The Companion


There are beers to pair with record labels, Elysian with Loser fro Sub-Pop. There are beers brewed for city beer weeks. But this is the first beer made to pair with a book. But then it is Garrett Oliver the renaissance man of the beer world. Read on for more from Brooklyn Brewing….

“For the past four years, brewmaster Garrett Oliver has been working on a massive project. It’s the ultimate beer collaboration, but it’s not a beer. Published this September by Oxford University Press, it’s The Oxford Companion to Beer, the most comprehensive book on beer ever published, featuring 160 experts covering more than 1,100 subjects. It’s a momentous thing, so Garrett (Editor-in-Chief), Horst Dornbusch (Associate Editor, writer, scholar, man-about-town) and Thomas Kraus-Weyermann (writer and master maltster) hatched a plan. Together, they brewed our next Brewmaster’s Reserve beer, called The Companion.

Thomas created special new floor malts for The Companion, which is brewed in an old style called ‘wheat wine,’ a wheat-based equivalent to barley wine. The floor malts give this beer a juicy malt character of considerable depth, 55% malted wheat gives it a surprising lightness on the palate, while our house ale yeast lends a gentle fruitiness. The Oxford Companion will impart knowledge, while The Companion imparts conviviality. Maybe you really can have it all?”

I wonder how many people will read the book whilst drinking the beer?