Tag: The Beer Bible

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Beer Bible in L.A.

The second edition of the Beer Bible has been out fir a month or so and author Jeff Alworth has been doing a bit of promotional travel for it and landed in Los Angeles at Firestone Walker’s Propagator to talk about it with Prop brewer Sam Tierney.

I learned a few interesting brewing and beer history factoids such as in the early days of American brewing German hops were used for aroma and American hops for bittering, something that is completely reversed now.

Yeast was not an ingredient per the reinheitsgebot  because they did not consider it as staying in the beer.  It was though of as transient and not in the finished product.

Germans had to have a discussion to formalize that dry hopping was kosheraccording to committee for the reinheitsgebot. Spoiler alert, it was deemed OK.

Trends to watch when it comes to IPA. Czech styled takes on America IPAs might be a new trend.  And there might be a slight course correction for IPAs going back to more dry and bitter but keep the fruit.

If you did not buy the first version, I highly recommend. That and the 1909 American Bock that Firestone just added to their taplist.

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Beer Bible Revised and on Tour

Get your calendars out…

Noted beer writer Jeff Alworth will be in LA (Covid permitting) to plug his revised second edition of the Beer Bible. Which you should get if you do not have it yet. Click HERE to do it.

Frankly, even if dates get postponed, a Sunday at the Propagator is still gonna be fun.

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Book Review – The Beer Bible by Jeff Alworth

I am not done reading the Beer Bible by Jeff Alworth. In fact, I am maybe only 60% done. Barring a bunch of empty pages though, I can already say that I am giving this book as much of a positive review as I possibly can.
Beer_Bible
It can be a double-edged sword to say that the author’s voice comes through on the page. In this instance though, it sets the tone for a book that is witty, educational and fun. Beer books, especially ones centered on beer styles and signature beers for that style do not have to be dry affairs, nor do they need bunches of photos or an “edge”. History and the backstory make for intriguing reading and that is practically on every page.

Alworth has re-jiggered the styles into larger like-minded groups. Wet-Hopped beers get their own chapter where usually they are grouped alongside pale ales and IPA’s. Gratzers and Goses are bunched with others that form the lost and found Germanic styles as opposed to being lumped with all German beers. Each chapter concludes with a concise group of beers emblematic of what was just talked about. But before that you get more technical detail and the building blocks of the beers in a succinct manner.

I do want to touch on the design as well. There are a couple slight flaws that are a bit bothersome. The type is a little small for my tired computer eyes and the black and white photos lack the pop that color or a glossier paper stock would provide. But the layout itself is nice with the blocks of text being broken up well and the little changes in color or border providing a change of pace without being distracting.

My favorite parts of the book are the intermittent brewery sections that are peppered throughout the book. Getting a closer look into Dupont and its famous Saison was really cool. But each one is well chosen. They are all important but not talked about enough spots around the globe. I was tempted to just go through and read those first.

It is still a long book but one that goes by quickly and I have already used it a couple of times to refresh my memory when writing a post. It is the sleeker, faster version of the Oxford Guide to Beer.