I have recently acquired two new beer books and am very happy with both.
The first, The Brewers Apprentice, by Greg Koch & Matt Allyn, is an excellent resource for brewing general styles and specific aspects of brewing. Each chapter incorporates an interview with a highly respected brewer who's at the top of their game regarding the aspect the chapter is about, whether it be hops, aroma hops, malt, IPA's, Belgians, etc... There are questions about how someone came to be a brewer and what drew them to a particular style as well. If I was to try a new style, there are great tips in each chapter from water to yeast to fermentation techniques.
The second, Boutique Beer: 500 Quality Craft Beers, by Ben McFarland, is perhaps the best collection of awesome beers in one place that I've yet seen. There are books like 1001 Beers You Must Try Before You Die! (Adrian Tierney-Jones, ed.), The Beer Book (Tim Hampson), World Beer (Tim Hampson), 300 Beers to Try Before You Die! (Roger Protz) and 300 More Beers to Try Before You Die! (Roger Protz) that list a ton of different beers, but none talk about the beer in such a way I think. I say I think because I've only skimmed the two Tim Hampson books, both of which are great in their own way, but they do not offer as many unique beers and tend to cover the mainstream craft scene. There are also great highlights about specific breweries all over the world. I'm still reading through this and it is super enjoyable and gives wonderful brews to chase after, even if some of them probably never make it over to the States.
My next book conquest is between two different books: The Beer Book, by Tim Hampson, or Home Brew Beyond the Basics, by Mike Karnowski. The former is more of a novelty item with over 1700 beers to ogle from all over the world. The latter is probably the best manual type guide to homebrewing with tons of pictures and helpful information.
Showing posts with label beerbooks. Show all posts
Showing posts with label beerbooks. Show all posts
Saturday, October 18, 2014
Sunday, July 27, 2014
Beer Books
Took a trip to Barnes & Noble the other day. Not a good idea. Starting to not like going there, because I leave without the 30+ books that I wanted to leave with. I haven't even done extensive searching on the internet for other choice books, but there is bound to be some (that and magazines).
Here's a list of all the other awesome books I'd love to add to my collection over the next 5 years:
1) Brewed Awakening, by Joshua Bernstein - I think this goes into the craft beer explosion and how brewing has since evolved.
2) The Beer Trials, by Robin Goldstein - a compilation of blind taste test thoughts and ratings on some of the worlds most popular beers, there is a website here.
3) Vintage Beer, by Patrick Dawson - all about aged and aging beers, the fun high alcohol content beers!
4) Radical Brewing, by Randy Kosher - details how brewing has become more than 5 ingredients and what some of the "radical" brews are that now exist.
5) Great Beers, ed. by Tim Hampson - 700 beers from around the world, novelty.
6) Great American Craft Beer, by Andy Crouch - journalist and beer snob, his book takes you on a tasting tour of American breweries, he has a website here.
7) Home Brew Beer, Greg Hughes - picture heavy basic home brew guide with lots of recipes.
8) Starting Your Own Brewery, by Dick Cantwell - BP (Brewer's Publications) so should be a good guide.
9) The Craft Beer Cookbook, by Jacquelyn Dodd - I wanna learn more about cooking/pairing food with beer.
10) The Beer Book, ed. by Tim Hampson - has a blog, here, and
11) World Beer, ed. by Tim Hampson - this name keeps coming up a lot, an encyclopedic book of over 800 beers from around the world.
12) The World Atlas of Beer, by Tim Webb and Stephen Beaumont - goes country to country in an interesting guide of sorts.
13) The Illustrated Guide to Brewing Beer, by Matthew Shaefer - comprehensive guide to home brewing, might be one of a couple good guides that I could choose from.
14) Home Brew Beyond the Basics, by Mike Karnowski - taking home brewing to the next level, this could be a good choice, all grain brewing included.
15) Extreme Brewing, by Sam Calagione - owner of Dogfish Head, Calagione shows how brewing is going to the extremes and using unusual ingredients and high alcohol levels.
16) The Brewers Apprentice, by Greg Koch & Matt Allyn - craft brewing according to the leaders of today's art, enhances the average knowledge of brewing with master tips.
17) 300 Beers to Try Before You Die! by Roger Protz - top beers according to Protz and his tasting notes, sounds good to me!
18) How to Brew, by John Palmer - one of many, will have to compare this home brewing guide to others.
19) Beer: What to Drink Next, by Michael Larson - a cool novelty book about different styles of beer, specific ones to try and all with cool graphics to help you along, even has a periodic table of beer.
20) Sustainable Home Brewing, by Loftus - I think this talks a lot about yeast and home grown ingredients.
21) Water, by John Palmer & Colin Kaminski - a PB, more in to the science of pH and what makes good beer water.
22) The Brewmasters Bible, by Stephen Snyder - another home brewing do-it-yourself book with lots of recipes.
23) Craft Beer for the Home Brewer, by Michael Agnew - real brews from real breweries adapted for the home brewer, would be really interesting to try some of these someday.
24) The Brewmaster's Table, by Garrett Oliver - every microbrewery needs a brewpub, this book is by the brewmaster at Brooklyn Brewery.
25) 1001 Beers You Must Try Before You Die, by Adrian Tierney-Jones - cool novelty reference book that's fun to have sitting on your coffee table and pore over for hours.
26) Yeast, by Chris White & Jamil Zainasheff - gotta learn about yeast and types and keeping it sterile and vibrant.
27) Make Some Beer, by Erica Shea & Stephen Valand - their journey to several breweries around the country and subsequent recipes of inspired brews for home brewing.
28) IPA, by Mitch Steele - IPA is probably America's number one craft brew style of choice, gotta learn my stuff.
29) The Pocket Beer Companion - novelty quick reference, don't know if I really want this.
30) The Homebrewers Journal - or something like this, to keep track of successes and failures and data along the way.
See? 30 books, and that was at first just a guess until I started number listing them. Anyway, this is also just a hypothetical list and hopefully over the course of a couple more visits to Barnes & Nobles I can spend some time in each book to figure out which I'd really like and those I can let fall to the wayside. If and when I do pick up some books I will try and give a review on this blog. The only book I currently own is Tasting Beer, by Randy Mosher which is a really good broad based introduction to the history of styles, how to taste and suggested brews (to give a brief example of its contents). Also I've been reading one of the guides to home brewing by Dave Miller. I got three out of the library but have not quite gotten through one yet in just over a week.
Read any of these books? What do you think?
Here's a list of all the other awesome books I'd love to add to my collection over the next 5 years:
1) Brewed Awakening, by Joshua Bernstein - I think this goes into the craft beer explosion and how brewing has since evolved.
2) The Beer Trials, by Robin Goldstein - a compilation of blind taste test thoughts and ratings on some of the worlds most popular beers, there is a website here.
3) Vintage Beer, by Patrick Dawson - all about aged and aging beers, the fun high alcohol content beers!
4) Radical Brewing, by Randy Kosher - details how brewing has become more than 5 ingredients and what some of the "radical" brews are that now exist.
5) Great Beers, ed. by Tim Hampson - 700 beers from around the world, novelty.
6) Great American Craft Beer, by Andy Crouch - journalist and beer snob, his book takes you on a tasting tour of American breweries, he has a website here.
7) Home Brew Beer, Greg Hughes - picture heavy basic home brew guide with lots of recipes.
8) Starting Your Own Brewery, by Dick Cantwell - BP (Brewer's Publications) so should be a good guide.
9) The Craft Beer Cookbook, by Jacquelyn Dodd - I wanna learn more about cooking/pairing food with beer.
10) The Beer Book, ed. by Tim Hampson - has a blog, here, and
11) World Beer, ed. by Tim Hampson - this name keeps coming up a lot, an encyclopedic book of over 800 beers from around the world.
12) The World Atlas of Beer, by Tim Webb and Stephen Beaumont - goes country to country in an interesting guide of sorts.
13) The Illustrated Guide to Brewing Beer, by Matthew Shaefer - comprehensive guide to home brewing, might be one of a couple good guides that I could choose from.
14) Home Brew Beyond the Basics, by Mike Karnowski - taking home brewing to the next level, this could be a good choice, all grain brewing included.
15) Extreme Brewing, by Sam Calagione - owner of Dogfish Head, Calagione shows how brewing is going to the extremes and using unusual ingredients and high alcohol levels.
16) The Brewers Apprentice, by Greg Koch & Matt Allyn - craft brewing according to the leaders of today's art, enhances the average knowledge of brewing with master tips.
17) 300 Beers to Try Before You Die! by Roger Protz - top beers according to Protz and his tasting notes, sounds good to me!
18) How to Brew, by John Palmer - one of many, will have to compare this home brewing guide to others.
19) Beer: What to Drink Next, by Michael Larson - a cool novelty book about different styles of beer, specific ones to try and all with cool graphics to help you along, even has a periodic table of beer.
20) Sustainable Home Brewing, by Loftus - I think this talks a lot about yeast and home grown ingredients.
21) Water, by John Palmer & Colin Kaminski - a PB, more in to the science of pH and what makes good beer water.
22) The Brewmasters Bible, by Stephen Snyder - another home brewing do-it-yourself book with lots of recipes.
23) Craft Beer for the Home Brewer, by Michael Agnew - real brews from real breweries adapted for the home brewer, would be really interesting to try some of these someday.
24) The Brewmaster's Table, by Garrett Oliver - every microbrewery needs a brewpub, this book is by the brewmaster at Brooklyn Brewery.
25) 1001 Beers You Must Try Before You Die, by Adrian Tierney-Jones - cool novelty reference book that's fun to have sitting on your coffee table and pore over for hours.
26) Yeast, by Chris White & Jamil Zainasheff - gotta learn about yeast and types and keeping it sterile and vibrant.
27) Make Some Beer, by Erica Shea & Stephen Valand - their journey to several breweries around the country and subsequent recipes of inspired brews for home brewing.
28) IPA, by Mitch Steele - IPA is probably America's number one craft brew style of choice, gotta learn my stuff.
29) The Pocket Beer Companion - novelty quick reference, don't know if I really want this.
30) The Homebrewers Journal - or something like this, to keep track of successes and failures and data along the way.
See? 30 books, and that was at first just a guess until I started number listing them. Anyway, this is also just a hypothetical list and hopefully over the course of a couple more visits to Barnes & Nobles I can spend some time in each book to figure out which I'd really like and those I can let fall to the wayside. If and when I do pick up some books I will try and give a review on this blog. The only book I currently own is Tasting Beer, by Randy Mosher which is a really good broad based introduction to the history of styles, how to taste and suggested brews (to give a brief example of its contents). Also I've been reading one of the guides to home brewing by Dave Miller. I got three out of the library but have not quite gotten through one yet in just over a week.
Read any of these books? What do you think?
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