Category: Beer Books

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Book Review – The Spirit of Gin

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I think I would like and get along with Matt Teacher, the author of The Spirit of Gin, more than I enjoyed reading his “Stirring Miscellany of the New Gin Revival”.

After reading the Kindle version of the Spirit of Gin, I went to Vroman’s Bookstore in Pasadena for two reasons.

One.  To see if the layout of the book was butchered by trying to fit into the e-format and two, to find a better book on gin because minus a few points learned this book was not what I needed to learn about gin.

I feel spoiled by Tasting Whiskey by Lew Bryson. It has set a high bar for books about spirits. And Teacher’s book doesn’t even come close to that height.

A few reasons why: The photo placement is random. There is no history of gin except for a couple limited paragraphs. There are so many recipes that you would think it is a cocktail book and not a “miscellany”.  The organization/skeleton of the book seems haphazard.  And according to the percentage read stats, a good 25% is just a list of gins and distillers.

Now that the litany of complaints is mostly complete, we come to my major issue. The tone of the author is weak. Teacher can’t project a newbie vibe which could work well and draw other people in for the ride and certainly doesn’t project an authority of gin information. He closes each and every interview with slight variants of “and I said thank you and left.”  It drove me crazy. His handling of interviews was hamhanded. A simple Q&A would have been better suited to his writing style.

What I was looking for as a fan (albeit mostly through gin & tonics) was a history, a primer on styles, distillery practices and examples to start a tasting.  What I got was a limited prohibition history with a catalog of gins.

And that is why I went to the bookstore, to get more knowledge.

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A Book & A Beer – Slade House

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This month we delve into the interlocked world of David Mitchell and his haunted house mystery, Slade House.

First, a little digression. Most people know the author David Mitchell from the Cloud Atlas book that became a movie with Tom Hanks and Halle Berry. Now that book was fine but I really liked Black Swan Green more and I grew to like The Bone Clocks and the Thousand Autumns of Jacob de Zoet more as well.

It helps to know when reading from the Mitchell oeuvre that characters from one book might wash ashore in another and that souls don’t seem to be anchored down very tightly either.

Back to Slade House, until the end it is a horror/fantasy straight out of the X-Files. A sibling duo that needs to feed every nine years to power their lifestyle. Then they choose the wrong person at the end, a leading Bone Clocks character ends the story and ties it into the other books.

For beers, gotta go dark and British and well evil is connected to the color black so first up is Black House from Modern Times followed by Black Cab from Fuller’s a thoroughly English Porter.

Or in a nod to name dropping that Mitchell does so well, maybe a dark mild from Timothy Taylor since Jason Taylor from Black Swan Green shares a name with the brewer.

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Beer Book Review – Oh Beautiful Beer!

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Oh Beautiful Beer by Harvey Shepard is a fitting title for the excellent design on the pages inside. Each and every page has a very well executed design on a bottle label, on the bottle itself or on a can.

The main strength of the book is the hardest. Which labels to pick and which do not make the cut, surprisingly, there are many pages of beers that I either never drunk or have never heard of before. I appreciated that many of the examples were from outside of the US. Beer geeks get a little too U.S. centered at times and it is refreshing to see how design and packaging is done out of our little bubble.

This type of book lives and dies on the photography and layout. On this aspect, Shephard has fully delivered. The photos are crisp and clear and take in all the angles of this 3D art form.

I do wish that the book was bigger. That is probably an economic choice but even after lingering on the many details of certain pages, I was done with the book far too quickly. If more photos could not be included, I would have liked to see more opinion and discussion of each label. My biggest letdown in the book was that there would be a two page spread of a really interesting design and no words about it other than the design house.

I would like to also have seen a little bit of information on the governmental restrictions of labels and how design can be used to overcome regulatory handcuffs.

If you want to see if you like the book before purchasing, you should check out Shepard’s blog from whence this book sprang.

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Cookies & Beer

Today’s theme is the sweet tooth of beer and we start with a book that a Cookie Monster and a beer geek monster would love, Cookies & Beer a new cook(i.e.)book by Jonathan Bender.
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For all the home brewers out there with an over abundance of spent grain, here is another way to use it, with chocolate chips.

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A Beer & A Book (& A TV Show) – Modern Romance

I still have two episodes of Masters of None to watch so no spoilers but this fictionalized extension of the book Modern Romance shows Aziz Ansari in his glorious irony.
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I strongly suggest reading the book first. Most books by comedians, even the good ones, are just written versions of routines or a riff on a topic that they are known for cracking wise about. Modern Romance is more sociological, more historical and more about his own life and family then it is funny. And that is despite the fact that it is really funny too. The chapter about breaking up in the modern age of smart phones and emoji’s is really illuminating about how different my crew of Gen X’ers handle life versus how the Millenials do. God how I hate typing those stereotypical words but they get the point across.

Once you have finished the book, move over to Netflix and watch Master of None. Inspired casting and big themes that can come across a little heavy handed if not for the fact that they aren’t talked about outside of Amy Schumer.  Dealing with parents, dealing with sexism and how to date talked about in sitcom form but still bristling with points being made.  Good stuff.

When it comes to beer, since phones are so prevalent in book and TV show, how about 805 from Firestone Walker or Goose Island 312 Wheat Beer would fit that bill and are both easy to find.

Food plays a role in both as well so how about a Jalapeno Sculpin from Ballast Point or Seme Della Vita from Monkish Brewing with pistachios.

Frankly any good session beer that you can drink while binge watching 10 episodes would work too.

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A Toast to NaNoWriMo

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It is that time of year again, when I take fingers to keyboard and attempt to write a coherent novella under the umbrella of NaNoWriMo, National Novel Writing Month.

I did it, that first year, because my sister and a nephew or two were doing it. But now I find it a taxing but rewarding way to force myself to write. Maybe not any better or any clearer but to set the mind to thinking about stringing words together in new patterns. Not that I would force anyone to read the drivel. Probably wouldn’t make for the basis of a bad screenplay.

It can be hard to blog consistently. Just look at the beer blogs that don’t have any new posts. Not even cut and pasted press releases! Inspiration needs to be found at times and also re-charging needs to be done. Otherwise it can become a chore.

Raise a glass then to all those who are giving it a run and maybe spread a little hashtag #NaNoWriMo love to those who have added another deadline to their lives.

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Beer Reading List – Drinking in America

Thoughtful takes on drinking and its effects on people and their culture that give backstory are much needed because it is easy to just pick your side and your facts and your statistics and say “I am right.” Which is why I hope that Drinking in America, from author Susan Cheever can deliver on its promise in “taking a long, thoughtful look at the way alcohol has changed our nation’s history. This is the often–overlooked story of how alcohol has shaped American events and the American character from the seventeenth to the twentieth century.”
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Somehow Cheever weaves together the Mayflower, slavery the McCarthy witch hunts, and the Kennedy assassination into her narrative to take stock of our love/hate relationship of alcohol.

The book is now on my to read list and I will review at a later date.

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Book Review – The Beer Bible by Jeff Alworth

I am not done reading the Beer Bible by Jeff Alworth. In fact, I am maybe only 60% done. Barring a bunch of empty pages though, I can already say that I am giving this book as much of a positive review as I possibly can.
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It can be a double-edged sword to say that the author’s voice comes through on the page. In this instance though, it sets the tone for a book that is witty, educational and fun. Beer books, especially ones centered on beer styles and signature beers for that style do not have to be dry affairs, nor do they need bunches of photos or an “edge”. History and the backstory make for intriguing reading and that is practically on every page.

Alworth has re-jiggered the styles into larger like-minded groups. Wet-Hopped beers get their own chapter where usually they are grouped alongside pale ales and IPA’s. Gratzers and Goses are bunched with others that form the lost and found Germanic styles as opposed to being lumped with all German beers. Each chapter concludes with a concise group of beers emblematic of what was just talked about. But before that you get more technical detail and the building blocks of the beers in a succinct manner.

I do want to touch on the design as well. There are a couple slight flaws that are a bit bothersome. The type is a little small for my tired computer eyes and the black and white photos lack the pop that color or a glossier paper stock would provide. But the layout itself is nice with the blocks of text being broken up well and the little changes in color or border providing a change of pace without being distracting.

My favorite parts of the book are the intermittent brewery sections that are peppered throughout the book. Getting a closer look into Dupont and its famous Saison was really cool. But each one is well chosen. They are all important but not talked about enough spots around the globe. I was tempted to just go through and read those first.

It is still a long book but one that goes by quickly and I have already used it a couple of times to refresh my memory when writing a post. It is the sleeker, faster version of the Oxford Guide to Beer.

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A Book & A Beer – A Dirty Job by Christopher Moore

CaptureIn time for Halloween season, the book of the month is suitably about death, or what happens when a normal guy with a baby becomes part of Team Grim Reaper.

That is the premise of A Dirty Job by Christopher Moore. This is the first book by Moore that I have read and I did appreciate the style.  Jaunty with a mordant wit.  Very of the age and descriptive of the area of San Francisco.  The character names like Minty Fresh are fun if over the top.  Overall, this book moved along well, the side characters are fun and the device at the start is clever.  The problem that I have is that the main character, Charlie Asher is continuously described as a beta male to the point where I began to really hate that pair of words.  He is a wimp and whiny and a hypochondriac and I didn’t much care for him except for the last section in the climactic finale.  That finale takes a while to arrive and then is gone too fast.  A mixed review from me.  Not enough though to make me want to read the sequel though.

To drink while reading it, I would start with He’Brew Death of a Contract Brewer a Black IPA.  First reason, there is a bit of religion woven into the book plus of course the whole word Death makes it a no brainer.  Keeping with the death theme, Death & Taxes from the fabulous Moonlight Brewing Company would be a great choice.  A lighter ABV but dark lager is a great reading session beer.  If you want a label with the scythe and reaper then Pale Death a Belgian-Style Imperial IPA from Double Mountain in Hood River.  A deeper cut would be Park from Fort Point Brewing in San Francisco.  Finding a parking space in SF is a sport and is mentioned frequently in the book so that would be my choice.

 

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A Book & A Beer – The Maintenance of Headway

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The Maintenance of Headway is slight book is the London bus driver equivalent of The Office (take your pick of British or US versions).  Droll, quiet and quietly funny on each and every page.  Anybody who has worked with weirdos and the rules from above will be bookmarking pages to talk about.  Our narrator takes us through some sorta eventful days in the life of a bus driver in London.  The ending is a quiet (again with that word) shocker but really in tune with what has happened before.  A gem of a book.

So this is set in London, so for us Angeleno’s when we talk British, that means MacLeod’s from Van Nuys and since the theme of the Underground is “Mind the Gap”, I would start with The Session Gap. An Ordinary Bitter at 3.5% that would not be out of place in the hand of one of the gents from the book.

And since tea is a big part of the book, my second pick would be from Noble Ale Works.  Earl Grey Dinghy.  Now I know that is a seasonal but Evan Price has been doing some cool British inspired beers so maybe check out The Londoner, a fun English Porter.

Or, you could just randomly choose a British beer (preferably from a shoppe that has a good turnover, because foreign beer suffers getting here).  I would look for something from Meantime like their London Lager.