books

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 about it when in reviewing “Tasting Beer” I wrote “I don’t know of another beer book to be published in 2009 that should be of as much interest to you.” These are two very different books, and the fact is I haven’t read “Hops and Glory” but it sure looks to me like they’ll be equally memorable. I’ll write more about that once I read Pete Brown’s book.

Meanwhile there’s the matter of getting your hands on “Hops and Glory” if you live in the United States. It’s available from Amazon in Canada. Here’s the link.

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, since you are already drinking a beer you like, you really need this book. So I will. Do you think more knowledge about beer will make that beer taste better? If you answered yes then you should own this book.

(Before going on, a bit of a disclaimer. Author Randy Mosher and I are friends, and he asked me to to the “technical edit” of the book. Yes, that sounds as laughable to me as it must to you; like Malcom Gladwell calling me up to ask for story ideas. I don’t get any royalties from the book, so there is no incentive for me to give it a review that boost sales. Because I don’t know of another beer book to be published in 2009 that should be of as much interest to you I’m going to write about it.)

I thought about “Tasting Beer,” but wasn’t ready to write this review, when I posted “The tyranny of the tasting note” last month. Quite honestly, there’s more here than many of you are going to want. Perhaps you don’t feel the need to be able to turn to your dining companion and whisper, “I believe I’m getting a touch of autolysed yeast.” More than you might want now, that is, since once you head down the road of beer knowledge stopping ain’t easy. Because everything in this book is presented in easy to bite off chunks you can grab what you want now and come back later for more.

Mosher makes it deceptively easy. Consider this: “Every sensation found in a glass of beer has its origins in the decisions of the brewer and malstster made druing its manufacture. For instance, the tangy, green perfume of hops? That’s the result of the careful choice and deployment of prized aroma hops in the brewhouse or perhaps the fermenter. The light nuttiness and hints of raisiny fruit? That lightly kilned pale ale malt and a dab of crystal. And all of this is shaped by the mysterious workings of a particular strain of yeast under certain conditions.”

Whether that looks terribly simple to you or densely confusing it will all be clearer 27 pages later in a chapter called “Brewing and the Vocabulary of Beer Flavor.” You’ll be ready for “The Qualities of Beer” and looking forward to it.

I hate quoting book covers, but I’m going to point out that the subtitle for the book is, “An Insider’s Guide to the World’s Greatest Drink.” That’s certainly true, but you exit knowing you don’t have to be an insider to enjoy the beers Mosher writes about. Further, the back cover claims “Tasting Beer” is “The Portable Beer Expert.” Indeed.

Still with me? Then you’ve reached the part of the review where the reviewer offers a profound thought. I’ll pass and give the author the final word:

“Beer is only as good as the people who seek it out, support it, keep it honest, and, most important of all, enjoy the genuine pleasures of it.”

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– Order from BeerBooks.com (and support a business that cares as much about beer as you do).

– Order from Amazon.com.

Or drive to the bookstore and buy it right now.

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.

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 smaller. And in many cases not survivors.

It originally had a subtitle along the lines of building a brewery for “less than $20,000.” That notion’s obviously dated, and it’s a heck of a lot harder to start a brewery these days with used “re-purposed” equipment, so I wouldn’t suggest this is the video you need if you are dreaming of starting your own brewery. (Additionally, Hennessy was always quick to point out the idea might have been to get started on the cheap, however the bigger plan was to use the profits to buy “real” equipment.)

If you care about American small-batch brewing it’s worth owning even if you don’t live in New Mexico (we do, although we lived in Illinois when we first saw the video). It captures an important bit of history from a time when a lot of small breweries opened on a shoestring. Some became rip-roaring successes, more didn’t make the cut. Big picture: It’s important to hear the voices of those who don’t succeed as well as those who do.

Maybe more important, I remember grinning a lot the last time I saw this video. I look forward to seeing it soon and grinning some more.