I am a fan of books about beer, spirits and wine. But I also am intrigued by the science behind those three beverages too. Which is why I read with great interest on the NPR blog, The Salt about a new book that delves into the topic of bitter, the flavor. Check out the full post HERE. If I can get my hands on this book, I will review it here.
Book Review – Proof – The Science of Booze
Adam Rogers has pulled off a pretty good feat. Making science not seem so science-y. Plus he introduced me to quite a few historical characters involved one way or another with making wine, spirits and our favorite beer.
Proof follows the ABV trail from the yeast to the hangover in linear fashion with many fascinating stops in between.
Some of the chapters mesh together better than others. Yeast is one. The characters and the science and the history meld together to get one point across. The same for the chapters on the effect of alcohol on the human body (and mind).
Others suffer from being a bit muddled mixed with trying to cover too much ground. I felt the fermentation chapter typified that issue. I would have liked more on the science of it even if it did ever into repeating some of the earlier information.
That being said, the problem was more of too much of a good thing and not too little. And you will probably not look at hangovers the same way after reading how Rogers gently debunks cures ad remedies, old and new. It was my second favorite part of the book after yeast.
The one take-away from the book that has stayed with me the longest is the idea of a “confused culture”. One that indulges in alcohol but also prohibits it or rails against it. We Americans have taken that term to a whole new level and not only with alcohol. Sex, celebrity and food all spring to mind.
Maybe if we all understood how ABV affects us, we would be better equipped to deal with its aftermath.
Book Review – The Craft Beer Revolution
The Craft Beer Revolution by Steve Hindy is the behind-the-scenes business version of craft beer’s rise in the last 40+ years. Think of it as a companion piece to The Audacity of Hops by Tom Acitelli which charted the rise from the brewing and people perpective.
I almost forgot the sub-title: How a Band of Microbrewers is Transforming the World’s Favorite Drink.
Hindy, was a co-founder of the very influential Brooklyn Brewery. Which has given the craft beer community such great beers as Local 1 and their Black Chocolate Stout and Sorachi Ace. It is also where beer luminary Garrett Oliver brews. So their roots are deep.
At first, I thought this was going to be all old news but by the middle of the book, I was gaining new knowledge about people as diverse as Kim Jordan of New Belgium and the recently passed Jack Joyce of Rogue. And unwittingly, (I think) Hindy makes Boston Beer and Jim Koch into a special interest irritant. I finished the book thinking less of Koch and the Sam Adams brand.
Of more interest to me was Chapter 7 – Beer and the Media. But this chapter, while providing the back story to RateBeer and BeerAdvocate doesn’t have the insights that start to occur with more frequency as the book goes along. I would think that mentioning Jay Brooks or Jeff Alworth or beer bloggers in general would warrant a paragraph or two.
But where the Media chapter falls flat, the chapter on distributors is more illuminating. Maybe because I know less, so I am more apt to be amazed by facts like Reyes Beverage Group being the largest distributor in the US and it started in 1976. A skosh before the craft cause. And drilling down, the laws and changing alliances around taxes and states rights and the emergence of the BA is all fascinating stuff. You can almost picture what would have happened if events had happened differently.
And when Hindy reaches what he calls the “Third Generation” the book really kicked into high gear. I was dog-earing pages left and right. Discussion of what size works best from multiple viewpoints is a topic for a whole book alone. And hearing about a CSA style of brewery started me to thinking about how that could work here in Los Angeles.
But the summation quote came from Dan Carey of New Glarus in Wisconsin and I am so glad that it is now immortalized in book form. Carey says, “The idea of the huge megashippers is not the norm. That was the deviation. We are not the deviation.” I have often thought about craft vs. the BMC in terms of going back to the roots but I hadn’t thought about it as succinctly as that.
Overall, this book book works more on the political and business level than on the love of beer level. Though that sentiment hangs over the book. And as I said before, it is a great companion to the Audacity of Hops. Together they make a great history lesson on craft beer. Where we were and where we are going.
Book Review – The Perfect Keg
Perhaps word has gotten out that I love books about beer. Because every twice-in-a-while, I will get a new book to read and I was glad to get The Perfect Keg by Ian Coutts. With the appended longer title of “Sowing, scythng, malting and brewing my to the best-ever pint of beer.”
What I liked most about this book was the honesty. This isn’t a book about going from point A to B in a straight and unerring line. This is a book with fits and starts. There are learning curves and mishaps. Two steps forward and one back. But it is written in such a go-get’em tone that you are rooting for Coutts to make that Perfect Keg a reality.
There are home-brew recipes sprinkled throughout the book but not being a brewer home or otherwise, I was more interested by the the process of really doing a “local” beer. There is a lot of lip service paid to local and community driven beer whilst deliveries from across the world come in the back of the brewery. And I think it is very important to be more transparent about the whole affair. If brewery A can only afford malt from a certain place then so be it. There is no dishonor there.
And this book, though ostensibly only about brewing one special batch at home with local malt, yeast and hops really brings the point to a sharper point. What do you do if the malt isn’t coming out of the ground in enough quantity? How do you coax hops to grow in an area not conducive to hop bines? What is the history of brewing in the area?
There are trips to professors of Agriculture. Talks with brewers and farmers here that will add to the craft beer fan’s knowledge of brewing. My favorite section of the book though is about the whole malting process and all of the conflicting advice and wisdom that is out there. And trying to cobble together a Rube Goldberg malting set-up is one of the funnier (now, probably not then) parts of the book.
This is an easy and fun read that has a lot more going on than the typical craft beer book.
I also got the opportunity to ask the author Ian, a few questions. Some will appear right now (others in Beer Paper LA in the future)….
1. How do you compare the beer scenes in Canada and the US?
We are a) catching up and b) slightly ahead. Let me explain. I think in most of English Canada, we are playing catch-up with the U.S. Despite all the jokes that Canadians traditionally made about American beer, honest Canadians have known for a decade or more that the Americans were way out there in terms of imaginative craft brewing – think of those West Coast Pale Ales that have conquered the world, for example. To my mind, craft brewing here for the longest time was still stuck back in the early days when a slightly hopped brownish ale could occasion utter hysteria. But I think we’re catching up.
But then there’s the slightly ahead part. And that’s Quebec. Beer-wise, they don’t just march to the beat of a different drum, it’s a completely different band. When craft beer started to take off in the 1980s, they were in there with live yeast beers, decades before anyone else. Belgian styles, French styles, beers made with spruce needles or hibiscus – even without any malted grains at all — craft brewers there will try anything and the audience is always up for something new.
2. What Canadian breweries do you suggest Americans get to know?
That’s a tough one because, as in the U.S., craft brewing is highly regional. I am sure there are fantastic beers in British Columbia or Nova Scotia that I have never heard of here in Ontario. But I can recommend a few from my part of the world. Beau’s does neat beers – one-offs, seasonals, they keep mixing it up. I like Church Key’s Holy Smoke – made with smoked malt, there is nothing else quite like it up here. And then there’s Quebec. Three firms there that do daring beers are Les Trois Mousquetaires, Le Castor and Grimoire. Unibroue was one of the first Quebec craft brewers. They were bought out, but still do good stuff. And if you ever find yourself in the Ottawa region, cross the river and head for a shop called Bieres du Monde in Aylmer, Quebec. This guy stocks 300 different beers – all from Quebec.
Canned (the Book)
Russ Phillips, the creator of the CraftCans website now has added a physical version in the form of Canned! Artwork of the Modern American Beer Can.
You get to peruse the “original artwork on 600 different modern beer cans from 40 states.” Breweries included are Sierra Nevada, Ska, Midnight Sun, Maui, New Belgium, Oskar Blues, and more!
If you are a can fan. And/or an art fan. This is the book for you
Two More books to Put on Your Radar + One to get Now
I am a book fiend. The only thing I consume more of is beer. And two more books are in the publishing pipeline that I think are worthy of reading the first few pages of. (That’s what I always do, to see if the writer has a good style).
First up is….
Probably to be read before any beer intake. This is the from the lab look at this fascinating part of our beverage. And it involves not only neurobiology and psychology but metallurgy as well. That is the part that intrigues me.
Then, we head to Brooklyn for….
The co-founder of Brooklyn Brewery dives into the relatively recent history of America’s microbreweries. You might see some overlap between this and the Audacity of Hops book from last year. But the perspective is different since Hindy is inside the industry, as opposed to being a journalist looking in.
Lastly, I know you might want to spend money on beer and not books so check out from a library (which I also love) a copy of….
…the 2013 edition of the Best Food Writing. Does it have anything about craft beer? No. Sadly. But it does touch on many topics that if you replaced carrots or restaurant and inserted craft beer, the writing might shed light on how we look at beer. What is local? What is slow food? We are all kin and this book will enlighten you.
Book Review: Cheese and Beer
Even for beer geeks who love minutiae and going down educational rabbit holes can be scared off of learning about other food and drink which have similar learning curves.
Thankfully, Cheese and Beer by Janet Fletcher carries a consistent tone that straddles the line between beer appreciation and snobbery well. By that I mean that some craft beer books seem to either apologize for the price or flavor adjectives and try to dumb down to an extent. Or they might avoid plain language for technical detail.
This book (which I read via the Nook) is straightforward. Here is the beer style. Here are examples of that style from breweries far and wide. Here are three cheeses to pair with it and why. Here are other cheeses you can also try.
The descriptions are great for both the beers and the cheeses. The writing is clear and as opposed to some books the beers selected as exemplars are uniformly solid. The photography is very nice though some of the backdrops seem a bit over used. The reasoning that Fletcher uses as to why each style pairs with individual cheeses makes what could be complicated, understandable.
And it makes you hungry. The recipe using Picandou cheese and salad with a Kolsch is simple but sounds delicious and there are at least four or five cheeses that I want to try now.
The only issue that I take is that the format is a bit repetitive. And that point is highlighted when Fletcher focuses on a single beer and makes even more specific choices. I would have liked to see more specific beer and cheese pairings. Saison DuPont or a coffee stout would have made good choices.
All in all this is a splendid edition to a beer library.
What’s the Vintage
To get a foreword from “Dr.” Bill from Stone for your book requires a little something extra. And that is what Vintage Beer has. Not that the topic alone wouldn’t pique the interest of many a beer geek and snob.
Cellaring beer is a small hobby of mine so count me in to read this book. From what I could find, it is the first of it’s kind on this niche subject of the craft beer world. Go to Amazon and read the “Sneak Peek” and see if you agree.
Book review – Brewing in Milwaukee
Brewing in Milwaukee is part of the Images of America series from Arcadia Books. In a nutshell (or mash tun) it is a set of old-time photographs with a little accompanying text before each chapter detailing the history of Brewing in Milwaukee Wisconsin.
Another way to look at it is like an exhibit at a local history museum. As with the Yuengling book that I reviewed earlier. I loved the photographs and I just wish there had been more text or a timeline or something to accompany it. That is probably more a reflection of my greedy nature.
But here is what I took away from this addition to the historical beer canon….
– fire was always a menace to these breweries. No OSHA apparently.
– there was a Weissbier brewery by the name of Gipfel
– beer deliver in winter was perilous
– seems like the beer barons married into the business
– lots of clay bottles used back then
– wish some of these old buildings could have been repurposed, not razed
– Schlitz was 8 city blocks big!
And much more. If you are a fan of beer history this is great stuff about a brewing city that is not talked about much anymore sadly.
Review – Beer Lover’s Guide to Southern California
Before I review the Beer Lover’s Guide to Southern California available where fine books (about beer) are sold, I have two disclaimers. One general and one specific.
In general, guidebooks have two inherent flaws to them. First, they are quickly out of date and that is especially true of beer guidebooks. Even in slow but gaining speed, Los Angeles, breweries are opening faster than a blogger can visit and write about them let alone a book with a much longer lead time. And second, they invariably leave places out. Either due to space or personal preference. You can’t (as a reviewer) let either problem affect the overall review.
Specifically, I know and am friends with the author, Kristofor Barnes. So obviously, I will be a little more inclined to like the book. Especially since my blog is mentioned twice! That being said, as with anything that I review, I will pull no punches. If I don’t like something, I will point it out. No sugarcoating here.
That out of the way, here is my review…..
This guidebook is hefty. In both weight and in area covered. I am still in disbelief that the author visited sooo many breweries, not to mention the brewpubs and bars. It covers from north to south from Buellton all the way to San Diego. You certainly get your money’s worth in information as well. From the current brewers names to beers brewed to the vibe of each place. The layout is well done for the most part and easy to read which is a plus.
And not matter how well beer traveled you are. This book will have many, many, many places that you haven’t visited or tasted a single beer from. For me the San Diego sections were the most helpful because it is the area that I have visited the least. Now I feel like I have the intel needed to make my next trip south more successful.
But the two high points for me are the photography and the beer pick. Beer photography can get monotonous (just look at the wacky angles I use on this blog). But the photos here are crisp and visually interesting and with a nice variety of backdrops to them. More importantly the beer pick for each brewery are well chosen. In fact it is what I read first before going back to read from the beginning. Barnes hits on the flagships and IPA’s but he also spreads the love all the way around style-wise effortlessly. Some books can seem to be stretching to include a beer for the sake of variety but that isn’t the case here.
On the downside, there are a couple of odd chapter choices. Separating Lancaster out seems a bit odd for two breweries. And I am still puzzling over how the Glendale Tap is in one chapter and Golden Road and Eagle Rock in another even though all three are literally on the same boulevard. Also map related, I am still on the fence about the map accompanying each chapter. The orientation forces you to turn the book around like a manual iPad. I also think that most people will use their GPS on their smartphones for finding the beer and not a map in a book even if they have the book in the car. I would have gone with a map of the full area from north to south in the background and the specific area in the foreground with the logos of the chosen few instead of numbers and a key.
There also seemed duplication of effort as well. We are treated to handy and helpful reviews of, for instance, Downtown LA. All good. Loved the choices and descriptions. Then there was a Walking Tour section that basically retread the same ground. It would have been better to just give the walking directions with other additions of places that get summary attention as opposed to fuller coverage. I would rather see other underappreciated places like Melody Lounge or Bottle Rock mentioned then a second whack at Far Bar. No matter how much I like it.
The writing really shows that Barnes wears his heart and enthusiasm on his sleeve. That is both a major plus and a minor negative. You can tell that he loves the people, the places and the beers which is still what this craft beer movement needs in places like LA but a critical touch in San Diego is probably warranted to steer the beer traveler to the best of the best. You do have to read between the lines to see if one place is better than another. But I do prefer that to snarky or snobby.
Overall, I do think this is a must buy book. There is just too much good information in this Beer Lover’s Guide to pass up. And it is in one handy spot for easy reference.