Beer Book Recommendations

http://www.amazon.com/Charleston-Be...-Lowcountry/dp/1609492447/ref=asap_bc?ie=UTF8

A really amazingly well written book by an amazing author. I think he's even on BA.

 

I Loved "Beyond the Pale: The Story of Sierra Nevada Brewing Company" by Ken Grossman

 

For anyone interested in California breweries this book has some interesting and in some cases hilarious interviews.

 

Would you mind listing some of the inaccuracies?

 

Get it!

 

There's an entire website devoted to them - OC Beer Commentary

 

Yes, see jesskidden's link. And that's just the tip of the iceberg.

 

http://www.italybeercountry.com/


Excerpt from the Book

My taste for beer stems from my father. Born in Cincinnati, he was a big fan of German-style lagers and of quality beer in general. He wasn’t much of a drinker, but he enjoyed a good beer and was never shy to offer me some. I loved it. When I turned fourteen years old, we moved to Vicenza in northern Italy.

Being near the Austrian border, it was commonplace to find various styles of German and Austrian lagers. I was old enough in Italy to drink and took to discovering these beers with a passion. I wouldn’t say I was a beer nerd, necessarily, but more of a beer drinker with a thirst for very good beer.

When I moved to Denver, I started working at one of the most important American tap houses, the Falling Rock Tap House.

“Our friendship began in 1998,” recalls Paul Vismara, Illustrator, “ever since I started going to the Falling Rock Tap House for their unrivaled selection of craft beer. I moved from Chicago to Denver and knew of Falling Rock. The day the moving truck left, I walked the six blocks to check it out. I immediately liked the casual, sarcastic vibe of the staff, and you couldn’t find a better beer selection in the state. Falling Rock became my place of choice, and I eventually got to know most everyone who worked there, including Bryan.

“I attended art school in Pasadena, California, in the late 1980s. This was a time when American craft beer was slowly getting underway, and California had two of the most vibrant and important players, Anchor and Sierra Nevada. Whenever I had the chance, the first thing I’d do when entering a bar was look for the oval Anchor labels or the green Sierra Nevada Pale Ale label. Any beer fan from that era remembers the constant search.”

While I was in Rome visiting my parents in 2012, a friend suggested I check out Trastevere: “That’s where you’ll find beer.”

I took my friend’s advice and stepped into a pizzeria called Bir e Fud with several Italian craft beers on tap. Both my wife and I were surprised. What had happened here? This was incredible. When had this all happened? We had no idea.

Back in Denver, near the end of that summer, I was reflecting on my experience in Rome to Paul, who is truly a beer nerd. It was just a conversation, nothing more than a reflection while having a beer at the Falling Rock. Paul speaks Italian, has traveled there often, and loves Rome almost as much as I do.

“This project began with a foggy-brained phone call in the summer of 2012,” Paul says. “I had just moved, in the midst of a very busy period, and with the stress wasn’t sleeping well. The alarm went off, and I stumbled down the stairs with thoughts swirling through my still-asleep brain. I poured a cup of yesterday’s coffee, nuked it, and picked up the phone to call Bryan. ‘Hey, we should write a book about Italian craft beer.’

“‘Hell, yeah,’ Bryan replied. ‘That’s a great idea!’

“We had been looking for a project to work on together almost from the time we first met nearly fifteen years ago. Bryan has been a writer for fifteen years, and I have been a freelance illustrator for nearly twenty-five. It was always in the back of our minds, but nothing had come along that we were both excited about. This was it. This was our project. We could bring all our passions together: writing, illustration, and beer in one book.

“The first person we approached was our boss, Chris Black, owner of the Falling Rock, who has a wealth of beer knowledge. He didn’t know much about Italian beer, but he did know someone who might, Eric Wallace.”

Eric is the founder of Left Hand Brewing, not far from Denver in Longmont, Colorado. He has lived in Europe, is married to an Italian, and speaks the language fluently. He was very familiar with the movement and knew many brewers, writers, critics, and publicans. We handed him a list of Italian breweries and asked him to point out the most important ones.

Paul and I knew we were onto something. We had no idea how we were going to tackle this, but we knew we had to. During one of our late-night meetings, we finally decided to simply call some of these brewers and see if they would be available to talk to us if we flew out there. We called Agostino Arioli first.

Agostino was a stranger to us, but he readily made himself available and even offered to pick us up when we arrived in Milan. Agostino was gracious and set us on the right course. As we went through Eric Wallace’s checklist and began to collect interviews for this story, we were continually humbled. All the people we met gave us their time generously and encouraged us.

To any beer lover reading this, we hope you find the chance to visit our new friends in Italy. They will treat you with all the charm and love Italians are famous for. They are imaginative, creative, and extraordinary craftsmen—but everything you need to know about them, you’ll discover in their beer.

In Bocca Al Luppolo,
Bryan and Paul

 

Tasting Beer by Randy Mosher

 

I'm really enjoying this one.

 

The late Michael Jackson got me started reading about beer (other than how to make it) - His World Guide to Beer is especially entertaining but just about anything he wrote is good. Randy Mosher's Tasting Beer is important and very good. Roger Protz's The Taste of Beer is another classic. Tom Acitelli's The Audacity of Hops provides a history of the craft beer revolution. Schultz's Beer, Food and Flavor is good on pairing food and beer as is Garrett Oliver's The Brew Master's Table. Bernstein, The Complete Beer Course is Good. If you are thinking about cellaring beer or are sick of drinking stuff that tastes like wet cardboard pick up Dawson's Vintage Beer.

 

That is an excellent book. My copy must be older than your copy since mine has no foreword.

 

+100 for this, I came to recommend it myself. It's a quick read, only $12, and has a lot of great information.

Some of it is a bit on the 'common sense' side, but plenty goes beyond that; along with some nice recommendations of verticals along with tasting notes from them.

Also a big +1 to The Complete Beer Course. It's a great mix of "coffee table book" and "to do list" (especially if you count the "others also worth looking at" in his side-by-side comparisons)

 

this is actually the copy i have, and i don't recall the forward from Sam but yeah, i enjoyed the read even if the author didn't really achieve his intended purpose.

 

This was written by the head specialty brewer at Green Man and is very easy to follow. I know Mike and he really knows his stuff and is a super nice guy.

 

Really love "Beyond the Pale" ,Sierra Nevada's story. Certainly gave me a new-found respect for Mr. Grossman, as well as his incredible company.

 

That's the copy I have. Why do you think Wells didn't achieve his purpose?

 

Home Brew Beer by Greg Hughes (Dorling Kindersley). Lots of great information such as the history of beer, styles, ingredients, and of course, how to make beer!

 

The Brewer's Tale by William Bostwick is a decent enough read and it gives you a bit of beer history as well.

 

I'm curious what the presiding opinion is on Michael Jackson's books, in light of the fact that we're so far removed from the last edits made to them?

Particularly in the US, so much has happened in that time, so are his works nearing the point of obsolescence, or because he focused so much on foreign (to the US) beers, does his work retain a greater level of relevance?