Don Russell’s Christmas Beer: The Cheeriest, Tastiest, and Most Unusual Holiday Brews came out last year while we were in Europe. Thus I write from experience when I suggest this is not a book you want to start reading in January, when these beers have disappeared from the shelves. A few facts: The book is [...]

On July 9 Luke Nicholas put two casks of Armageddon IPA on a New Zealand ferry, sending them on a journey that would last six weeks, 126 trips back and forth across the Cook Strait. Colin Mallon, manager of Wellington specialist beer bar The Malthouse, and Nicholas, owner and brewer of Epic Beer, hit upon [...]

Posted at Brew Like a Monk because the topic is Belgian beer. Short version: Excellent book which you can order here. My experience is shipping is very fast.

I’m taking my time reading Hops and Glory, enjoying each page and reading some of them twice. So it may be a while before you get a review out of me. You’ll find early returns at the link above, as well as Stephen Beaumont’s take here. I’m a little surprised that nobody has mentioned (though [...]

Given that more than 300 people have signed up as members of the Facebook group Pete Brown created to support his book, “Hops and Glory,” I might be a little late telling you it exists. But if you didn’t know you should. Or at least that the book is (sort of) available. I briefly forgot [...]

At the end of the Preface to “Tasting Beer,” right before you head to Page One, there’s a picture of a glass of beer with a command: “Don’t even consider starting this book without a beer in hand.” Since you have the book in the other hand you probably aren’t going to ask yourself if, [...]

Makin’ a list and checkin’ twice, it’s that time of year. I’m woefully behind so breathed a sigh of relief when I discovered a few books that were supposed to be here when we returned from Europe, so that I might provide an opinion if you should buy them, were not to be seen. Thus [...]

FrankenBrew: How to Build a Micro-Brewery, is now available on DVD. I haven’t seen this video, assembled in 1995, in some time and fully expect it will be dated. In a good way. Tom Hennessy, one of the founders of Il Vicino in Albuquerque, put it together, featuring New Mexico microbreweries that were small and [...]

“I think I was the first person ever to use the phrase, ‘beer style.’ The next thing was to try to define what they were, which lots of people have done since, but I think I was the first person. But then my focus became really to talk about, to try to describe the flavors [...]

Next weekend in Washington, D.C., the Brewers Association plans to show that beer belongs at the table with the grownups. OK, maybe that’s not the best analogy – suggesting beer might otherwise be served at the kids’ table won’t go over well in most circles – but you get the point of SAVOR: An American [...]