{"id":410,"date":"2007-12-11T15:13:50","date_gmt":"2007-12-11T22:13:50","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/appellationbeer.com\/blog\/tis-the-season-for-beer-book-suggestions\/"},"modified":"2007-12-11T15:13:50","modified_gmt":"2007-12-11T22:13:50","slug":"tis-the-season-for-beer-book-suggestions","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/appellationbeer.com\/blog\/tis-the-season-for-beer-book-suggestions\/","title":{"rendered":"‘Tis the season for beer book suggestions"},"content":{"rendered":"

\"The\"\"<\/a>The question I get asked second most often — after “What’s your favorite beer?” — runs something like, “What book about beer would you recommend?”<\/p>\n

Then I ask a question of my own: Is this for somebody who wants to learn about beer in general, for a homebrewer, a history buff, a breweriana collector, or somebody otherwise interested in beer?<\/p>\n

This, although if you press a beer to my lips and insist on a single answer before I drink it turns out I have one: “Michael Jackson’s Beer Companion.”<\/a> It was first published in 1993 and later reissued, but recently used prices have jumped, if Amazon is to believed. I’m sure it would have been a James Beard award winner had the publishers got around to nominating it, and it covers to all the subjects listed above.<\/p>\n

It’s worth tracking down, but in the spirit of the season I’ll off a few alternatives. (Note that these links go to BeerBooks.com<\/a>, and I would receive a small commission if you buy through them. I usually use Amazon links because that’s what most people are comfortable with. But this way you get a chance to support a small, independent business. I guarantee you the service is great, and right now Carl is shipping a copy of the video “The American Brew” with every order.)<\/p>\n

For a homebrewer:<\/strong> John Palmer’s “How to Brew”<\/a> is perfect for the everybody from a total novice to a brewer interested in making his or her own equipment. John also worked with Jamil Zainasheff on this year’s top release: “Brewing Classic Styles: 80 Winning Recipes Anyone Can Brew.”<\/a> Zainasheff has established himself as one of (if not) the best all around homebrewers in the country, and he shares it all. In this case award-winning recipes mean “gold medal.”<\/p>\n

For a home cook:<\/strong> Another 2007 release tops the list — Lucy Saunders’ “Best of American Beer & Food: Pairing & Cooking with Craft Beer,”<\/a> which I reviewed a while back<\/a>. Garrett Oliver’s “The Brewmaster’s Table: Discovering the Pleasures of Real Beer with Real Food”<\/a> is also a fine book, but not if you care looking for recipes.<\/p>\n

For a history buff:<\/strong> I raved about “Land of Amber Waters: The History of Brewing in Minnesota”<\/a> just last week and stand by that. However, it will be a little specialized for some. For entertaining reading and a solid explanation beer choices are what they are today try “Ambitious Brew: The Story of American Beer,”<\/a> a clear-eyed look at how beer in became and industrial products and how beer that once were called microbrews lead to still more change. Reviewed last year<\/a>.<\/p>\n

A couple more excellent choices are “Brewed In America: The History of Beer and Ale in the United States,”<\/a> a history that stops in 1962 and doesn’t suffer a bit, and “Beer in the Middle Ages and the Renaissance.”<\/a> Here’s a review of Brewed in America.<\/a><\/p>\n

For moments of beer reflection:<\/strong> “Beer & Philosophy: The Unexamined Beer Isn’t Worth Drinking”<\/a> requires a little bit of thinking while drinking. A review.<\/a><\/p>\n

That’s 10 books . . . and I didn’t even manage to mention “Brew Like a Monk.”<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

The question I get asked second most often — after “What’s your favorite beer?” — runs something like, “What book about beer would you recommend?” Then I ask a question of my own: Is this for somebody who wants to learn about beer in general, for a homebrewer, a history buff, a breweriana collector, or … Read more<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"jetpack_post_was_ever_published":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_access":"","_jetpack_dont_email_post_to_subs":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_tier_id":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paywalled_content":false,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":"","jetpack_publicize_message":"","jetpack_publicize_feature_enabled":true,"jetpack_social_post_already_shared":false,"jetpack_social_options":{"image_generator_settings":{"template":"highway","default_image_id":0,"font":"","enabled":false},"version":2}},"categories":[8],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-410","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-books"],"jetpack_publicize_connections":[],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"","jetpack_shortlink":"https:\/\/wp.me\/p4wTn-6C","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/appellationbeer.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/410","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/appellationbeer.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/appellationbeer.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/appellationbeer.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/appellationbeer.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=410"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/appellationbeer.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/410\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/appellationbeer.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=410"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/appellationbeer.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=410"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/appellationbeer.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=410"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}