Bruery – Tell No Tales
“Amongst the shipwreck that washed ashore, rum barrels were found. But the real treasure was the aging ale within. Once lost at sea, Tell No Tales is an imperial ale brewed with a bounty of yams and spices, aged in bourbon and rum barrels to temper the squalls ahead.”
Prairie Artisan – Pirate Bomb
“Pirate bomb is our beer Prairie Bomb! aged in rum casks. The flavor from the casks helps impart more vanilla and coconut flavors to the beer while helping to add more body and smoothness to the already explosive and expressive flavors of Bomb!”
Kona Brewing – Longboard Lager
“Longboard Island Lager is a smooth refreshing lager fermented and aged for five weeks at cold temperatures to yield its exceptionally smooth flavor. A delicate, slightly spicy hop aroma complements the malty body of this beer.”