I'm thinking of getting a copy of one of Jackson's old books to upgrade from my pocket guide of his. It's not bad, but it keeps getting lost in my bookshelf. I'm looking at his World Guide to Beer, New World Guide to Beer, Beer Companion, Ultimate Beer, and Great Beer Guide. Can anyone who has these tell me how they're different, as in how they each takes a different angle?
World Guide ©1977 is arranged geographically with some countries' [Germany, UK, etc] styles then given their own sections within that chapter. New World Guide is just an updated edition of the WG done about a decade later, so many of the same pics and, probably, text, but with some added breweries (esp. for the US). Beer Companion ©1993 is arranged by the "Great Beer Styles of the World", with separate sections within larger groupings (i.e., the section called "Ales" includes 8 British syles of ale, & 6 Belgian ale types, etc.). Each style section include a description of some well-known beers of that style and their brewers. Ultimate Beer ©1998 (or, the UK edition, found in the US, just titled Beer) is arranged by style - with photos of the same layout of the bottle and glass, mostly 4 per page, and brief descriptions of each beer. Great Beer Guide ©1998- is very similar to Ultimate Beer, except the smaller format gives each beer its own page. Many of the same photos are used in UB and GBG, but the text is often different. (I guess many are OoP - so Amazon doesn't have a "Look Inside" option?) My first impulse is always to suggest "Collect 'em all!" and if you're doing that it seems to me you'd want to do it chronologically. (That's how I bought them, as they were released.) If you're going to stop at one, I'd say go with Beer Companion, I think I refer to that more than the others (save for all the Pocket Guides). That could be because I once kept a spare copy in my Kennedy toolbox at work, along with a hardcover college dictionary and The Machinery's Handbook.
I was thinking about posting a Jackson book thread tonight but since you did I thought I would add something. It's a bit off topic from what you are asking for, but not too far. Long story short, I just received a copy of Jacksons The English Pub, C. 1976. To Quote jesskidden, " collect em all" I paid $1 plus shipping from amazon. I saw it mentioned in Beer Hunter the movie and had to get a copy to add to my Jackson collection. All Jackson is worth having in your library.
Second all the positive posts already made. My buddy had a few of his mid-90s books (he worked in a distro that had a great selection for its time, lots of imports and whatever micro stuff was around) and we would read them over and over. It made us want to go out and try every beer we could. When we had tried every beer in his store, we would go to the few other locals that had good imports and micros and try to find the stuff that was in Jackson's books. Every country, no matter what style it was. I'm sure that has more than a little to do with our tastes now. This man is a legend.
Ultimate Beer gave me a deeper understanding of styles and has sections on food pairings, cooking with beer, and seasonal beers. Top notch for sure.
get all his books. there all pretty good. the beer club named after him is petty bad ass. http://www.beermonthclub.com/the-rare-beer-club.htm been a member for a couple years now. well worth it.
MJ's Great Beer Guide is still one of my favs 15 years on. It's proved to be a excellent guide to many counties over the years.. and it was only last week I had it out trying to see how many of the 500 beers in it I've drank!
I have an autographed copy of that. I got it at the National Homebrew Conference in Portland in 1993.
A while back books a million had many of his in the bargain bind. Needless to say I have every book of his. at least the one that made to the usa. either from used book stores or amazon. of course Jess nailed it as always...
