Books

The Craft of Stone Brewing Co.: Liquid Lore, Epic Recipes, and Unabashed Arrogance
By Greg Koch and Steve Wagner with Randy Clemens
Ten Speed Press, September 2011, $25

The Stone story begins with a chance meeting: Greg Koch was running a rehearsal studio business in the late ’80s, and Steve Wagner was in a band renting one of his spaces (the name of that band is another story altogether). When the two ran into each other at a beer-tasting class at UC Davis, and Steve shared his homebrewed peach (yes, peach) beer with Greg, a friendship and inchoate partnership took root. Stone might be a brewery to be reckoned with now, but it took 15 years of twists and turns to get there. As if their colorful anecdotes aren’t enough of a draw, Greg, Steve and their friends who pop in from time to time with their own contributions, write like they brew—off-the-cuff, and to the great pleasure of the beer-drinking public.

Charleston Beer: A High-Gravity History of Lowcountry Beer
By Timmons Pettigrew
The History Press, September 2011, $19.99

The first settlers of Charleston, S.C., brought with them 12 tons of beer. As Timmons Pettigrew aptly puts it: “Now that the tone is set, let’s get right to it.” Pettigrew traces the history of the city’s tumultuous beer culture from the corrupt tavern-licensing process of the 1700s right up through Prohibition and the city’s recent brewing renaissance, occasionally zooming out, as historians are wont to to do, to place each event in national and international context. Centuries-old newspaper clippings are peppered throughout the first half of the book, while the second half chronicles the stories of Charleston’s contemporary brewing pioneers, like Palmetto, Southend and COAST, who are pretty amazing—they are, after all, descendants of people who lugged 12 tons of beer across the ocean. ■