Tag: book review

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Book Review – It’s the Beer Talking by Ian Clayton

Timing is a bit off. Reading a book about pub culture in a time of isolation. But It’s the Beer Talking has been on my list for awhile now. Author Ian Clayton is the type of person that is the exact opposite of me. Outgoing, quick to make friends and even quicker with a story.

So, at first, I was a little put off, to be honest. But once I re-dove into the book, it made sense. The beer is center here, as are the buildings and cities they are in, frankly, as the people are. But Clayton is talking about the underlying spirit that animates all of those things. What makes people care for the beer, buildings and people and by the end of the book, even a jaded introvert like me could see it.

Clayton, to me, would be one of those people who would be perfect for a podcast. You can tell that he is most at home around a table with some mates talking about “that time, when so-and-so and I….”. That gathering of friends has been captured in the book. Along with a wild cast of characters that novelists would have a hard time dreaming up.

I think you will have a wistful smile on your face as you turn to the last page.

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Book Review – Uncultivated by Andy Brennan

Been on a bit of a kick of books by food people with pretty uncompromising views and Uncultivated is the tip of that particular spear.

Author Brennan walks his path and when it comes to apples and cider, it is a specific path. He grudgingly accepts that others have their way but as you read his book about his journey from NYC to a Cidery named after Aaron Burr, well you have to just go with it. Part philosophy, part natural agriculture, and all learning, this book really takes you into the mind and that explains why Brennan does what he does and why he does it in his own way.

I can sense that many readers of this book are either of this group or not but I would recommend setting aside what you know and add this information to your brain. I did not like Brennan early in this book, but as I turned the pages, I found a lot of practical information. And by the end, I really wanted to taste his cider.

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A Book & A Beer – The Department of Sensitive Crimes

My mom reads Alexander McCall Smith, so I knew going in that The Department of Sensitive Crimes is not going to be hard-nosed noir or sensitive but boy, this book makes Jessica Fletcher seem like Dirty Harry.

Set in Scandanavia we are set into a police group that has little to do and what little they do is so gentle and caring that even if you have a jaundiced view of police as I do, makes you think these people are way soft on crime. There are two crimes in this book as well as a depressed dog. An inter-office love affair that never happens and a guy who likes fishing. There is more violence and intrigue in a normal cubicle farm.

To pair with this pallid book, I would zip in the opposite direction. Try to find a local gruit. There is almost always one on tap somewhere. Yeah, not easy to find but it would tie you back to Europe and would have the spice needed to make this bland book more palatable. Or you could set up some Kveik yeasted IPA’s which are in larger supply and let the soft hop bitterness match that of this Department.

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Featured Review – Spencer Premium Pilsner

Now my third (of four) American Trappist ale from  Spencer Brewery. This time around is…

…which I could tell as the aromas from this pilsner reached my nose that it was going to be steps above just good. Big Germanic Noble hops and grain mix flooded in.  Super crisp. Big wet mouthfeel to it.  Contrary but it works Mineral notes take over from there with no sweetness at all.

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Book Review – The Microbrewery Handbook

I received a press copy of the Microbrewery Handbook amidst a flurry of library books so I set it aside for a quieter time since this is not a book that you can gloss over quickly.

Author D.C. Reeves has achieved the rare feat of writing a book that is full of actual, helpful information. And most of the book does not talk about beer at all.

Want to write a business plan? Tips inside. Social media strategy? Tips inside. How to engage with the community? You guessed it. Tips inside. But the section that most impressed me was how to keep employees engaged and how to hire them. I have worked now for a few different companies and managers and I can say that if I had one that followed what Reeves instructs, I would probably never leave that job.

Any brewery that is in the starting gate should read this book. Or if your brewery is at an inflection point, it should be read. I do not normally read or like “business” books but this one was an eye-opener.

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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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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.

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A Book & A Beer -Adjustment Day

I almost put Adjustment Day down multiple times. Pretty much every time that Palahniuk mentioned Fight Club as a meta reference. The central revolutionary thesis is fine and probably plays well to a certain crowd who want to burn Trump down or split away from the 1/2 of the country they don’t agree with.

But I thought the idea that a country needs to cull itself of excess testosterone (i.e. males) to keep the country moving to be a much more interesting tack than the whole “adjustment day”.

I also wasn’t really super keen on any of the characters. I am fine with no central lead or an anti-hero but there was no character that I could really follow all the way through the through-line, as it were. Especially through all the spasms of violence that occur.

So, I can’t recommend this one but I can recommend some beers that would pair with it, if you are intrigued by the book or a Palahniuk completist.

Ninkasi Brewing – Day of the Red
Eugene gets name checked in as one of the centers of revolution so go with this horror themed beer from Ninkasi.

New Realm Brewing – Hoplandia

Part of the book is set in Atlanta, and considering that and the name of New Realm, I had to pick this bitter beer.

Closer to home, the also aptly named Liberation Brewing in Bixby Knolls has an Autonomy Amber that would be a good choice as well.

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Book Review – Drink Beer, Think Beer by John Holl

I have listened to podcasts with and read magazines edited by John Holl and have found him to be straightforward with loads of beer knowledge. I have also disagreements with some of his points.

And all of that is on display in the new book, Drink Beer, Think Beer. From the mis-use of Quality Control instead of the more accurate consistency control, to the repeated cry of bad beer from “craft” (wait, he doesn’t like that term or “independent”) breweries, I feel like setting the book down, only to find a great argument on the next page.

This gives the book a debate club sort of feel. There is no doubt that Holl has had a great many beers and a lengthy beer education but whenever I am about to be persuaded to his side, he undercuts by siding with big macrobreweries or proclaiming that the word balanced in a review forgets the effects of yeast or water.

Seriously, in that case, all beer reviews forget water literally ALL the time and yeast a vast percentage too.

Regular readers will know that I hate the regurgitation of beers ingredients in books and though Holl shifts the focus a bit, it still comes off as quick primer material.  Same with glassware.  Which may be fine for non-beer geeks but I don’t think this book is pitched to the non-believers.

And though I do like his opinionated nature and he backs up those opinions with reasons why he likes/dislikes something, I found the book frustrating as a whole and not adding as much as could have been to beer discussion. There also seemed to be slight digs aimed at beer fans, beer bloggers and brewers that could have been left out.  It left me thinking he was ticked off or on the fence leaning toward pessimism.

Personally, I would have liked perhaps more of a book about the problems and issues that breweries face before they open, after they open and in the future. I think his insights after visiting so many breweries would really shed light on the industry and be a new and vital topic.

Drink Beer, Think Beer seems to be an uneasy melding of the traditional and overdone, beer primer mixed with industry issues and the two just don’t work together in this book.

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Book Review – IPA by Roger Protz


IPA by British writer Roger Protz is a bit of split personality. The first 1/2 is loaded with interesting tidbits of brewing and more specifically hop facts such as:
only the female hop is used in brewing. You learn about the history in Britain and I was digging it. And I was looking forward to him bringing us up to (or fairly close to) modern IPA times.

But then the book turns into a survey of IPA’s from different sections of the world. And while it is instructive to be presented with other nations take on the popular style, the pace just slows down as you go from beer review to beer review and I kept wishing that Protz had stuck in the timeline and not moved out to the beer listing.

It should be said that the listing does have its merits in finding breweries that might be of interest. I certainly flagged a few on my Kindle app but that seems like a different book to me.

Overall, this book rates OK. Only because the second half was not what I wanted.