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One could argue that we do not need IPA books or barrel-aged beer books since they are beer style categories already oft discussed and argued over, whereas the humble Bock Bier could use love.
When I purchased the latest Final Gravity beer ‘zine, what did I notice? A ‘zine about Bock. Looks like a quick way to learn more about a seldom seen style.
People do love beer and books as a pairing. Trustworthy Brewing in Burbank has a book club and when I was in Denver visiting breweries, Novel Strand Brewing had a full year of books.
And you can also join David Nilsen and Emily Swank on Instagram Live for HopLit. What is HopLit you ask?, It is “a casual book-and-beer hangout where we talk about what we’ve read recently, what’s on our TBR piles, and what beers we’re enjoying along the way!”
Follow Emily @thebeercanon on and @davidnilsenbeer on their Instagram accounts to get in on the reading action.
I mention the writer David Nilsen recently in talking about non-alcoholic beers and now I get to highlight his new book, Beer and Chocolate which gives you…
– “The basics of both beer and chocolate for folks coming to this topic more familiar with one or the other.
– The process for successfully pairing beer and chocolate.
– Instructions for how host a beer and chocolate pairing in your own home.
– Style by style pairing guidance for dozens of beer styles. In each style chapter, we talk about the style’s basic flavors and ingredients, how it pairs with chocolate (including challenges and types of chocolates to seek out and ones to avoid), commercial examples of beers in this styles and specific chocolate to seek out, and example pairings to illustrate the principles.
– Each style chapter also includes space to take pairing notes of your own.”
I have reviewed a good many N/A beers here on the BSP blog and one of the key metrics that I used was, “Did it taste like a full normal beer?”
Now thanks to David Nilsen a prolific writer on both beer and chocolate, I have a different perspective. Nilsen writes that we shouldn’t expect N/A to taste the same as a regular beer. They can’t be because the process is so different to make them. He also makes good points as to which styles work better. Lighter beers and sour beers will be closer than higher ABV beers or ones that lean on fermentation more.
Check HERE for more of his N/A writing.
So, yes, I did buy a beer ‘zine and wasn’t super stoked by the topics covered or the writing. And yes, I did just buy another beer ‘zine from the same person.
But Beer Remembered is a different format. It is about “memorable beers and beer moments from the past few years. These aren’t beer reviews, but vignettes of moments captured…”
