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 no beer book shopping list, something I generally enjoy compiling, from me this holiday season.
Instead I’m going to give you a list of one, a book — Amber, Gold and Black, The Story of Britain’s Great Beers — that works perfect for the procrastinating shopper because it is available via download. Call it the beer book of the year if you want.
I’ve already written something of a review, so instead consider one paragraph:
“In 1802, a writer called John Fetham wrote three pages on porter brewing in a guidebook called The Picture of London. Feltham’s version of the history of porter, which includes the claim it was invented by a brewer named Harwood, has been repeated hundreds of times over the past two centuries as the allegedy authentic story of porter’s origins. Unfortunately very little of it is backed up by independent evidence, and much of it is demonstrably wrong.”
Are you thinking you’ve repeated this story a time or two yourself and now you are feeling like a first year law student who just got called on in The Paper Chase? Read the book and instead you get to be one of the cool kids watching a classmate squirm.