OK, this is not so much a book review as an announcement of a book to be reviewed. I received an email today from Martyn Cornell of both the blog Zythophile as well as the excellent book Beer: The Story of the Pint, one of my first beery book reviews almost five years ago now. He has published an …
You should know from the outset that this book is not about beer. And don't expect there to be much discussion of beer as the author explains how he was, as he puts it, a drunk: "...I would assiduously get up every morning and go to a pub, the way my grandfather went to the bank." So why do I …
This is a funny book. Guide books can be. You see they are to guide people from "X" around about a little old place we like to call "Y". If you are from "X" or "Y", you are likely going to understand what's going on but if you are not it gets to be a bit of an exercise in cultural anthropology …
read more »Well, I am now coming up to half way through Amy Mittelman's book Brewing Battles and I have to tell you that as far as I am concerned this is the best book on US beer history I have had my hands on. That being said, I admit I have not got a copy of 1962's Brewed in America The level of research …
This really should be labeled as "book review, part one" given I have not hit the half way point in this book, published just this year. But as I have complained long and hard about the absence of a comprehensive US brewing history, I am driven to tap and type, to type and tap. In a nutshell, this …
This arrived from a used book shop in the UK yesterday and, today being off sick, it was a great opportunity to rip through this book in record pace. Richard Boston was the columnist for the then Manchester Guardian whose weekly "Boston on Beer" is credited as being as important as the early days …
As I noted the other day, I picked up a copy of the 2006 edition of Jackson's Great Beers of Belgium the other week and I could not be happier. It is a great addition to the collection and also provides an opportunity to discuss beer writing generally. You see, the other day I called beer …
Like Ron, I bought a book shelf for the expanding crown of beer books in the house and, in the reshuffling of this and that, came across this book fully titled "Xhosa Beer Drinking Rituals: Power, Practice and Performance in the South African Rural Periphery" - how did I get my hands on this one …
I usually don't rush to write reviews of book about beer that I get in the mail. Often they either cover similar ground to existing books, are lightweight intellectually or arrive without me having made the request. But some excite the mind in a new way that simply surprises. This week's arrival …