Beer Books for Beginners

Depends on your interests - history, the brewing process, food pairings? Or are you like me and want to learn anything about beer and brewing? Even if you don't home brew, you can learn a lot by reading books on how to brew.

There's some excellent suggestions already, but if you have a particular focus in mind maybe they can be streamlined some.

 

I really enjoyed this by Josh Bernstein.

http://www.amazon.com/Complete-Beer...8-1-fkmr2&keywords=beer+course+josh+bernstein

 

I found this one very interesting. A huge debt of gratitude to Fritz Maytag and F.X. Matt...

 

The Beer Bible
The Brewmaster's Table
The Oxford Companion to Beer
The Audacity of Hops

 

How to brew is a great home brewing book that breaks down the process.

 

I have seen it posted here but I will repeat it... The Beer Bible by Jeff Alworth is a fantastic book and a great guide to the world of BEER. Another good book that talks about how craft brewers do it is We Make Beer by Sean Lewis. And another good guide would be The Complete Beer Course by Joshua M. Bernstein.
And for a great story about one of the huge macro lagers try Citizen Coors by Dan Baum. This is a fantastic book about a Prussian immigrant with a vision.

 

This SITE is the best beer "book" for anyone to enjoy.

 

At times it was a slow read, but it was great to get the layout of craft beer history. Being from Northern California it was cool to read how important Norcal was to it all.

 

Your profile indicates that you reside in MA. so I would recommend you pick up a current copy of Ale Street News (Vol. 24- No. 6) as it features a story on beer reads. The "brewspaper" should be available at many good bars and package stores near you. Or you can hit up the website at www.alestreetnews.com to find out where to pick up a copy. As far as your question goes, it is kind of well broad. What I mean is you don't really mention what you're interests may be. The answer would vary if you were looking for "homebrewing" books for example. I'm sure many reads in this thread will steer you in the right direction as well. If you're looking for some local writers who discuss the very region in which you live, may I suggest Beer Lover's New England or Boston Beer written by Norman Miller, or The Good Beer Guide to New England by Andy Crouch. For more homebrewing books: Charlie Papazian or Randy Mosher are both great authors. For books by brewers, I liked Garrett Oliver's The Brewmaster's Table. Also anything you come across from Michael Jackson is usually great. Search your local bookseller or at Amazon and buy based on your interests. Have fun, hope this thread helps you find what you are looking for.

 

Saw this at the new Bull Moose in Keene the other day flipped through it, thought it was kind of neat, pondered spending $12 on it. Now I'm thinking I'll go back and grab a copy. Thanks for the recommendation.