Category: Beer Books

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Portland Beer

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I am looking forward to seeing how this history of Portland beer plays out and whether I agree with any suppositions made.  Kindle, here I come.

“Is it the water, or the quality hops? The deep-rooted appreciation of saloon culture? How did Portland, Oregon, become one of the nation’s leaders in craft beer cultivation and consumption with over 50 breweries in the city limits? Beer writer and historian Pete Dunlop traces the story of Rose City brewing from frontier saloons, through the uncomfortable yoke of temperance and prohibition, to the hard fought Brewpub Bill and the smashing success of the Oregon Brewers Festival. Meet the industry leaders in pursuit of great beer–Weinhard’s, McMenamins, Bridgeport, Portland Brewing, Widmer, and more–and top it off with a selection of trivia and local lore. Bringing together interviews and archival materials, Dunlop crafts a lively and engaging history of Portland’s climb to Beervana.”

Review to follow, maybe even in Oregon Beer Month.  Wait…that’s now!

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Book Review – Best Food Writing 2014

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I am a big fan of the “Best of” [pick a year] series of books. Be it mystery, essay, sports or comics, I have read a bunch of them throughout the years. I could add a rant about the fact that there is no specific volume for drinks but you can’t have everything.

But this review is talking about the next closest thing, Food Writing. The parallels between food and beer are obvious. The trend to bigger flavors and smaller producers occurs in both so I eagerly dove into the Best Food Writing of 2014.

Almost right off the bat was a great piece from Kate Krader, Are Big Flavors Destroying the American Palate? You could easily substitute Sriaracha for hops other wild flavors for sour beers and the article would still hit home. Krader advocates forcefully for simpler eating while also reserving a place at the table for the spicy.

Dan Barber wrote about a remarkable carrot with a Brix rating of 16.9. Which makes for a tremendously sweet carrot. The tinkering with plant life reminded me of the cross-breeding of hops and the new varietals that spring up. The piece also was one of the few that really made me hungry and I am not a huge vegetable fan.

After that there were quite a few essays that just didn’t reach out to me from the pages. Nothing boring or off-putting but nothing that leapt from the pages. The book is laid out into categories such as “The Way We Eat Now”, “Personal Taste” and the chapter that broke the losing streak, “Extreme Eating”.

There was an excellent article about the final meals of death row inmates but maybe because I have been watching season 3 of Orange is the New Black, the essay by Kevin Pang, “Fixed Menu” about the food at the Westville Prison near Chicago drew me in and taught me at the same time.

My favorite writing was from former New York Times food writer, Frank Bruni. “Familiarity Breeds Content” housed my favorite quote in the book, “I was a paid philanderer. It was exhilarating. It was exhausting. And it wasn’t necessarily the best course” I was happy to see that the eternal struggle of the new, new versus the old familiar stand-by was not just a craft beer phenomenon. And like the article about big flavors, there seems to be a push for comforting foods and drinks. Not everything needs habanero added. A simple meal at a restaurant where the people know your name can be just as exciting.

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The Law

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Numerous times I have heard the phrase, “There was no one place to get the information that I needed to start my brewery.”.

Now, with Brew Law 101, maybe the journey will be a bit easier. The California Edition covers “business formation and capital raising to location and licensing to labeling and intellectual property to employment law and common craft beer contracts.”

If that doesn’t sell you, then the fact that Peter Zien of AleSmith and Tomme Arthur of Lost Abbey have contributed, should put the book over the top.

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Book Review – Canned! by Russ Phillips

Canned! Artwork of the Modern American Beer Can really illustrates what a good label and branding can do for a craft beer.

Just go to page 153 to see it. There you will find the first iteration of Dale’s Pale Ale from Oskar Blues. Barely recognizable from what is on shelves today except for the color scheme of blue and red.

That is the strength and weakness of this book. Canning is still young enough to not have a ton of design changes. But those changes that are there chart the growth of craft beer.

Comparing one brewery and their design to another is cool but too many designs are too jokey or too cluttered or the biggest cardinal sin to me, don’t highlight the brewery name enough.

My personal favorites from the book are below:

I wish the Santa Fe Brewing name was bigger and the design is more poster-like but these labels are artfully arranged while utilizing common iconic colors and images.
I wish the Santa Fe Brewing name was bigger and the design is more poster-like but these labels are artfully arranged while utilizing common iconic colors and images.
Hilliard's is so retro and Mad Men and so different from the other designs out there. They just pop but they feel textured as well.
Upslope is so simple and classy. Relying on colors to indicate the beer style but without looking too spare. The Pumpkin Ale can is my favorite.
Upslope is so simple and classy. Relying on colors to indicate the beer style but without looking too spare. The Pumpkin Ale can is my favorite.
Hilliard’s is so retro and Mad Men and so different from the other designs out there. They just pop but they feel textured as well.

I almost wish that this was a glossy magazine that appeared quarterly rather than a one-time book.  By the time this book was in my hands, more cans and different label designs have been out in the world.

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Book Review – The Beer Wench’s Guide to Beer by Ashley Routson

I guess that I was expecting more. More of the distinctive voice of the Beer Wench (aka Ashley Routson) in her Guide to Beer.
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As it stands, her book certainly is fine. Interesting recipes for using beer with food. Interesting ideas for beer and food pairings and a thankfully not overlong section on beer styles.
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But the verve and wit and yes, attitude that I was waiting for never showed up on the page. Which is sad because that is what would have propelled this book. I could get all the information in Routson’s guide elsewhere. Be it Tasting Beer or The Brewmaster’s Table most specifically. Those two books went into much more detail without having the slow pace of this book. A more polarizing tone would have worked for me because it would have added to the pacing and anticipation.

What I was hoping to get was more on the female side of the beer world. Maybe a little backstory on her journey into the world of beer. More on blogging and social media and her thoughts on how they work or don’t work when it comes to the business of craft beer.

Sidebars that chart her favorite beers or mini-biographies of female brewers active now would have been great too. In fact I would have been happier if her book wasn’t aimed at me, the white American male at all.

For example, instead of yet another author tackling the very well covered topic on how beer is made, how about using her nom de beer, Saison de Wench as an example of how that particular beer was made by organic brewer Bison to elucidate the process instead. Use her experience to shine light from a new direction. Another tack that could have been taken would be to explore the world of beer cocktails in more depth. I have to believe that Routson has the ideas to have made that chapter much bigger.
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Ultimately, the book is OK. A reader learns about beer for sure. But The Beer Wench’s Guide to Beer won’t supplant earlier efforts by other authors on the core subjects and doesn’t add measurably to more specific craft beer subjects because her personality has only lightly touched on the pages.

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Pasteur in Pasadena

Continuing a day of Pasadena-centric posts, we head out to the Huntington. A fabulous museum and garden that has recently added some special documents of beer importance.
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At the intersection of beer-science-history, sits Louis Pasteur. Pasteurization came from his study of fermentation and the museum has recently purchased “eight leaves of Pasteur’s lab notes on beer brewing from the 1870s”

These notes led to the advancement of beer quality by simply heating to at least 122 degrees to kill off the bad microbes that were making beer of that age spoiled and rotten.

I also found this quote from the Huntington website to show how far craft beer has made inroads. “These notes provide a key window into a particular area in the history of science, but my sense is that these may well be of interest to researchers who more and more are investigating the history of food and drink, as well as hand-crafted beer.”

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What are You Drinking?

Readers of the blog know that I am both a big beer book fan and a big Pete Brown fan. And now he has a story to tell and he has chosen to use Unbound which is basically a book Kickstarter and the premise is simple…

“Beer is traditionally made from four natural ingredients: malted barley, hops, yeast and water, and each of these has an incredible story to tell.”

I am looking forward to this coming out.  A layman’s take on the ingredients and the people behind them should have contain some golden nuggets of beer information.

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Book Review – Tasting Whiskey

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My thought while reading this fine book was that I wished I had bought the physical version instead of the e-book. Because Tasting Whiskey by Lew Bryson is a great resource and a great read.

From the start and the simple explanation of why it can be spelled “whisky” and/or “whiskey” to the theory of The Wall, I knew that I would be taking a lot of screenshots of pages.

And that was the start of my learning. Next up was “reflux” and how that affects the spirit. Then the differences between the major styles of Canadian, Scotch, Bourbon, Japanese, Irish and craft distillers. With helpful charts to show the whiskey curious which bottle might be best to for their particular taste.

There is a smattering of history, distillation science and myths. Talk of the Angel’s Share along with recipes and whiskey auctions. The pace doesn’t lag in any of these sections.

But the best part of the book is the tone. Intelligent but down to earth. Helpful and not elitist. Definitely geek and not snob. The overall message is simply to try whiskey and have fun doing so. A tone that I wish I could master.

I could pull quote after quote to illustrate my point but it is probably best that you get your own copy and dog ear the pages that are most relevant to you.

Whether you are a whiskey aficionado or a novice. This book will make you look at the drink with more world wisdom than before.

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Take a Sip

Screen Shot 2015-01-10 at 10.20.01 AMA new beverage magazine is on the way! Sip California. They will be covering “3,600 wineries, hundreds of craft breweries, distilleries on the rise, hard cider expansion, epicurean travel accommodations, bustling bar scenes and culinary artisans of the region, Sip California will showcase the stories behind everything you love to sip—all in one place.”

Hopefully it will be as balanced as my go-to favorite magazine in this genre, Imbibe.  Second hopefully is that it will be distributed so the average person can find it.

I am optimistic though because they have San Diego beer writer Brandon Hernández on board which is a good sign.  He is sharp and talented.

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Original Gravity – the Magazine

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This is the stylized British tabloid sized beer paper that will come in handy for anyone that either lives over there or is planning a visit or just wants to keep up on the current trends of British Craft beer.  And let’s face it, most American no F*^% All about what is going on with British beer.  I was sold when I saw the recommendation for the Brew Brittania book.  Plus they have a music and beer piece from the esteemed Pete Brown.

Check out the internet issue HERE.  You will be glad you di.